A BUSINESSWOMAN who is the current reigning North East Young Entrepreneur of the Year has been to Downing Street to react to the results of a report into funding for female business founders.

Lizzy Hodcroft, from Allendale, joined other female entrepreneurs following the release of the UK VC & Female Founders Report by the British Business Bank, which showed that 89 per cent of all investment from venture capital (VC) in 2017 went to all-male founder teams.

The outcome of this was that an estimated £5bn of investment was going to start-ups with all-male founding teams. The research, commissioned by government, will inform ongoing work to tackle this issue.

Lizzy, who founded the Sweet Beet ­– a food condiments company – and the peer to peer mental health platform Myndr, said: “My personal concern is if there is enough being done to ensure that this incentive grows beyond the London bubble. In the North-East, there is only a small handful of VCs to access and changing behaviours and unconscious bias is needed more than ever.

“It’s all good that we have this report and it’s hopeful to see that many VCs have outlined their plans on how they plan on tackling this issue. I do hope that this does not just turn into a vanity project that does not leave the London area.”

She said she was thrilled to be in a room with so many talented women entrepreneurs at the launch of the report at number 11 Downing Street, along with the venture capital community.

The research found that venture capital investment in start-ups with female founders was increasing, but progress was slow.

At current rates, for all-female teams to reach even 10 per cent of all deals would take more than 25 years.