On the run up to International Women’s Day, we’re diving into the data to highlight the contributions of female entrepreneurs and leaders who are driving economic growth, innovation, and job creation across the country in emerging sectors, using our Real-time industry classifications (RTICs).
Let’s dive into the stats!
Women in leadership: the numbers that matter
The Data City’s analysis of women-founded and women-led UK businesses reveals that:
- Out of all the companies in this dataset, 9.8% of those are both women-led and women-founded.
- These companies employ a total of 75,935 people across the UK.
- They generate a combined turnover of £4.6 billion and contribute an estimated £3.7 billion in GVA.
- Investment into these businesses totals £258.9 million, with £43.1 million secured in Innovate UK grant funding.
- Growth is strong, with an estimated annual increase of +6.9% across these businesses.
Where are women-led businesses thriving?
Women-led businesses are making waves across the UK, with some of the highest concentrations found in:
- London boroughs – Camden (476 businesses), Westminster (442), Hackney (327), and Islington (296).
- Major cities – Leeds (211), Birmingham (203), Manchester (143), and Glasgow (118).
- Other key areas – Buckinghamshire (191), Brighton & Hove (154), and Bristol (129).
From urban tech hubs to regional economic powerhouses, female-led businesses are a driving force in local economies.
What sectors are women leading?
Women are shaping the future across a diverse range of industries. Some of the most prominent sectors for female-founded companies include:
Top RTIC sectors
- Business Support Services (3.5K companies)
- Digital Creative Industries (2.2K companies)
- Life Sciences (1.9K companies)
- Agency Market (1.6K companies)
- Legal Services (1.3K companies)
- Rehabilitation & Healthcare (1.1K companies)
- Net Zero & Sustainability (809 companies)
Fast-growing keywords in women-led businesses
These are the keywords that women-founded and women-led companies are more likely to use.
- Content Creation (+317%)
- Telehealth (+264%)
- Medical Affairs (+231%)
- Precision Medicine (+181%)
- Environmental Consultancy (+178%)
- Language Processing (+161%)
Top performing women-led businesses
Women-founded companies are not only growing fast but also securing major financial success. Some of the biggest players include:
- BAP Pharma Group Ltd – £351.4M turnover, £11.9M profit.
- Maritime Academy Trust – £111.6M net worth.
- MRA UK Investments Ltd – £3.4M profit.
- E&O Laboratories Ltd – £43.6M total assets.
- Merman Television Ltd – £24.5M total assets.
The jobs women led businesses are creating
These businesses are powering the UK job market, with over 640,000 job postings recorded. The most in-demand roles include:
- Solicitors & Lawyers (£50,208 median salary)
- Software Developers (£43,411 median salary)
- Marketing & Business Development Managers (£36,195 median salary)
- Project Support Officers (£43,908 median salary)
- Financial Managers & Directors (£45,518 median salary)
Women-led businesses are not just hiring; they are creating high-value, well-paid jobs that strengthen the UK economy. Interested in seeing more jobs and skills data? We’ve partnered with Lightcast to give you next-gen jobs and skills data to help you track fast-growing industries and emerging roles with ease.
The future of women in business
The data speaks for itself – women-led businesses are thriving, innovating, and driving economic growth. But there’s still more work to do in ensuring equal access to funding, scaling opportunities, and representation in high-growth industries.
At The Data City, we believe in empowering data-driven decision-making to support investment into female-founded businesses and build a more inclusive economy, which is why we have partnered with The Lifted Project in collaboration with Pan Intelligence who are on a mission to increase the flow of capital to regional, high growth female founders using a data and ecosystem led approach.
On this International Women’s Day, let’s celebrate the women breaking barriers in business, driving innovation, and shaping the industries of the future.
Want to explore more insights on emerging sectors and business growth? Get in touch with us or sign up for a free trial and see the data for yourself.
This list was created using EXPLORE and we filtered our list by ‘Only women-founded’, and ‘Women-led’ we excluded any unactive companies and any companies ‘known to be ultimately foreign owned’ and removed any subsidiary companies and we only included companies with matched websites and the last thing we did was selecting all 428 RTICs.
Please note: The data from The Data City is accurate at the time the article was written but may change over time due to the dynamic, real-time nature of our data. For the latest insights, visit our platform.
