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Start Up Loans celebrates £50 million of loans to female entrepreneurs in the South East

Press release 05 December 2024

  • Kent, Hampshire and Surrey hotspots for female entrepreneurship

Start Up Loans today announces that it has provided female founders in the South East with £50 million in loans since the programme’s inception in 2012. In the regions outside of London, the South East has received the third highest volume of female funding in England, demonstrating it’s a key region for female entrepreneurship.

Loans to female-led start-ups make up 38% of the total loans issued by the programme to entrepreneurs in the South East, which broadly reflects the overall programme’s gender split while exceeding the level of female ownership in the business population. Wider market data shows that, in 2022, 18% of smaller businesses with employees and 20% of smaller businesses without employees were female-led.

Kent, Hampshire and Surrey are hotspots for female entrepreneurship, occupying the top three positions in terms of the volume of finance lent under the programme. Kent is also the South East county accounting for the highest number of Start Up Loans to female founders.

One such business owner to receive a loan is 27 year old TJ Bouchada, founder of Moody Cow Nails in Milton Keynes, who was this year chosen as a Start Up Loans Ambassador.

TJ Bouchada, founder of Moody Cow Nails said: 

Launching Moody Cow Nails earlier this year has been an incredible journey, one that’s taught me so much about running a business. My Start Up Loan was invaluable in helping me turn my vision into reality, and the process was really straightforward.

As someone who knew very little about business ownership before taking out my loan, I’m passionate about encouraging other women in the South East to consider launching something of their own as a viable career path. Start Up Loans could be the catalyst you need to bring your own business to life.

In total, more than 12,000 founders in the South East have used a Start Up Loan to start or grow their businesses since 2012, with one in ten (11%) loans going to young entrepreneurs aged between 18-24.

Louise McCoy, Commercial Managing Director, Small Business Lending at the British Business Bank said: 

Each time we reach a lending milestone, whether regional or national, we want to celebrate the remarkable businesses that have benefited from Start Up Loans in that area. We’re proud to have provided over £50 million in funding to nearly 5,000 female founders in the South East alone. With inspiring entrepreneurs like TJ, we hope to encourage more women across the region to consider starting their own businesses and join the South East's thriving network of female founders.

Start Up Loans provides fixed-interest rate loans of up to £25,000, along with pre-and-post loan support and mentoring.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact [email protected].

Notes to editors

Below is a breakdown of the top counties by volume of finance lent in the South East by Start Up loans to female founders since 2012. This includes the total number of loans, overall value, and average loan amount: 

UK RegionLoans MadeAmount Lent (£)Average Loan Amount (£)
Kent1,0439,570,6189,176
Hampshire8999,450,62010,512
Surrey5656,039,60710,690
Buckinghamshire4805,619,33811,707
East Sussex6745,585,3918,287
Berkshire4294,971,42311,588
West Sussex4664,721,08610,131
Oxfordshire3103,422,34911,040
Isle of Wight (UA)98785,1438,012
Grand Total4,96450,165,57310,127

Individual constituency data for particular cities and localities is available on request. 

Additional Information 

The 2019 Rose Review found that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

About Start Up Loans

The Start Up Loans programme is operated by The Start-Up Loans Company, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, registration number 08117656, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. 

The Start-Up Loans Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc.   British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly government-owned by DBT and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such.

Free guides on a range of subjects related to starting a business are available on the Start Up Loans website. You can find recent media press releases here. 

The funding for the Start Up Loans programme is provided by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). 

Key Statistics

  • Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans programme has delivered over 115,000 loans, providing more than £1.13bn of funding.
  • In the financial year 2023/24, the programme provided 9,759 loans with a total value of approximately £125m.
  • The economic benefits of the Start Up Loans programme are almost six (5.7) times its economic costs.
  • Since 2012, 31% of loans went to people formerly unemployed or economically inactive. 40% of loan recipients were women and 20% were from ethnic minority groups (not including white minorities).

Aside from the return-on-investment numbers these statistics are gross estimates and based on Start Up Loans CRM along with externally commissioned research undertaken by SQW Ltd, with support from BMG Research.

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