The Santander Breakthrough Women Business Leaders' Mentoring Programme

Supporting women and entrepreneurship

Santander is a signatory member to the UK government Investing in Women Code, which was launched in 2019 and founded from the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship.

The code is a commitment to support the advancement of female entrepreneurship in the UK by improving access to tools, resources and finance from the financial services sector.

As part of our commitment, we're very proud to deliver the Women Business Leaders' Mentoring Programme powered by Moving Ahead.

About the programme

This mentoring scheme is for the next generation of fast-growth female entrepreneurs.

We match women business leaders from across the UK with carefully selected mentors from a variety of industries and backgrounds, who will support their mentees as they consider their next stage of business and professional growth.

To help our mentees think differently and innovatively, we match them with someone from a different sector, and both male and female mentors are involved.

From the outset, mentors and mentees will have regular contact with each other and decide together on the business objectives and support required.

Pairings will use materials and a framework provided by Santander and Moving Ahead, to work together to establish areas of development that enable and foster business growth and professional development over the nine month programme.

The programme will run from March to November 2021.

Did you know?

• Currently fewer than 6% of working age women are engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship activity, compared to more than 10% of men. Increasing female participation in the sector to 10% would take the overall economic contribution of women-led SME’s to more than £180 billion by 2025.
• Covid-19 has posed significant challenges to most companies, but data from Beauhurst indicates that female-led, high growth companies have been disproportionately impacted throughout the pandemic. Despite this impact, more than 60% of female founded, equity backed businesses are now operating with minimal disruption to their business, showing that female led businesses are fighting back.
• Women are more likely to start businesses in sectors worst affected by the pandemic such as Retail, Hospitality and Leisure.
• A UENI UK wide study of 22,000 SMEs in Jan 2020 showed that 7,205 were launched by women, setting the UK number of businesses currently owned by women at 32.37%. This highlights a remarkable uplift from four years ago when just 17% of founders were female.
• The Rose Review found that female-led businesses receive less funding than those headed by men at every stage of their journey, launching with 53% less capital on average. Family care responsibilities also limit the ability of female entrepreneurs, with women twice as likely as men to mention family responsibilities as a barrier to starting a business. 
• Many female entrepreneurs stress the vital importance of good professional and technical advice on topics such as funding, marketing and exporting. Many describe a struggle to access such advice, especially in rural areas. 
• Networks are a powerful mechanism to inspire and support entrepreneurs and increase the likelihood that they will be successful. Women are less likely to know at least one entrepreneur. The Rose Review highlighted a strong desire among women for relevant, relatable, local networking options that are accessible to those with family care responsibilities or living rurally. 
• Up to £250 billion of value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men. (The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2019)