UK Will Pay Angel Groups up to £400,000 Each to Bring More Women Into Startup Investing

The British Business Bank, the UK government's economic development bank, is launching a programme that will give about 10 diversity-focused angel syndicates up to £400,000 each in grants over four years. The Diverse Angel Syndicate programme, announced on Thursday, 22 October, aims to bring more women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds into angel investing, so that more money reaches founders who are often overlooked. Applications open on 11 November.

The bank announced the programme together with the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA), which joins as strategic programme partner, according to the bank's press release. Status: Adopted. This is a funded programme of a state-owned bank, not legislation, and it is open to applications from 11 November.

Women make up around 14% of UK angel investors, and around 11% of angels are from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds, according to UKBAA estimates quoted in the release. "Evidence suggests investors are more likely to back business founders with similar backgrounds," the bank says, so a lack of diversity among investors shapes which founders get early-stage money.

The bank's programme page puts it in one line: women are around 14% of UK angels, but they provide more than 30% of the investment that goes into female-founded businesses.

The latest Investing in Women Code annual report, published by the UK government in 2026, shows the same pattern inside angel groups. Among the 20 angel groups that gave full data for 2025:

The share of women among the angel investors in the Code's signatory groups fell from 25% in the 2024 report to 18% (656 of 3,706 investors), partly because some key women-led groups did not send 2025 data, the report says. Across the whole UK, the number of women angels rose by 60%, from 5,000 to 8,000, between 2022 and 2025, according to research by Beauhurst cited in the report. Men still make up 86% of angels.

The new programme builds on a pilot the bank started in 2023 with five women-led syndicates: Mint Ventures, Awaken Angels, Women Angels of Wales, Lifted Ventures and Investing Women Angels. By 30 June 2026, they had:

Susan Nightingale, Senior Director of the bank's Local Growth Team, said the bank wants to work with syndicates "that share our passion for tackling evidenced disparities in angel investing." The goal is for them to become "commercially viable, self-sustaining organisations".

The announcement was also published by UKBAA on the same day.

All-female founder teams got 6.7% of UK equity deals and 1.7% of the money in 2025, according to the bank's Small Business Equity Tracker 2026, cited in the Investing in Women Code report. Both figures fell from 2024.

Even when angels back women, the cheques are smaller. Angel groups in the Code invested an average of £57,000 per deal in all-women founder teams in 2025, compared with £141,000 for mixed teams and £154,000 for all-male teams. All-male teams took 67% of the money these angel groups invested in 2025, up from 37% in 2024.

The rest of Europe looks similar. Startups founded by women raised €10.9 billion in 2025, 17.8% of European deal value, down from 18.5% in 2024, and all-women teams got just 1.2%, according to PitchBook. In the Nordics, women-only founding teams raised an average round of €1.67 million in 2025, against €4.65 million for mixed teams, says Even Founders.

The UK has set itself a target: by 2030, 30% of all UK angels should be women, and 30% of angel investment should go to women founders, under the goals of the Invest in Women Taskforce. The Taskforce has a £635 million funding pool, with over £70 million deployed in its first year, and the bank's £400 million Investor Pathways Capital Programme has 50% committed to women, the Code report says. At EU level, ministers this week asked governments to tackle gender bias in investment decisions; we covered the EU ministers' conclusions on women-led start-ups and a similar bet on the investor side, the EIF's €20 million for the women-founded VC BackingMinds.

A British Business Bank programme, announced on 22 October 2026, that gives about 10 diversity-focused angel syndicates up to £400,000 each in grants over four years, plus training and support from UKBAA and Public IO.

Applications open on 11 November 2026. An information webinar takes place on 4 November at 10:00, followed by office hours over two weeks in November.

Mainly new and emerging angel syndicates, as a guide less than 12 to 18 months old with fewer than three investments, that want to bring in more women and ethnic minority investors or invest in diverse founders. Established syndicates making significant changes can also apply.

No. The grants go to angel syndicates, not to startups. Founders benefit indirectly, because more and better-run diverse syndicates mean more angels likely to back them.

Around 14%, according to the Investing in Women Code. The number of women angels rose from 5,000 to 8,000 between 2022 and 2025, but men are still 86% of UK angels.

Five women-led syndicates recruited 277 angels, 265 of them women, and completed 74 deals with a total round value of £58.7 million by 30 June 2026.

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.