The code

About the Investing in Women Code

The Investing in Women Code is a commitment to support the advancement of women entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom by improving their access to the tools, resources and finance they need to achieve their goals.

A diverse and inclusive business ecosystem is good for customers, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors, and society. DBT together with the Investing in Women Code partners and signatory firms share a commitment to work in partnership to make the United Kingdom one of the most attractive countries in the world to start and grow a business by advancing female entrepreneurship.

The Investing in Women Code Partners are the UK Business Angels Association, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, UK Finance, and the British Business Bank.

Signatories to the Investing in Women Code make the following commitments:

My organisation is committed to a culture of inclusion and to advancing access to capital for women entrepreneurs. My organisation will:

• nominate a member of the senior leadership team (or key individual within my Angel group or network) to be responsible for supporting equality in all my organisation’s interactions with women entrepreneurs;
• adopt internal practices that aim to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to the tools, resources and finance they need to grow their businesses, and review these practices annually;
• provide to an industry body designated by DBT  a commonly agreed set of data about my organisation’s investing or lending activities and about its own staff and leadership team, together with a case study of my organisation’s work with a woman entrepreneur, on the understanding that they will collate this data and provide it to DBT on an aggregated and anonymised basis for publication in an annual report.

My organisation will make this commitment public.

New signatories are not required to provide data in their first year.

Organisations are eligible to become Code signatories if they provide debt or equity finance to businesses. Examples include banks and non-bank lenders, venture capital funds, private equity firms, Angel consortia, crowdfunding platforms, and public sector providers.

Organisations may be removed as signatories to the Investing in Women Code if they do not fulfil their obligations. Signatories may also withdraw voluntarily.

DBT welcomes interest in the Investing in Women Code from all eligible organisations. If you would like more information about the Code, or would like to become a signatory, please contact: investinginwomencode@beis.gov.uk.