London’s technology sector has the highest proportion of women entrepreneurs in Europe, according to a global study of 50,000 start-ups.
But the city’s start-up scene, centred around London's 'Silicon Roundabout', is still dominated by men, with women representing only nine per cent of those behind new technology businesses.
Eileen Burbidge, a partner at Passion Capital, said: “We need to keep highlighting female entrepreneur success stories such as Wendy Tan White, co-founder of Moonfruit which sold to Yell for $37 million and Tracy Doree, co-founder of LLUSTRE, sold to Fab.com.”
Nathalie Gaveau, founder and chief executive of London based start-up Shopcade, said the city's tech scene was relatively welcoming, saying: “Margaret Thatcher, Cherie Blair – I really think it’s a society that’s open to women.”
The report on global technology start-up ‘ecosystems’ by O2 owners Telefonica and the Startup Genome found found Toronto had the highest proportion of women tech entrepreneurs, with 18 per cent. It also found London had the biggest tech sector in Europe, ahead of rival hubs in Paris, Berlin and Madrid.
The findings will be a boost to the government who have been promoting London’s digital economy through its Tech City Investment Organisation. Mayor Boris Johnson said the report “cements London’s position as the high tech start-up capital of Europe”.
However the study found that while London was dominant in Europe, its output was still almost two thirds less than Silicon Valley. It also warned London could lose out to Berlin if more was not done to make London an attractive destination for US companies looking to expand.
