Start Up Loans hits £100m to London's female founders
The British Business Bank has confirmed 10,853 loans to female-founded businesses in the capital — and quietly reopened the scheme to firms that have been trading for up to five years.
Female-founded businesses in London have borrowed £100m through the British Business Bank's Start Up Loans programme, the bank has confirmed. The 10,853 loans went to roughly 10,000 businesses and cover the life of the scheme.
The eligibility change alongside it matters more to anyone already trading. Businesses that have been going for up to five years can now apply, rather than only founders at or before launch.
The terms are unchanged. Applicants can borrow between £500 and £25,000 at a fixed 7.5 per cent over one to five years, on an unsecured personal loan basis, with business partners able to apply individually up to £100,000 for a single business.
Divide the total by the number of loans and the average advance is a little over £9,000.
The lending is concentrated in inner east and south-east London. Hackney South and Shoreditch is the largest recipient constituency on £2.86m, followed by Lewisham East on £2.05m, Lewisham North on £2.03m, Tottenham on £2.02m and Chelsea and Fulham on £2.00m.
Per head, the order barely shifts. Hackney South and Shoreditch leads on 266 loans per 100,000 residents, then Lewisham North on 229, Lewisham East on 224, Hackney North and Stoke Newington on 220 and Tottenham on 207.
North London female business owners took £57.5m across 6,213 loans and south London £43m across 4,640. According to the bank's figures, 58 of London's 75 parliamentary constituencies have each drawn £1m or more.
Forty-eight per cent of the loans went to entrepreneurs from ethnic minority groups. Among recipients aged 18 to 24, 24 per cent were classed as not in employment, education or training before starting their business.
Delivery runs through partner organisations, including Virgin StartUp, which has passed its own £100m Start Up Loans milestone.
What the money buys is not always growth. Iuliia Carey used a loan to found TAGALONG Baby, a London baby and toddler carrier brand, spending it on her first production batch and on independent testing through an accredited laboratory to meet European and American safety standards.
On her account the loan also covered technical documentation, safety instructions, labels, design protection, branding, packaging and launch preparation. For a physical consumer product, a large share of the first cheque goes on making the thing legal to sell.
The sums are small against the problem they address. MPs on the Women and Equalities Committee reported in October 2025 that 20 per cent of UK businesses are female-led, that female-led businesses receive loans 68 per cent smaller than male-led ones, and that women launch with 53 per cent less capital than men.
The bank says it intends to issue 85,000 start up loans over five years as part of its wider strategy.
For a founder two or three years into trading who wrote off Start Up Loans as a launch-only product, the practical point is the five-year window. A £25,000 unsecured facility at 7.5 per cent is not cheap money, but it does not ask for collateral, and until now it was closed to you.