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Five ways The Gender Index data can help YOU!
Interested in The Gender Index (TGI) but not sure what we do, or how you can use our ground-breaking data? Here’s all you need to know…
Whether you’re an investor, policymaker, a female founder looking to expand or an influencer, our real-time data is for you. From helping you identify gaps in investment to informing diversity policies, we’ve rounded up five ways TGI data can help you create a fairer future for female-led companies in the UK.
1. Our data gives you real-time insights into the UK company landscape
(… and, crucially, the gender gap within it.)
Using a combination of dynamic data and technology, our findings show the number of active companies across the UK – from large to SMEs to start-ups – which are led by women.
We’ve recently expanded our data to include ethnic minority-led companies in the UK. Plus, we’ve got data on generational company leadership, giving insights on which age groups are starting the most companies, the funding they are receiving and where they are based.
Our real-time data comes from mnAi, a UK data platform provider that uses machine learning algorithms to provide unique, in-depth insights. John Cushing, CEO of mnAi, says: “TGI’s ultimate mission is to help create a more equal future by providing a clear and accurate picture of what’s going on across the UK company landscape. Revealing the disparity between male and female-led businesses, highlighting the challenges, and identifying the opportunities.”
2. It can accelerate your fiscal and corporate growth
When it comes to business success, gender parity matters. Findings from the Rose Review suggest an additional £250bn could be contributed to the UK economy simply by empowering more women to start and grow companies as the same rate as men
That’s where our data comes in. It identifies the gender gap between male- and female-led companies nationally, locally and across sectors.
TGI Chairman, Jill Pay, says, “We now have the ability to map every company in every country, region, LEP and local authority across the UK, by gender, sector, investment type, fast growth and company age, in real-time. By making this information freely available, our ambition is to ensure that greater support is provided to female-founded companies, helping to accelerate and stimulate fiscal and corporate growth.”
The Gender Index also enables investors to identify opportunities in new areas and sectors. “We must encourage VCs and Private Equity businesses to invest in women-led companies. Research tells us that they give a good return, are risk averse and sustain longer”, adds Jill.
3. It can help you build a diverse and inclusive workforce
Our data, used by everyone from policy makers and corporates to investors and female entrepreneurs, is helping move the needle and support a more diverse economy. Free to access, it provides a detailed picture of where the gender gaps are. This then gives you the opportunity to review your own approach, examining how you can further support female-led companies. Jill asks, “Do you know how many of the businesses in your supply chain are led by women?”
This is precisely what our current partners and sponsors are doing.
Helen Burnell, from Shoosmiths, says: “Our partnership with The Gender Index is the next natural step in addressing wider disparity across the UK – raising awareness of irrefutable facts of the inequality between male and female led companies in order to start a dialogue to action real change.”
4. It can help you get more funding to female entrepreneurs
Barriers to funding for women is a key finding in our data. By knowing exactly what the shortfall is – of all the active UK female- led companies, less than a quarter (23.4%) accessed all forms of external capital across the UK in 2022/23 – you can help action change.
As an investor, you can use TGI data to help provide support to female entrepreneurs. Our partner NatWest Group is doing just this. They say having access to our data is an important step in making sure they’re able to help female founders who are starting or scaling their businesses.
5. It can inform policy development
If you’re working in national or local government, real-time data from TGI can help you to track progress for the Levelling-up agenda. It can also help you measure the impact of government investment by region, or to identify fast growth women-led companies in your local authority.
And there are so many more uses for our data too…
Jill says, “The Gender Index is designed to stimulate change for women in enterprise, driven by data. And so much more: a woman wishing to grow her company can identify gaps in the market, by sector and area; college and university students studying economics have free access to real-time data on over 4.5 million active companies across the UK.
“Meanwhile, journalists can easily get accurate evidence to back up articles on women-led businesses, why VCs and PE should invest in them or where investment is having an impact. Our challenge now is to make sure all these groups are using TGI data!”