Just 2% of venture capital funding in the UK goes to female-led startups and women still face barriers to raising investment.
For this reason, SBRI Healthcare and NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) launched a Venture Capital Readiness Programme for female founders who have received SBRI Healthcare and NIHR i4i funding.
Run in partnership with Lifted Ventures, the bespoke programme of workshops, introductions and events was designed to support female founders and CEOs to enhance their knowledge, skills and experience of commercialisation and investment readiness and to build a targeted investment plan and make connections with investors.
The programme also facilitated female founders to meet peers and other women leaders in health and social care as part of an empowered, supportive and sustainable network.
The programme launched in May 2025 and activities included a visit to Untap health and Magnitude Biosceinces as well as online seminars, training and panels supported by Dr Nathan Moore, founder and CEO of CrossCover, Nev Young from Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber and finance and legal experts.
The programme culminated in two successful showcase pitches to investors in London on 22 October at the Wellcome Collection, and 29 October in Leeds at Leeds Nexus, opened by keynote speakers Dr Louise Morpeth, CEO of Brain in Hand, and Anna Maxwell, Founder and CEO of Maxwellia respectively.
The founders and CEOs pitching were:
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Bernadette Porter from Clear Path Testing Limited
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Dongli Li from Beautiful Voice Limited
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Stephanie Lesage from OSPT Ltd
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Daisy Allington from Cognitant Group Ltd
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Lise Pape from Walk With Path
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Katerina Spranger from Oxford Heartbeat
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Elizabeth Soilleux from Lyzeum Ltd
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Angélique van 't Wout from AlphaBiomics
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Gemma Poole from The Essential Baby Company Ltd
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Gayle Storey from Tutti Toot Ltd
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Clare Selden from Hepatican Ltd
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Carolina Bell from NeuroVirt Ltd
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Emma Yates from Proteotype Diagnostics
"[The programme] is such an amazing opportunity for investors to back female founders and get some insight into the vast impact women are having in health, science and technology. What a great day seeing such wonderful female founders. It was a privilege to share my journey and the future plans for Tutti Toot Ltd. Thank you for this opportunity.”
Gayle Storey, Co-founder, Tutti Toot
“Thank you to Lifted Ventures, NIHR and SBRI Healthcare for this opportunity and program. What a great group of pitches from female innovators literally getting stronger by the day.”
Emma Yates, Co-founder, Director and CSO, Proteotype Diagnostics
"At SBRI Healthcare and NIHR i4i we have supported some incredible female founders with impactful healthcare innovations through publicly funded programmes. We recognise the difficulty in raising private funding to take these innovations to markets and patients and have worked with the expertise provided by Lifted Ventures to support female founders to overcome barriers. We will continue to work with our portfolio companies to facilitate access to follow on funding. We are extremely proud of the founders that completed the programme and pitched, all of whom are incredible women with commercial, impactful businesses." Dr Raffaella Roncone, Assitant Director and Head of Innovation and Enterprises, LGC Group