Women Advancing Venture and Entrepreneurship Competition (WAVE) 2025

HM Treasury has estimated that the UK could benefit from up to £250 billion in new economic value if women in the UK started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men.

The Office for Investment's (OFI) Venture Capital Unit (VCU) is launching a national campaign to identify the UK's top 10 women tech founders advancing venture and entrepreneurship.

These founders will have the opportunity to:

• feature in a lookbook circulated to VC and CVC investors across the world
• attend and pitch at a breakfast session with prominent investors
• meet with senior VC or corporate mentors
• join further government and industry events to meet investors and collaborators

Eligibility criteria

The founder must be:

1. a woman
2. the sole or joint founder of a British technology business
3. willing to participate in government initiatives

The founder’s business must:

1. be looking to raise at least £5 million over the next financial year
2. have some market traction in place (early revenues, clinical or customer trials and IP)

Meet the 2024 cohort