Female Founders Ambassadors Aims to Inspire
by Startacus Admin
With research indicating that there are now around 1.2 million women-led small and medium sized businesses in the UK, which contribute an estimated £115 billion to the economy, Enterprise Enfield has launched another initiative to encourage even more women to entrepreneurship.
London-based Enterprise Enfield is an independent enterprise agency offering a range of business support services designed to encourage, guide and inspire people to be successful in business. The organisation is currently running a number of business support and growth programmes specifically for women, including the Female Founders Accelerator, a free of charge programme supported by JPMorgan Chase Foundation.
Now, it has just appointed some of its successful business women as Female Founders Ambassadors, aiming to inspire and encourage more women to start their own
businesses. 
According to the Women’s Business Council report, only 5.6% of women were involved in starting or running a new business in 2017 – that’s half the rate for men. There has been an increase in the number of women in self-employment. In May to July 2017, 1.6 million women were self-employed, an increase of 65,000 on one year previously and 330,000 in five years.
Last year, Enterprise Enfield provided business support to over 600 women – offering essential information, advice and guidance on starting and growing their businesses. The Female Founders Accelerator is just one of its free bespoke programmes for women, and is specifically aimed at helping women in east London scale and take their business to the next level.
It is also open to women from other areas of London who have completed a women’s programme at Enterprise Enfield. The scheme, supported by JP Morgan Chase 
Foundation, offers 6 months of intensive business support including workshops, seminars, meet ups and advice sessions from a range of experts – as well as exclusive mentoring sessions with a JP Morgan Mentor. The first programme commenced in 2017, the second is now underway and applications are open for the next cohort starting in May.
In terms of the Female Founders Ambassadors Despina Johnson, CEO of Enterprise Enfield said.
“There is still a lot of untapped talent in the world of business start-ups for women. We have also recognised the importance of promoting our successful Female Founders and entrepreneurs who can serve as role models to all those women who want to become entrepreneurs themselves, but don’t know how or just don’t have enough confidence or access to resources. They can also inspire the next generation – through speaking at places such as schools and colleges – as well as at business shows and women’s events. Our intention and goal remain the same - generating measurable and positive social impact”.
The Female Founders Accelerator is also available in South London, via Hatch Enterprise, and with the programme being delivered by two leading enterprise organisations across London, we look forward to seeing the legacy that is created for years to come.
If you liked this feature, you might want to also read our article on women in tech communities and platforms of note or our previous spotlight article on Womentum a non-profit crowdfunding platform for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Sid Madge, founder of Meee shares his tips on starting as you mean to go on, by getting the very best from your staff in 60 seconds
Bwalya Kasase, Business Process Consultant at Rebel Energy shares insights on how the renewable energy supplier uses digital workers to improve the customer experience
Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
The lowdown on Junk Kouture, the Irish-based global platform that's on a mission to unleash the creative brilliance of young people
Considering selling your startup's tech innovation to the healthcare industry? These tips from Evelyne Priestman, Health Economist, Health Enterprise East should help...
Wilton London exceeds crowdfunding target to support its aim of becoming the UK’s number one eco household cleaning brand
TestGorilla is a startup that's on a mission to help you identify the best candidates and make your hiring decisions faster, easier, and bias-free
Major investment for her1, the digital health impact company that's dedicated entirely to female wellbeing...
Major boost for the NI economy as nanotechnology consortium, Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m by the Strength in Places Fund to support development of new technology for medical devices, communication and data storage.
Published on: 1st March 2018
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Peppy Raises £6.6M for its digital health platform 27th Jul 2021 Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
- One Year No Beer launches new £500K crowdfunding campaign 26th Jul 2021 One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
- Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m funding from UKRI 22nd Jul 2021 Major boost for the NI economy as nanotechnology consortium, Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m by the Strength in Places Fund to support development of new technology for medical devices, communication and data storage.
- Ntropy Raises $3.2M for its innovative data platform 20th Jul 2021 Ntropy secures major investment to help with expansion of its team, support market growth and future product development.
