ALSA Ventures has joined the Investing in Women Code, a UK Government-backed commitment to improve women entrepreneurs’ access to the tools, resources and finance needed to start and scale.

Women-led and mixed-gender founding teams remain structurally underfunded despite strong fundamentals. Improving access to capital is both an economic and innovation imperative, and transparency is a practical lever for change.

What is the Investing in Women Code?

The Investing in Women Code brings together finance providers across the ecosystem to strengthen support for women entrepreneurs through better practices and consistent, comparable reporting.

The Code is supported by the Department for Business and Trade and CodePartners including the British Business Bank, BVCA, UK Finance and the UKBusiness Angels Association (among others).

Whatjoining the Code means for ALSA

By joining the Code, ALSA Ventures is making three specific commitments:

1. We will nominate a leader responsible for supporting equality in our interactions with women entrepreneurs.
2. We will adopt and review internal practices designed to improve women entrepreneurs’ access to finance, tools and resources.
3. We will provide agreed data to the designated industry body, for aggregated and anonymised publication in the annual Investing in Women Code report.

Why it matters to ALSA

ALSA backs ambitious science-led companies and builds NewCos around differentiated assets. That requires a wide aperture for talent and ideas,disciplined decision-making, and an ecosystem that allocates capital efficiently.

The Code aligns with this approach by encouraging measurable improvements in access to finance and by strengthening data-driven accountability across the investment landscape.

What founders can expect

We aim to make our engagement with founders consistent, professional and transparent. In practice, this includes:

·      Clear routes to initial evaluation and feedback where feasible

·      Disciplined processes designed to reduce avoidable friction for founders

·      A commitment to ongoing review of how our practices affect access to capital

Annual reporting and accountability

As part of the Code, signatory data is collated and published annually on an aggregated, anonymised basis, creating a consistent view of progress across the market.
The Department for Business and Trade publishes the annual report in partnership with Code Partners.

If you are a woman founder building in therapeutics, or you are interested in partnering with us to support women entrepreneurs across the UK life sciences ecosystem, please get in touch at enquiries@alsaventures.com or via our contact form.

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