The number of women in Britain who have built businesses with revenues of more than £50m has risen to 333, up from 80 two years ago, according to research by the ScaleUp Institute.
The independent think tank has updated its annual search for businesses that have passed the revenue mark, which is seen as a milestone for meaningful scale. This year it found far more female founders and co-founders at companies that normally fly under the radar.
The original cohort of 80 rose to 144 in 2025, according to the institute’s Super ScaleUp Female Index.
Sam Smith, the former chief executive of City broker Finncap and the founder of SuperScalers, which supports women to grow their businesses, said the larger pool showed progress was being made.
“This is moving, we are in the decade of the female founder,” said Smith.
Of the 333 female-founded and co-founded companies, 145 are still growing revenues at 20 per cent a year, the definition of a scale-up. They have combined revenue of £44.7bn and employ 285,000 people, the ScaleUp Institute said.
Some 44 per cent are based in London, and 34 per cent are less than 10 years old.
Nearly half operate in retail and wholesale. The research put 18 per cent in the food supply chain and in professional services, and 15 per cent in care and wellbeing services, creative industries and construction.
Founders highlighted in the research include Clare Hornby of fashion brand Me+Em, Darina Garland of pizza oven maker Ooni, Trinny Woodall and Bet365 co-founder Denise Coates.
The total remains small compared with the wider business population. The ScaleUp Institute estimates that more than 11,000 fast-growth companies had revenues of £10m or more.
Smith said part of the increase reflected a lack of historical data on women setting up businesses, so the ScaleUp Institute found more qualifying women as it checked. To be included, a founder had to create a business with revenues of more than £50m during her tenure.
Smith said the pipeline of companies growing revenues at more than 20 per cent a year had also “grown massively”, putting the number making £1m in revenues “in the tens of thousands”.
She said the 200 female-led companies with revenues of more than £10m identified by the ScaleUp Institute in 2019 had risen to 1,315 in 2025. “What you are seeing below the surface is these numbers beginning to exponentially grow,” said Smith.
She said organisations such as SuperScalers were now tailoring the support they offer to help more women build sizeable companies.
Official statistics show that 14 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses are founded or led by women, down from 19 per cent in 2021.
All-female founded companies attracted 2 per cent of venture capital investment in the UK in 2025 and were involved in 7 per cent of all deals, according to research by the British Business Bank. Teams with at least one woman co-founder were involved in 25 per cent of fundraising in 2025, down 3 percentage points on 2024.
Smith called the fundraising figures awful and unchanged, adding: “We are making huge progress underneath the surface, which is starting to be recognised. I am absolutely convinced that this is only going one way.”
The ScaleUp Institute said four in 10 of the 333 female-founded scale-ups were exporting.
“That stat is surprising,” said Smith. “Women do build differently. They build slower, they bootstrap. I don’t think it is because they don’t want to [export]. It is because they just don’t know many other [businesses] at that stage.”
She added: “We need to open their eyes that this is how you do it, to make it easier for them. Take them on export missions. There is a huge amount of opportunity out there.
Entries for the Business Matters Female Founders Awards 2027 open on 5 November and close on 12 March 2027. They are open to female founders and co-founders of independent UK businesses that have traded for at least two years.
The ranked list of the UK’s leading female founders will be published on 14 May 2027, alongside seven awards including Female Founder of the Year.
Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College's journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel's nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
