NatWest have supported the Enterprise Vision Awards as the Headline Sponsor for a decade! Ten fantastic years of celebrating and recognising outstanding women in business. As the UK’s leading business bank, NatWest strives to remove any barriers to enterprise, with a focus on supporting under-represented groups, (female entrepreneurs are one of these groups), using their size, scale and expertise to help entrepreneurs to achieve their ambitions.

They look to provide fresh initiatives offering mentorship, guidance and inspiration for female founders, alongside securing new commitments from financial services institutions to make it easier for female-led companies to access the funding they need. And by listening closely to entrepreneurs, they work to help women grow their networks and achieve their goals.

NatWest’s Rose Review, first published in 2019, highlighted that £250bn could be added to the UK economy if women in the UK matched men in starting and scaling businesses. While the most recent Rose Review progress report demonstrated the progress to date and revealed that more women than ever are starting new businesses, with 140,000 all-female founded companies created nationally in 2021.

“It is a testament to the resilience and entrepreneurialism of female founders that they are creating more companies than ever before, and imperative that they are supported to thrive and recognised for their successes. And this is why initiatives such as the EVAS are so important – and rewarding – for us to be involved in.”

By recognising sharing success stories, the EVAS serves to highlight the huge variety of ways that female entrepreneurs and the business community as a whole are breaking down barriers to enterprise and contributing to positive change.

These awards don’t just showcase the incredible impact of the inspirational female founders across the region, they’re also a chance to hear and celebrate stories of determination, innovation, achievement and success. And this in turn, gives the inspiration and confidence to other female founders to follow in their footsteps – and that is something to be celebrated!

Discover more about NatWest here.