Hosting its first event in Leeds in May 2024, The Lifted Project aims to address the gender imbalance in high-growth entrepreneurship by making opportunities more accessible to women outside London and the South East within the next five years.
It might not come as a surprise that there is a much higher number of high-growth enterprises founded by women in the South East than anywhere else in England. According to The Data City’s research:
The Lifted Project was set up to address regional inequities by boosting private investment in women-led businesses across the UK. Five Regional Growth Boards have been set up in Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle – all with the goal of increasing the number of female-founded high-growth enterprises by 50% within three years.
The initiative is backed and supported by Lloyds Bank and is being led by Lifted Ventures, an early-stage investment connector that exists to increase the flow of early-stage capital to female founders, and to promote the advantages of backing women in business.
The Lifted Project is headed by Zandra Moore, co-founder and CEO of Panintelligence. Taking on the role of Board Chair for the Leeds Regional Growth Board, she explains:
“As a female founder outside of London, you are faced with a double disadvantage. You already have to work harder than a man to sell yourself and your business, working through the countless barriers that we outline in this report. But you also have to sell your city as a place to grow and scale a business. The ambition and talent are there in our regions. The support and access to capital is not.”
Supporting Zandra as Vice-chair is Natalie Boswell, Lloyds Bank’s Regional Development Director for the North East and Yorkshire, whose passions lie in supporting women-owned and led businesses.
The Leeds City Region has one of the fastest growing economies in the country, which makes it the ideal destination for the project’s regional development programme, focusing on supporting businesses with productivity, international trade, access to finance, and net zero transition.
Through their guidance, the Leeds Growth Board will support female entrepreneurs using real-time data sets provided by Panintelligence and fellow Leeds-based tech company, The Data City. The sustainable data model will underpin regional activities, drive the strategy and accelerate momentum, while allowing for progress to be monitored.
To keep up with The Lifted Project, visit their website.