Next week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a time when we celebrate and empower entrepreneurs in countries and communities through the world.

This international initiative puts a particular focus on individuals who face structural barriers in launching or growing a start-up. This cohort includes UK female business founders who, despite the ongoing battle to achieve gender equality within our society, remain significantly underrepresented.

Last year’s Pathways report, co-written by successful entrepreneur Ana Stewart and Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur, Mark Logan, set out the scale of the challenge. It highlighted how just one in five Scottish businesses are currently led by women and reminded us of the long-standing barriers that female-led companies face in generating institutional investment, securing just two percent of available funds.

Despite these challenges, female entrepreneurship is on the rise. Data from Companies House shows 140,000 businesses were started by women in 2021, compared to just 56,000 in 2019.

Female-founded businesses are also delivering a higher financial return compared to start-up companies founded by men. US research from the Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge showed how female-founded or co-founded start-ups generated 10% more in cumulative revenue over a five-year period compared with male-founded companies ($730,000 compared with $662,000). The study also found that companies founded or cofounded by women delivered a better return for investors. For every dollar of funding, female-founded start-ups generated 78 cents, while those founded by men generated just 31 cents.

The impact of women in business is further amplified through additional research from McKinsey showing how diversity at the top level improves companies’ financial results. Firms with strong female representation on their boards are 28% more likely to outperform their peers, while those with gender-diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to outperform.

We need to continue using these research findings as a platform to change investor mindsets. Rather than seeing investment in female-led businesses as a social obligation, we must promote the strong financial case for backing such companies. We need to better highlight how women’s approach to how they present their businesses is a strength not a weakness. Female founders’ revenue forecasting, for example, which is typically based on a thoroughly researched worst-case scenario, is a positive which underlines careful, forensic financial management rather than a lack of ambition.

As well as campaigning to raise the levels of investment into female-founded companies, groups like ours are giving women access to training, learning events, and helping them to expand their business networks. AccelerateHER is proud to have built a community of over 6,000 female founders since its inception. Hundreds have benefitted from mentoring by business angels while finalists from our awards programme have secured more than £50m in investment.

The importance of growing this type of support for female founders is underlined in a report released by NatWest last year. It estimates that women achieving parity with men in opening and scaling businesses would add £250bn to the UK economy. That is a prize which should incentivise everyone to work together to increase female entrepreneurship.

Elizabeth Pirrie is CEO of AccelerateHER