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The Gender Index wins prestigious WIBF award
We’re thrilled to announce we’ve won a 2022 Women in Banking and Finance award! The Gender Index has been named SME BEST D&I INNOVATION – Gender Equality at the 24th Annual Awards for Achievement.
The prestigious awards celebrate the amazing talent in UK financial services, as well as programmes by corporate members that progress diversity and inclusion through new industry best practice.
The SME BEST D&I INNOVATION – Gender Equality is a brand new category and focuses on organisations supporting gender equality in new and innovative ways.
The Gender Index launched earlier this year and, powered by AI data provider mnAi, provides a free, online interactive tracking tool of 4.4 million active UK companies. This means we’re able to give the first-ever in-depth, freely available picture into the state of female-owned companies across the UK.
Our Chair, Jill Pay, says: “I’m absolutely thrilled and a little overwhelmed to accept this award for The Gender Index. John Cushing from mnAi and I have been working together for two years to move towards our ambition to create a true picture of the diversity of the UK SME landscape.
“With the brilliant teams of mnAI, Tribus, Glint, Vivid and the huge support and encouragement of all our partners and sponsors and the four universities we work with, we were able to achieve the first part of our ambition on 31 March this year when we launched The Gender Index. Our data can be disaggregated by gender, area, sector, investment type, fast growth and age of company. And most importantly, it’s free and anyone can access it.
“I’d also like to thank my friends and colleagues at Savvitas and the Women In Enterprise All- Party Group for inspiring me on this path, and thank you to NatWest for nominating us.”
John Cushing, CEO of mnAi, says: “I’m delighted we’ve been named SME Best D&I Innovation – Gender Equality. I’ve long been committed to supporting inclusion and diversity among entrepreneurs. The Gender Index is a truly innovative initiative and provides, for the first time ever, a clear and accurate picture of the UK business landscape.
“Our data can transform how the UK economy collects and analyses data to support a more equal future. We’ll continue to shine a spotlight on the disparity between male and female- led businesses and identify the opportunities for female entrepreneurs.”
We work with multiple stakeholders including the UK Government, The Rose Review for Female Entrepreneurship, NatWest, Goldman Sachs, Amazon Web Services, Shoosmiths, SVB and leading universities from around the UK.
Earlier this year we published the largest research study into female entrepreneurship ever undertaken. This accurately measured the number of female-led companies and their impact on the UK economy. Our next report will be published in the Spring.