Pathways Forward

The Scottish National Investment Bank's new report "Supporting Equal Access to Investment" is an insightful and transparent read. 👇 It's especially great to see their detailed commitment to addressing some of the recommendations in the #PathwaysReport with their Pledges here: https://lnkd.in/gVnx7GHK. Identifying problems is the first step, and then committing to actionable steps to address those problems is key. 🔑 The #PathwaysPledge helps organisations from across the ecosystem identify ways in which they can continue to help shape a better future for #WomenInEntrepreneurship. #MovingForwardFaster #SmallStepsBigImpact

🔦 Pledge partner highlight 🔦 Our newest cohort committing to actionable and tangible steps aligned with the #PathwaysReport includes Elevator. Discussing their Pledges, Professor Gary McEwan, Chief Executive Officer for Elevator said: “Elevator is proud to be committing our Pledges to support the Pathways Forward mission to increase female participation and growth in entrepreneurship across Scotland.   "We’ll take a proactive, 360-degree approach by; increasing female representation throughout our programmes and events, actively promoting female founder role models, and creating bespoke events aimed at including young women and girls. We’re also committed to ensuring our board, executive team, management, mentors and supply chain offer diverse female representation.    "Elevator is dedicated to taking action that delivers results for women, and benefits the wider entrepreneurial landscape across Scotland – we look forward to playing our part in this important initiative.” You can read more about this newest cohort here: https://lnkd.in/gKrb4gAc. #SmallStepsBigImpact #MovingForwardFaster

Great to see this campaign launched recently by Female Founders Rise! Supporting female founders in entrepreneurship can hugely impact the UK's economy. One of the first steps is making sure female founders are visible 👀 Excited to see this continue and grow!

📢It’s official! The Female Founders Growth Summit which we co-organised with Female Founders Rise will be back for 2025! Head over to the Female Founders Growth Summit page to join the waitlist and be the first to hear new announcements about next year!

📣 We've just launched our third cohort of the #PathwaysPledge! 📣 FDM Group, EY Scotland, Equity Gap, Filament STAC - Smart Things Accelerator Centre, and Elevator make up our third cohort. Aligned with the recommendations of the #PathwaysReport, The Pledge is an action-focused and collaborative initiative. It helps organisations consolidate their efforts to drive change through collective ownership and shared knowledge, thus achieving a greater impact. You can read more about the third cohort and their Pledge commitments here: https://lnkd.in/gKrb4gAc #MovingForwardFaster #SmallStepsBigImpact Ana Stewart

🚨 Great opportunity for female founders!🚨 AccelerateHER has just launched their new Female Founder Accelerator programme with Barclays Eagle Labs! This programme will support innovative female-led technology businesses. You can find more information in the post below. Applications close 1st November!

📣 Applications are open for Scottish Enterprise's newest Pathways to Scale cohort! If you're looking to join this emerging community of high potential female-founded companies, head to the link in the post below before 22nd October.

THIS👇 is what the Female Founders Growth Summit is all about! So great to see #FemaleFounders across Scotland and beyond connecting with other founders in similar positions and sharing their challenges and solutions. Rachel Hanretty, thank you for sharing this, and please keep us updated on how your Whatsapp group grows and thrives! 👏

As the #PathwaysPledge is not a box-ticking activity, it's important for our Pledging organisations to commit to tangible and measurable actions. Jane Martin, Scottish Enterprise Managing Director of Innovation and Investment, said: “We want to use our role at the heart of Scotland’s early-stage ecosystem to address the challenges raised in the #PathwaysReport and drive change across the investment community. We know combined efforts can create big changes, so our initial pledges aim to raise ambitions by leveraging our extensive network of investors, companies and entrepreneurs to find and implement new ideas and solutions. “This will include growing our Pathways to Scale programme, which we launched last year, which works with ambitious female founders who want to raise investment and grow their business at an international level.” You can find more information on our second cohort here: https://lnkd.in/gSvXdf2U. #MovingForwardFaster #SmallStepsBigImpact

Collaboration is key to the success of the #PathwaysPledge, so it was great to get both Social Investment Scotland (SIS) and SIS Ventures on board. Lindsay Wake, Group Head of Impact at SIS and SIS Ventures said: "Social Investment Scotland is delighted to have pledged, in response to the #PathwaysReport, that we will co-design and launch an Investment Readiness programme for black and minority ethnic social entrepreneurs, with at least 50% of participants being women. SIS will also fully assess and analyse our investment data and processes through a gender lens. Outcomes of both these pieces of work will continue our journey and commitment to equity, equality, diversity and inclusion." She continued with SIS Ventures' commitments: "As impact investors, we believe that a diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem is more innovative and resilient, enhancing the performance and reach of solutions for both people and the planet. Our pledges aim to break down barriers and improve access to venture capital, supported by a comprehensive impact thesis and reporting metrics that align with our impact investing values. While we are pleased that 43% of our portfolio consists of female founders, we are committed to going further by fully understanding and acting on more detailed, disaggregated data from pipeline to investment." Find more information on this cohort here: https://lnkd.in/gSvXdf2U. #SmallStepsBigImpact #MovingForwardFaster