Prosper Autumn, Black Country Chamber of Commerce magazine

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PROSPER SPOTLIGHT: THE GENDER INDEX New report sees positive change for women in enterprise A Black Country and West Midlands Perspective Following the publication in March of the Gender Index Report 2022, a report with a clear and accurate picture of the UK company landscape analysed by gender, Prosper decided to take a deeper look into specific regions across the UK, including the Black Country and wider West Midlands. The Gender Index, who’s headline partner is NatWest, is ground-breaking and is the largest research study into female entrepreneurship ever undertaken. A live and interactive tool that maps every single active UK company, it accurately measures the number of female-led companies and their impact on the UK economy. Powered by AI, it holds live data on more than four million active UK companies, constantly refreshed and always up to date in every country, region, LEP and local authority in real-time giving findings on gender, regions, sectors and investment. Back in 2019, the Rose Review, the Treasury commissioned review led by Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest, into female entrepreneurship, identified that an additional £250bn could be contributed to the UK economy simply by empowering more women to start and grow companies. Currently, just 16.8% of active UK companies are led by women. The Gender Index is committed to help change that, with a collective ambition to help create a fairer future by providing a clear picture of what’s truly going on across the UK company landscape. Chair of the Gender Index, Jill Pay, told Prosper, “Our ambition is to drive positive change for women in enterprise, driven by data, leading to a fairer future. “With the technology at our disposal, this is achievable. We can map every active UK company across the four nations, by region, LEP and local authority, by sector, investment type, fast growth and company age, all in real time. “We have the insights to work with policy makers, local and national government, corporates, researchers, investors and female entrepreneurs to inspire a more inclusive, diverse - and stronger - economy.” This is the first-time gender disaggregated information has been made freely accessible for the public, through an interactive website, www.thegenderindex. co.uk and reported. By comparing the Black Country and the West Midlands to other regions as well as England and the UK, the factors leading to the unreasonably low percentage of female-led companies were identified. Key findings: In the Black Country… • Across the Black Country just 17.28% of active companies are female-led. Based on research into the total number of companies across the four local authorities, ‘‘ The Rose Review identified that an additional £250bn could be contributed to the UK economy by empowering more women to start and grow their own companies... of which there are 15,831 in Wolverhampton, 18,005 in Dudley, 13,925 in Walsall and 18,845 in Sandwell, Prosper identified just 20.66% of companies are female-led in Wolverhampton, (3,271), while the figures are lower in other parts of the region: 16.27% in Dudley (2,930), 16.5% in Walsall 2,298 (2,298) and 15.96% in Sandwell, (3,008). • Of the 363,212 active companies that were identified across the whole of the West Midlands, just 17.1% are female-led. However, this is the third highest female leadership percentage for a UK region, surpassed only by London (18.5%) and the south-east (17.2%). This is higher than the national figure of current active companies which is 16.8%. • Wholly male-led companies account for 59.4% of companies in the West Midlands. A further 16.3% are designated as ‘mixed led’ which is the third lowest rate after London (12.5%) and the north-west (15.7%). • Meanwhile, the West Midlands has the fourth highest average turnover growth for female-led companies across all the regions in the UK. For male-led companies, it is joint sixth alongside Yorkshire and the Humber. With regards to both mixed-led companies and uncertain-led companies, it is fifth. • Average turnover growth for femaleled companies is 18.4% and 15.5% for male-led companies. Mixed-led companies are in between the two at 17.2%. Compared to England, the average turnover growth for companies of each type of leadership in the West Midlands is lower. Average turnover growth in England is 21.1% for female-led companies, 19.1% for male-led companies, 19.2% for mixed-led companies and 27.7% for uncertain-led companies. Lower averages are also the case when measured up against the UK though to a lesser extent. The UK’s average turnover growth is 19.0% for female-led companies, 17.3% for male-led companies, 17.4% for 48 PROSPER AUTUMN 2022 ‘‘
mixed-led companies and 26.4% for uncertain-led companies. • The percentage of fast growth female-led companies in the West Midlands is disproportionately low compared to the percentage of female-led companies in the region. Here, the proportion of female-led companies is 17.1% but drops to 8.2% when regarding fast growth companies whereas the percentage of male-led companies goes up from 59.4% to 78.5% when considering high growth companies. • Only 8.2% of fast growth companies in the West Midlands are female-led. This is the third lowest percentage of female-led fast growth companies in the UK after the south-east (7.6%) and the north-west (7.8%). Conversely, 78.5% are male-led which is the second highest proportion after Yorkshire and the Humber. Mixed-led companies also have the third lowest percentage at 12.2% of fast growth companies with the only lower regions being the north-east (10.4%) and Yorkshire and the Humber. • Inversely, male-led companies are Data and methodology The results have been compiled from an analysis of 9,584,945 UK companies held within the mnAI database. Of the initial results, 3,863,581 were dissolved leaving 5,721,364 active companies. A further1,125,087 were removed for various reasons. over-represented, especially for fast growth companies • The main method used to invest in female-led companies in the West Midlands is angel investment, making up 85.8% of the investments received. • Male-led companies had the greatest proportion of company investment at 30.6% with mixed-led in second (26.1%), female-led in third (16.1%). • The main investment avenue for female-led companies is angel investment, although corporate/company investment plays a significant role. ‘‘ Just 17.28% of Black Country businesses are female-led... but this is higher than the UK-wide average, which is just 16.8% ... ‘‘ • Venture capital investment in femaleled companies is 0.4% and private equity investment in female-led companies is 0.1%. The UK average was 0.5% for the former and 0.1% for the latter. Neither surpassed 1% of these investments for any region. • From the over 3.1 million UK investors that were identified, 6.3% are found in the West Midlands. Of these, 31.2% are female. This is the third lowest percentage of female investors in a region after London (26.3%) and the Northwest (30.9%). PROSPER AUTUMN 2022 49
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Prosper Autumn, Black Country Chamber of Commerce magazine

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