Subscribe to our newsletter to receive business tips, learn about new funding programmes, join upcoming events, take e-learning courses, and more.
Take the first step to successfully starting and growing your business.
Join for free)
Posted: Wed 11th Nov 2026
6 min read
Women are starting technology companies in growing numbers but hitting a glass ceiling when it comes to scaling them, according to new analysis.
Female entrepreneurs lead one in six UK technology and media firms, but just one in 10 of those are flagged as high-growth, Enterprise Nation's SME Index reveals. The data, covering more than 418,000 companies, shows male-led firms are 1.6 times more likely to achieve high-growth status.
Of the 418,930 tech and media firms in the UK, women lead 65,508, or 15.6%. But among the 20,233 companies flagged as high-growth, just 2,076 have female founders, representing 10.3% of the total.
The figures come after the government announced fresh initiatives last week to support female tech founders, coinciding with mounting evidence that Britain is failing to harness the full potential of women in its most dynamic industries.
The data suggests female-led high-growth firms are reaching rapid growth earlier in their journey but with fewer of the traditional advantages that typically underpin scale.
Nearly three in 10 female-led high-growth companies are early-stage start-ups less than two years old, compared with one in five male-led firms. This means women are achieving fast growth sooner after launch, but often without the track record, established networks or financial buffers that come with longevity.
At the other end of the spectrum, just a third of female-led high-growth firms have been trading for more than a decade, against 44% of their male-led counterparts. The pattern suggests a pipeline weighted towards newer ventures still proving their staying power.
The analysis found female-led high-growth firms are also less often deemed 'finance-ready' 80% against 85%, and their founders are less likely to be serial company directors.
These are entrepreneurs scaling businesses without the experience of having done it before, and potentially without all the financial fundamentals in place.
The pattern mirrors findings published earlier this year by the British Business Bank, which found that whilst a quarter of venture capital deals involved at least one female founder, women's teams secured only 15% of total investment value. All-female founding teams received just 2%.
Perhaps the most surprising finding is that London, home to 44% of the nation's female-led tech firms, is actually harder terrain for high growth across the board.
Just 2.7% of female-led firms in the capital achieve high-growth status, compared with 3.6% in the rest of the UK. For male-led firms, the London rate is 3.8%, against 6.0% elsewhere.
Women lead about one in six London tech firms to 28,983 of 170,093, or 17.0%. The rest of the UK shows a similar picture at 14.7%, with 36,525 female-led firms among 248,837 companies outside the capital.
London holds a disproportionate share of the national total: 44% of all female-led tech firms and 40% of male-led ones are based in the capital. Yet high-growth status remains elusive for both groups there.
Just 775 of London's female-led firms to 2.7%, achieve high-growth status, compared with 3.6% in the rest of the UK. For male-led firms, the London rate is 3.8%, against 6.0% elsewhere.
The capital's difficulty appears to compress the gender gap: the male advantage in London is 1.4 times, compared with 1.7 times in the rest of the country. Whether that reflects fierce competition, higher costs, or different business models remains unclear.
Wales and Northern Ireland emerge as relative bright spots, with women leading 12.6% and 11.8% of high-growth firms respectively, though the numbers involved are small.
The SME Index findings align with the broader Gender Index 2026, which reported women's share of high-growth companies across all sectors falling from 18% to 13.2%. Both point to a persistent pattern: women are founding businesses, but something prevents them from scaling at the same rate.
The overwhelming majority of firms in both groups remain micro-businesses: 97% of those reporting headcount have fewer than ten employees. Turnover data, recorded for only 3% of high-growth firms, is too sparse to measure actual growth rates.
What is clear is that Britain's tech sector, for all its dynamism, has yet to crack the code on female-led scale.
Aaron Asadi, CEO of Enterprise Nation, said:
"This new analysis from the SME Index reveals something we've long suspected but couldn't prove with hard data: women are starting tech businesses in significant numbers, but the path to high growth remains considerably steeper.
“We built the SME Index platform to shine a light on exactly these kinds of patterns.
"By tracking over 400,000 UK technology and media firms through our framework of five business health pillars, we can now identify where gaps exist not through surveys or small samples, but across the entire landscape.
“What this analysis shows is both encouraging and challenging. Women lead one in six tech firms, which demonstrates real entrepreneurial appetite.
"But that figure drops to one in 10 among high-growth companies. The data tells us female-led firms achieving high growth are newer, less often finance-ready, and less likely to have serial entrepreneurs at the helm. These are actionable insights.
“The SME Index exists to support businesses and the organisations that back them.
"For investors, it provides real-time intelligence on which companies are building momentum. For advisers and policymakers, it offers an evidence base to target support where it will make the greatest difference.
"And for founders themselves, it creates transparency around what 'good' looks like and where they stand against meaningful benchmarks.
“This analysis arrives at a critical moment, with the government announcing new initiatives for female tech founders last week.
"The SME Index gives us the ability to track whether those interventions work. We can measure progress, identify what's changing and what isn't, and hold ourselves accountable for closing these gaps.
“Data doesn't solve problems on its own, but it's the foundation for every solution.
"The SME Index makes Britain's small business economy visible, measurable and comparable. That's how we turn good intentions into real change and how we ensure every entrepreneur, regardless of gender, has a fair shot at building something that scales."
The SME Index connects public, commercial, and Enterprise Nation data to create a living, queryable picture of how 5.6 million UK businesses perform, grow, and access finance.
