Side of Angels
In 2019, the entrepreneur, investor, influencer, and podcaster Grace Beverley nearly crashed our website. It didn’t take much – Grace just posted a link on Instagram to her 1 million followers directing them to a report?she was featured in as a case study . We had more traffic that day than at any other time in our?10 years. I was reminded of that this week as I got sent?her LinkedIn post ?by multiple people highlighting?new legislation threatening female investors and entrepreneurs.
As Grace writes : “On 31st January, new legislation will come into place that is going to impact the barriers to entry for women becoming angel investors immeasurably: As it stands, investors on angel investing platforms have to earn over 100k. New government legislation will see this raised to ￡170k. This will disproportionately impact the pool of female investors in the UK. In fact, there are some areas of the UK with NO women who earn over 170k.”
This isn’t the first time this issue has been raised, but this is the first time the stats have made the picture so clear. The chart , which is based on research carried out by Marla Shapiro of HERmesa Angel Syndicate and Roxane Sanguinetti of Alma Angels, is shocking. Based on 2020/21 earnings, this would mean huge declines in eligibility for investors across the board, but in some regions – namely the North West and Northern Ireland – no women at all?would qualify as ‘sophisticated investors’.
领英推荐
Investors calling for wider tax breaks isn’t much of a story. But no women in?entire regions of the UK being able to access investment reliefs?is a very big deal. Clearly, it should rise with earnings inflation, but such a large amount in one go is a hammer blow to female entrepreneurs and investors alike.
Homophily is real: people invest in people like them . If this goes through, fewer female investors will mean fewer female scaleups. There’s clearly a balance to be struck between protecting investors and unlocking investors. But this isn’t balanced. Drop me an email ([email protected]) if you want to be kept updated on this issue.
Read the rest of the newsletter here .
Business Breakthrough Coach | Helping Female Founders & Professionals to Grow Personally & Professionally | Franchisee WIBN London Central & South | Co-Founder of Global Entrepreneurship Network UK | Public Speaker
9 个月A 'like' is really not the response I want to make to this news. Thanks Philip Salter for sharing.
I think one thing that has likely changed since the last time this legislation was reviewed is the accessibility of SPVs and writing smaller cheques, so the threshold to investing is also lower than it used to be and perhaps the min. income doesn't need to be so high.
ETF & Market Making Specialist | Founding Partner at Alma Angels | Co-head Women in ETFs London
9 个月Thanks for reporting on the issue Philip! Like you say we clearly need a balance, between protecting investors and not hindering the growth of a diverse angel ecosystem