Phoebes: The Case for Women-led High-Growth Enterprise

Phoebes: The Case for Women-led High-Growth Enterprise

Executive Summary:

In recent years, most global economies have witnessed unprecedented challenges resulting in significant economic uncertainty. However, as with any challenge, this created new opportunities for new ideas to be birthed into fruition. Particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic where many individuals, particularly women, ceased the opportunity to engage in enterprise.

Currently, the U.K. government has a target to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half – equivalent to nearly 600,000 entrepreneurs – by 2030. To enable this, a task force was set up - led by Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank and the first woman to set up a bank in the UK.

The findings of the task force report concluded that there are a low number of women-led high-growth enterprises and all-female teams.

However, contrary to this, there are unique stories of progressive women-led enterprises budding out of unlikely places, The Phoebes.

This paper will lay out the findings and recommendations of the task force as well as detail the efforts of The Phoebes towards economic freedom.

Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce:

In 2022, Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank and the first woman to set up a bank in the UK became chair of the “Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce”.  The Taskforce worked with entrepreneurs, campaigning organisations, and investors to gather data and identify the main barriers for women in starting and scaling high-growth enterprises. The report as it currently stands:  

- Just 18% of high-growth enterprises include one or more women on the founding team – while all-male founding teams make up 82% of high-growth enterprises.

- The Rose Review found that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

- The Taskforce has identified that women entrepreneurs can and should be at the forefront of UK ambitions to become a tech superpower by 2030.

- When it comes to high-growth entrepreneurship, one of the most persistent barriers to progress for female entrepreneurs is access to funding.

- 8 out of 10 young people are unable to name a single female entrepreneur and when they hear the word “entrepreneur” they are 4 times more likely to think of a man. It’s inevitable that such attitudes will have an impact, limiting women’s career choices, not least because they recognise what a tough battle it will be to start and scale a business. To combat these stereotypes and inspire future female founders, the Taskforce recommends:

- A. Inspiring girls at school

- B. Showcasing success stories of female high-growth entrepreneurs in universities

- C. Celebrating the success of female high-growth entrepreneurs

The Taskforce uses the following definitions: 

A high-growth enterprise has average annualised growth greater than 20% per annum, over a three‑year period, measured by number of employees or turnover, with at least 10 employees in the baseline year.

What constitutes ‘women-led’?

A ‘women-led’ high-growth enterprise need not be entirely led by females, but should have at least one woman in a top three position (CEO, CFO, CTO) and women should hold at least 25% of founders’ equity.

The Phoebes: 

The Phoebes, spearheaded by Pastor Tobi Adegboyega, the Global Head of Strategy of The Fxmily, are a private members club of extraordinary women with a singular vision: the economic development and freedom of all.

Established in 2018, starting with just 100 members, Phoebes has grown to 150 core partners with a global reach of over 260,000 women.

There Phoebes are split across various groups that are led by Leading Women in their industries such as Doctors, Lawyers, Journalists, Engineers, Policy Makers, Investment Analysts and Business women alike:

The mission of the Phoebes is simple,  to foster unity, prosperity, and empowerment by providing opportunities for personal growth, professional development, and meaningful connections. The Phoebes believe in recognising and celebrating each member's unique talents and achievements.

These women not only work within these fields but have established platforms to influence the current and future generations, such as Law City, City Welfare, Girls Under Construction and Pleroma that have thousands of lives attached to their platforms that they are liberating on a daily basis.

Their endeavours cover a multitude of industries such as Beauty, Corporate, Healthcare, STEM, Fintech, Banking, and Politics to name a few - some key examples are included below:

- The Health & Wellness Phoebes are a collective of the UK’s best healthcare professionals and wellbeing advocates. From doctors to mental health nurses, policy makers and scientists who attended and graduated from Russell Group universities, they are a diverse group of females ready to take the Medicare space from all angles.

- The Beauty Phoebes’ are a group of beauty professionals, clinic owners with a flagship in Knightsbridge and soon to be Mayfair, beauty influencers and cosmetic chemists who are thriving in their sectors, leading multi-million pound businesses. As a collective, 15 Beauty Phoebe SMEs in Q1 of 2024 made a total revenue of £509,214.44, provided over 2,000 services and selling of products and have a social media presence that reaches over £3 million users and over 15,000 high net worth of clientele.

It is evident that The Phoebes have already come a long way in addressing some of the key issues facing women-led enterprises and are committed to creating a supportive network where women can flourish together, sustaining generational wealth both in people and finances through maintaining a central economy.

More than anything else, a group as this creates a conglomerate of inspiration and empowerment of women with elegance, unity, and inspiration for the modern vibrant labour and resourceful systems of marketing both locally and globally.