The Entrepreneurship Institute's Director Julie Devonshire OBE met with Prime Minister Teresa May on Thursday at a special reception for International Women's Day. Julie was part of an exclusive group of 10 women invited to meet the Prime Minister in advance of the reception.

The reception, for more than 100 inspiring women, included guests such as tech entrepreneur and AI expert Tabitha Goldstaub, CEO of the UK Business Angels Association, Jenny Tooth and beauty entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury.

The Government announced new measures to support women entrepreneurs in response to the Rose Review led by including Alison Rose, Deputy CEO of Natwest.

The Rose Review finds that only one in three entrepreneurs are women, a gender gap equivalent to over one million fewer female entrepreneurs in the UK. Businesses that are run by women are on average half the size of male-led firms and far less likely to scale up to a £1 million turnover. The review finds that closing this gap between women and men could add an additional £250 billion in GVA to the UK economy, equivalent to 4 years of economic growth.

“At the Entrepreneurship Institute we work with some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in the world, supporting them with their skillset and building the next generation of ventures. We’re strengthening our ties with policy-makers to help them do this better and to support new business and job creation for the UK economy. This was an important opportunity for us to do this and highlight the importance of supporting entrepreneurial women.”

Julie went on to tell the Prime Minister that the King’s20 Accelerator intends to be the first university accelerator to reach sustainable gender parity.