Enterprising Women, a free business support programme for aspiring women founders, has launched for its fourth year.
The programme is delivered by SETsquared Bristol, the University of Bristol-led tech incubator that was recently ranked the UK鈥檚 Top Startup Hub by the Financial Times.
Over the course of six months, founders receive mentoring, coaching, workshops, online training and introductions to a network of advisers and investors. Enterprising Women is fully-funded by NatWest.
Kimberley Brook, Director at SETsquared Bristol said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e over the moon to launch Enterprising Women 4.0 with NatWest鈥檚 kind support. Since the programme started in 2020, it has supported over 50 women founders to realise their entrepreneurial dreams.聽
鈥淚t has also helped SETsquared Bristol in its goal for gender parity, with women currently making up 49% of our companies鈥� founders and C-suite.鈥�
Enterprising Women has supported a diverse range of businesses, with many innovations addressing society鈥檚 greatest challenges including climate change, social inequality and online safety. Supported companies have contributed an economic impact of 拢23 million to date, and one company, Hedira, has been acquired.
Graduates of Enterprising Women include Jack Fertility, the world’s first mail-in sperm test kit that offers lab-grade semen analysis results.聽
Lily Elsner, CEO and co-founder, said: 鈥淥f all of the accelerators and female founder support programmes that I have done in the world, the Enterprising Women programme is by far the best, and is the one that all other programmes should benchmark themselves against.聽
鈥淭he holistic support for both the founder and the business is unparalleled with a deep understanding of diversity within innovation and enterprises. I cannot recommend highly enough.鈥�
Bobbi-Jo O鈥橤ilvie, co-founder of inclusive career platform Circe, added: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a plethora of support available, but to have a programme that鈥檚 tailored towards women, and in community with women is invaluable.鈥澛�
Enterprising Women 4.0 will run from October 2024 to March 2025, concluding with a showcase and pitching event in Spring 2025 to recognise the awardees鈥� achievements. Those who would like to find out more about the programme are encouraged to sign up to the launch event on Wednesday 12 June at Bristol鈥檚 Engine Shed from 12-2.30 pm.聽
Enterprising Women is open to early-stage founders in the UK who identify as women or non-binary assigned female at birth with tech, tech-enabled or non-tech startups, business ideas or side hustles. The deadline to apply is 31st July.