Coutts, the Private Banking arm of NatWest, together with BGF, are working on plans to launch The UK Enterprise Fund to bring additional funding and support to entrepreneurs across the UK. The partnership will build on Coutts and BGF’s existing platforms, drawing on the significant scale and financial firepower of the two companies. It will identify and address equity gaps across the whole of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, with specific initiatives and programmes for female-led businesses and aimed at increasing the diversity of management teams.
The launch of the partnership coincides with the one-year anniversary of the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. The 2019 Review found that the UK is lagging behind many peer countries on the ratio of female to male entrepreneurs – for every 10 male entrepreneurs in the UK, there are fewer than five female entrepreneurs.
Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest and author of the Review, says: “I am proud to be announcing that Coutts is working with BGF to develop The UK Enterprise Fund. This is a pivotal moment for the Rose Review and represents the great progress made in addressing the biggest barrier to women-led businesses, that of access to capital.”
Coutts’ partnership with BGF will build on and further scale the existing framework through which Coutts’ clients already support private businesses in the UK via the Coutts Investment Club.
