Greater than a 3rd of the UK’s fastest-growing know-how scale-ups don’t have any board-level feminine illustration – and but some pioneering firms are displaying a special path, backed by thousands and thousands and led by girls.
In keeping with the latest report from world development consultancy Think & Grow, although 94% of UK board members in high-growth tech firms imagine that various boards are important, girls maintain simply 18% of board roles throughout the UK’s fastest-growing tech scale-ups, and 36% of these firms don’t have any board-level feminine illustration in any respect.
The discrepancy spotlights a rising stress between aspiration and execution.
The numbers
The report, Breaking and Remaking the Next Generation of High-impact Boards, factors out that the scale-up ecosystem has but to meet up with listed firms: against this, girls make up 41% of board administrators throughout FTSE 350 know-how companies – greater than double the extent seen inside early-stage companies.
The information goes additional: girls maintain solely 12% of CEO, founder or co-founder roles and 12% of chair roles on the UK’s fastest-growing tech firms – an identical proportions to the bigger listed know-how companies. However in these bigger companies different senior roles held by girls (COO, CFO, senior unbiased director) are extra prevalent – 72% of such companies have girls in these senior board roles, and ladies maintain 28% of senior board positions general.
Maybe most telling is the correlation between income measurement and board gender range.
Among the many UK’s fastest-growing tech firms with greater than €56.9 million (£50 million) annual income, feminine board illustration averages 22%; amongst these under that threshold it’s simply 15%. At FTSE 350 tech companies with income above €569 million (£500 million) the determine rises to 42% versus 37% at companies under that stage.
There are indicators of progress: scale-ups based throughout the final 5 years maintain on common 25% feminine board illustration, in comparison with simply 10% amongst these based greater than 5 years in the past – which means that newer firms could also be extra attuned to range.
As Jonathan Jeffries, CEO and co-founder of Suppose & Develop, says: “There’s a clear correlation between various boards and powerful company efficiency – but many UK tech firms are failing to nominate board members with various backgrounds and experience which dangers curbing development.”
The businesses main the cost
Whereas the numbers paint a sobering image of the UK tech scale-up ecosystem, a handful of UK start-ups led or co-led by girls present how completely different fashions would possibly carry each industrial success and management range.
Beneath we examine 5 such firms – drawn from EU-Startups protection – and discover how their management, sector focus and capital raises stack up towards the broader ecosystem’s range problem.
SheMed (London-based HealthTech)
SheMed is a female-founded girls’s healthcare platform within the UK. The corporate raised €43 million in October 2025 to broaden its personalised healthcare platform and membership base (60,000+ members) within the UK. The corporate is boosting its know-how and medical infrastructure and is clearly positioned within the FemTech area – a distinct segment that continues to be under-invested and under-governed in broader tech board statistics.
Within the context of the Suppose & Develop report: SheMed’s vital funding increase and female-leadership standing underscore how an organization in a female-centric business can mix scale ambitions and management range – providing a distinction with many scale-ups missing board feminine illustration.
Hormona (London-based HealthTech)
One other UK girls’s well being know-how startup, Hormona raised €7.8 million in Might 2025 to construct its at-home hormone-tracking platform utilizing AI. Once more, this can be a female-led enterprise within the FemTech subject – displaying that funding is flowing into female-leader ventures at the same time as board illustration general lags.
Fit Collective (London-based FashionTech)
Match Collective is a fashion-technology startup based by Savile Row-trained designer Phoebe Gormley (solo feminine Founder). In November 2025 the corporate raised €3.4 million, reportedly the UK’s largest ever spherical by a solo feminine founder.
Whereas not strictly a tech scale-up within the sense of enterprise or DeepTech, it sits on the intersection of know-how (AI, match analytics), entrepreneurship and feminine management. Match Collective’s success additional underscores that female-led startups can entice vital funding rounds when the proposition is powerful and differentiated.
Unfabled (London-based eCommerce/Well being Retail)
Based “by girls for ladies“, Unfabled raised €3 million in October 2025 to gas its community-driven well being and wellness retail platform. The corporate faucets into curated and data-backed purchasing tailor-made to girls’s well being wants.
That is one other standout within the FemTech and wellness commerce area, working in a method that centres on community-led innovation – a mannequin typically lacking within the broader tech ecosystem however important for inclusivity and broader shopper illustration.
Atomik AM (Liverpool-based Superior Manufacturing / Deep Tech)
Atomik AM, based in 2022 by Professor Kate Black, is a complicated manufacturing enterprise targeted on sustainable supplies and patented applied sciences for turnkey manufacturing processes. It raised €713k in Might 2025 from the Northern Powerhouse Funding Fund II.
This instance is especially attention-grabbing: an industrial/engineering-tech agency with feminine management in a sector that historically sees fewer girls. It means that range at founding stage can prolong past the buyer or girls’s well being areas into DeepTech.
How do these examples examine with the broader ecosystem findings?
The Suppose & Develop knowledge recommend that many fast-growing tech firms are lacking the chance that board gender range presents – boards with larger feminine illustration are correlated with stronger efficiency, broader views and improved tradition.
The truth that newer scale-ups (based throughout the final 5 years) have on common 25% feminine board illustration (versus 10% for older ones) is encouraging. Nonetheless, 18% feminine board illustration throughout the fastest-growing tech scale-ups continues to be very low.
In distinction, the 5 UK start-ups above share a number of widespread threads: feminine management (founder/CEO), sector relevance (HealthTech, FashionTech, DeepTech), and up to date capital raises.
They present that female-led firms can and are scaling, attracting funding, and driving innovation. However board illustration is just a part of the image: the report highlights that boards should transcend token feminine presence to combine girls in management roles (CEO, chair, COO, CFO) and throughout governance buildings to drive affect.
One of many report’s key messages is that enhancing range is not simply a social accountability – it’s seemingly a strategic benefit. Within the phrases of Jeffries: ““Most senior resolution makers at UK tech firms recognise the significance of board-level range however many scale-up firms are failing to leverage the alternatives this brings.
“Enhancing range isn’t just a social accountability for organisations, it’s a strategic benefit which may enhance drawback fixing, cut back threat and herald new views to assist determine challenges and alternatives to realize a aggressive edge.”
By showcasing female-led startups which might be already performing – SheMed scaling membership and medical infrastructure; Hormona getting into hormone-tracking; Match Collective capturing funding as a solo feminine founder; Unfabled mixing group and commerce; Atomik AM innovating in superior manufacturing – we will see sensible illustrations of what sturdy management range seems like in motion.
Key take-aways for founders, buyers and boards
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The information present that feminine board illustration lags in lots of scale-ups, and there’s a revenue-linked uplift in range at bigger companies. Scale-ups due to this fact have to embed various governance earlier.
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These 5 start-ups reveal that feminine management is suitable with scaling and funding: this undermines any notion that board range is incompatible with development.
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Traders ought to recognise that backing female-led firms is just not a “range add-on” however a part of accessing under-served markets, novel enterprise fashions, and management views.
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Founders looking for board composition ought to think about range from day one – as Jeffries states: “Founders who prioritise inclusion early can construct boards that see round corners, clear up issues sooner, and perceive a broader vary of markets and folks.”
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Boards and governance buildings in scale-ups ought to mirror the educational from bigger companies: that feminine illustration in senior roles (COO, CFO, senior unbiased director) issues alongside the CEO and chair.
In sum: the headline figures are stark – 36% of the fastest-growing UK tech scale-ups don’t have any girls at board stage; solely 18% of board seats are held by girls. However the examples of SheMed, Hormona, Match Collective, Unfabled and Atomik AM present that female-led tech companies are already making waves.
The problem for the broader ecosystem is popping these particular person successes into systemic norms – requiring a concerted push from founders, boards, buyers and coverage alike.
