While the 海角视频 may be the start-up capital of Europe, it鈥檚 not when it comes to women starting up in business.
In fact, only one in three entrepreneurs in the 海角视频 are female and when it comes to science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors the figures get worse, with 10 times as many male-owned than female-owned companies.
Three female trailblazers from Wales that have defied the odds, by establishing businesses in some of the most challenging sectors, are Victoria Mann, founder of towntech start-up NearMeNow, Victoria Norman, founder of healthtech start-up Signum Health, and Gemma Hallett, founder of digital careers app miFuture.
In the past five years, the trio has established and grown their businesses across the 海角视频, because of a passion to make a difference resulting from frustrations working in their respective sectors.
Despite collectively winning several awards and being included in the Welsh Government鈥檚 review of digital innovation 鈥 Wales 4.0, the road to success hasn鈥檛 been easy.
Here each female entrepreneur shares their business wish for 2020 and personal thoughts on their start-up journey.
Signum Health
Formally launched in 2016, Signum Health uses artificial intelligence and cloud-based technology to deliver remote health care and support within local communities.
While women-led businesses achieve far lower levels of investment, with male entrepreneurs 86% more likely to be venture-capital funded and 56% more likely to secure angel investment, funding hasn鈥檛 been an issue for Signum Health founder Victoria Norman.
The company鈥檚 main financial backer is the Development Bank of Wales, with a fourth round of investment scheduled for the new year.
Ms Norman said: 鈥淔or us, the challenge isn鈥檛 securing funding to get off the ground, as we鈥檝e been fortunate to receive funding from the Development Bank of Wales.
鈥淭he issue for us is in the next stage of commercialisation where we are looking to gain traction and adoption, particularly from the public sector.
鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate in Wales to have the Development Bank of Wales which ploughs millions into the development of new businesses to accelerate innovation.
鈥淗owever, the issues arise when smaller, less-established businesses have to bid for contracts.
鈥淭hey face multiple barriers to successfully accessing public procurement, and as we have discovered, end up being priced out of the process, hindering ongoing adoption and ultimately leading to the collapse of the business.
鈥淭his is so frustrating. SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population (5.9 million businesses) and employ 60% of the business population, yet the current procurement infrastructure is not conducive to start up SMEs, with the 0.1% larger businesses securing the larger contracts.
鈥淭his and the misperception around private businesses, is forcing companies like mine to move into a more open and competitive market in England, in a bid to aid growth.
鈥淚n order to develop our business, we need buy-in from our customers, to validate our work, gather data and to showcase the impact we can have, but this is proving to be very difficult in Wales.
鈥淥ver the last two years we have been getting much more traction with NHS England.
鈥淎s part of a collaboration with the Royal Stoke Hospital, we were one of only seven projects selected out of over 75 applications to successfully bid for a share of a 拢5m fund to support health care innovation.
鈥淚n addition, last year we were one of only 34 companies to be recognised as offering the highest potential to help NHS England meet the challenges of an ageing population, and secured a place on the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN) Digital Accelerator programme.
鈥淢y wish for 2020 would be for an investment offer that partnered with the public sector in Wales to back and procure the services of the home-grown start up talent here.
鈥淭he funding/investment should be part of a commercialisation package, where as well as investment companies are assigned a public sector partner to work with for 12 months to gain feedback on the product/service, traction and ultimately a tangible case study that can be used to validate the company and help accelerate its growth.鈥
NearMeNow
Launched in 2018, NearMeNow is a sector leading towntech application that has been built to strengthen the presence of the physical shop front, both on the high street, and in the community.
Recognised by Retail Insider as a Top 60 Global Retail Innovation, NearMeNow allows businesses that share the same geographical space to combine their digital efforts into one consumer-facing app, that creates a truly interactive, searchable, community experience.
Forthcoming releases aim to use geo-fencing technology to link the high street to consumers using the local transport infrastructure, and create a truly interactive digital experience once on the high street through Interactive Shop Front Windows.
Heralded as a digital solution for mainstreaming the foundational economy in Welsh Government鈥檚 review into economic transformation by Professor Phil Brown 鈥 Wales 4.0, founder Victoria Mann has been successful in securing seed investment from the Development Bank of Wales.
She said: 鈥淪caling the business has been our biggest challenge to date.
鈥淥n the back of our tech seed round we built an award-winning app that provided Cowbridge and the Vale of Glamorgan local authority with a product that added value to their local community and resulted in them winning a Great British High Street award for Digital Innovation.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a proven track record of delivering, but there doesn鈥檛 seem to be as much support to get into the illusive supply chain, even when you鈥檝e got a proven concept.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of work being undertaken to raise the percentage of local procurement, but it doesn鈥檛 seem to include innovative tech start-ups, which are more dynamic and agile than large organisations.
鈥淲hile some large organisations are recognising the value of innovation from outside their own businesses, there doesn鈥檛 seem to be a cohesive approach to linking innovative start-ups to anchor institutions where the start-up could benefit from an anchor customer and the anchor customer explores solutions that help meet local and national objectives.
鈥淢y wish for 2020 would be for Welsh Government, large corporates and public sector organisations to trial an approach that would see them fund the work of innovative tech start-ups that help meet their objectives and work to procure from, mandate the adoption of or invest significant capital in those proven good practice start-ups.鈥
miFuture
Using technology to mobilise a generation towards employability and prosperity, miFuture was founded by former teacher Gemma Hallett who self-funded the tech development following a successful pilot.
Employing a swiping mechanic favoured by generation Z, the app connects young people with employers offering career opportunities, including GoCompare and Newport Wafer Fab.
Like NearMeNow, miFuture has been cited in Professor Phil Brown鈥檚 Wales 4.0 report, as a solution for connecting young people with employment opportunities.
Despite this, miFuture鈥檚 founder Gemma Hallett is holding off the temptation of accessing private and public finance to grow her business.
She said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been very lean from the outset.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a journey of bootstrapping, using a loan from my family, along with my redundancy and savings. I鈥檝e had to be imaginative with every pound.
鈥淭his has enabled me to develop the tech and get the business off the ground.
鈥淗owever, the focus moving forward is to develop it further and take it into the 海角视频 and global markets. Simply put, it鈥檚 all about growth, and there are lots of opportunities on the horizon.
鈥淭o do this, we鈥檇 now benefit from investment or funding.
鈥淗owever, to date, we鈥檝e struggled to secure public sector funding as we鈥檙e not ticking all the boxes.
鈥淚n my opinion, it鈥檚 measured too tightly on how many jobs are being created and filled.
鈥淲ith the tech skills shortage in Wales, finding people with the right skillset means filling jobs is difficult, instead we鈥檝e partnered with a great tech team which works with various startups.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a convincing argument to consider moving out of Wales. Councils and third sectors are more agile in England and larger corporates are more forward thinking and competitive.
鈥淏ut, I鈥檓 a proud Welsh Woman, and leaving won鈥檛 solve the school leavers issue so prominent here in Wales.
鈥淒ecentralisation and procuring on the open market, means local authorities in England are used to working with the private sector and SMEs.
鈥淚 feel in Wales, we have one system and there also seems to be a fear from the public sector of working with private companies.
鈥淢y wish for 2020 would be to change people鈥檚 鈥榓lways done it this way鈥 mentality.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to grow the economy in Wales, and energise a generation of school leavers, those working in the public sector need to be open to innovative tech ideas and working with tech start-ups, which are solving many of the social issues our country is facing.鈥
Ultimately, when it comes to the success of start-ups in Wales in 2020 one thing is clear, independent businesses need dedicated and ongoing support to succeed.
Without this homegrown talents could be forced to move out of Wales, or worse, lost entirely.
