Tide pledges to create 200,000 women-led businesses by 2027
UK-based digital business banking platform, Tide, has announced its ambitious aim to launch 200,000 women-led businesses in the next six years. The company’s initial milestone of helping 100,000 women-led businesses by 2023 has already been achieved. However, despite the increasing number of female founders, only 5.6 per cent of women in the UK currently own their own businesses, which is considerably lower than those in the US and Canada.
Equal access to funding opportunities
Previous Tide surveys also highlighted that over 50 per cent of women in the UK have experienced loan request rejections and consider access to finance as a major obstacle in establishing their own business.
Tide’s partnership with Mastercard and guidance on accessing training and tackling obstacles will address this issue. Tide members will benefit from access to Mastercard’s Stride UK programme, which focuses on support, advice, and education for small businesses.
Achieving gender equality in entrepreneurship
Heather Cobb, Tide’s SVP member engagement, said the company is committed to helping women overcome the challenges of starting and running a successful business. “Having listened to our members, we know the struggles they face when starting and running a business and we want to make that process as easy as possible,” she said. Speaking about the partnership, Kelly Devine, Mastercard UK and Ireland president, said that Tide will help female entrepreneurs find support, inspiration and information to grow their business.
