Edinburgh pledges to support women entrepreneurs

The University has joined a new cohort of partners committed to supporting women entrepreneurs through the Pathways Pledge.

Pathways Forward - Fifth cohort - Charlotte Waugh of Edinburgh Innovations (left); Ana Stewart SG Chief Entrepreneur (second left)

The Pledge asks organisations to address women’s ‘extreme under-participation’ in Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, as uncovered by a 2023 Scottish Government report.

The ‘Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship’ report was written by Scotland’s current Chief Entrepreneur Ana Stewart and Mark Logan, who previously held the role.

They found that just 2 per cent of capital investment in Scotland goes to female-led companies, for a raft of reasons including society’s underlying sexism. 

The Pathways Forward programme was founded in response and now works to develop inclusive entrepreneur support in Scotland.

The University joins Connect Three, Geovation Scotland, BGF, Mint Ventures and Firstport in the fifth cohort of 32 organisations who have pledged so far.

Institutional commitments

In the Pathways Pledge, organisations choose and implement their own actions, using the Pathways Report as the ‘manifesto’ for change.

The University has committed to implementing a shared and reliable approach to data collection on women entrepreneurs, providing deeper insights into the landscape of women’s entrepreneurship at the institution. 

These insights will inform targeted interventions and help shape future innovation and entrepreneurial activities.

Empowering events

The University will also host two annual events focused on deepening understanding of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the entrepreneurship landscape. 

These events will bring together staff, student societies, and key ecosystem partners who support entrepreneurs. Each session will blend informative content with structured networking opportunities, fostering collaboration, reflection, and the practical application of EDI principles.

Elsewhere, Pathways Forward has announced that the Female Founders Growth Summit 2025 will take place at the RBS Gogarburn conference centre in Edinburgh on 16 September, with Pathways partnering with Female Founders Rise, Buy Women Built, the ScaleUp Institute, and SuperScalers. 

The Ana Stewart Pathways report identified obstacles to women’s entrepreneurship including logistical constraints, feelings of exclusion and the absence of clearly defined pathways and networks. Our newly-launched Innovation Career Pathway seeks to address this by formalising innovation and entrepreneurship career progression alongside research and teaching in a clearly defined framework. 

Enabling better data collection and sharing best EDI practice through the Pathways Pledge will further support us in our goal of advancing gender equality.

Ensuring diversity amongst staff and student company founders is a key aim for us, and the Pathways report was a keen reminder of how far we still have to go as a society. EI runs Power Her Up, a programme which supports women students to start and grow their business, and our in-house venture investment team, Old College Capital, is a signatory to the Investing in Women programme. 

We have roughly 50% of women founders among students but far less amongst staff. Improving data collection and foregrounding EDI practices is a first step in addressing this, and we will do more.

The Pledge initiative is a key pillar of Pathways Forward and we’re motivated to see its continued growth. Our focus is on consolidating efforts across the ecosystem to drive change through collaboration with each organisation contributing its share to achieve a greater collective impact.

I’m encouraged to have such a diverse group of organisations from all sectors continuing to align with our objectives.

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2025