Deadline: September 30, 2025
Applications are open for the Women Advancing Venture and Entrepreneurship Competition (WAVE) 2025. Are you a leading UK-based technology founder? Want to raise awareness of your start-up across the world? This competition is for you.
HM Treasury has estimated that the UK could benefit from up to £250bn in new economic value if women in the UK started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. The Office for Investment’s (OFI) Venture Capital Unit (VCU) is launching a national campaign to identify the UK’s top 10 women tech founders advancing venture and entrepreneurship.
Benefits
These founders will have the opportunity to:
- feature in a lookbook circulated to VC and CVC investors across the world
- attend and pitch at a breakfast session with prominent investors
- meet with senior VC or corporate mentors
- join further government and industry events to meet investors and collaborators
Eligibility
The founder must be:
- a woman
- the sole or joint founder of a British technology business
- willing to participate in government initiatives
The founder’s business must:
- be looking to raise at least £5m over the next financial year
- have some market traction in place (early revenues, clinical or customer trials and IP)
Application
Register for the competition by Tuesday, 30 September 2025. Once submissions have been received, the Venture Capital Unit will review them and announce the 2025 cohort in October.
For more information, visit WAVE Competition.
