This International Women’s Day, here at Business News Wales, we wanted to mark the efforts of a new group of female angel investors in Wales as they aim to level the playing field and support female-led and female-owned businesses.  

By tackling equality and embracing equity by bringing together more than 30 of Wales’ most successful female entrepreneurs and business leaders, Women Angels of Wales at Development Bank Wales, is a new investment syndicate led by women, for women. 

Two individuals who are imperative to its success are Jill Jones, who has a background in optometry and a diverse portfolio of residential, commercial and industrial properties, and Rachel Ashley, Non-Executive Director, Advisory Board Member and Business Advisor who specialises in strategy, transformational change and developing new businesses. 

Jill Jones said: 

“By encouraging more women to become angel investors, we give them the opportunity to support the businesses that matter to them and to create new sources of capital for innovative businesses. We offer a supportive approach to women as investors and to women as founders who often get overlooked and underfunded. 

Importantly, this is not a networking forum. We want to enjoy using our collective experience, skills and resource to make a difference to our environment, our society and our economy on International Women’s Day by inspiring and investing in female-led businesses. Of course, angel investing does come with some risks but there are some great tax incentives that make it an attractive proposition.” 

Rachel Ashley said: 

“The syndicate can play a role in International Women’s Day by starting to take a step in the right direction and putting the focus on female founders in Wales, in order to help women and putting the focus on investment to help Welsh women and opening the pipeline for females to succeed.” 

The formation of the new syndicate followed a report UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) suggesting that despite female investors having driven more than £2bn of investment in companies across the UK in the last decade, women remain a minority in angel investment. And that lack of women angels has a direct impact on the support received by female-led, founded or owned companies, as women are much more likely to invest in them. 

By ensuring there’s a strong, active network of female investors – who bring expertise across different business and financial backgrounds, they can leverage further support for female entrepreneurship. 

For more information on Development Bank Wales and Women Angels of Wales, visit: developmentbank.wales