Hundreds of female entrepreneurs and leaders gather for Edinburgh growth summit

Hundreds of female founders, investors and business leaders have gathered in Edinburgh for an international growth and scale-up event.

The Female Founders Growth Summit, now in its third year, was held at Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn base, bringing together women actively scaling businesses beyond £1 million turnover, with founders, investors and operators attending from across the UK and internationally.

Sessions covered international growth, leadership, investment, marketing and building impact at scale, alongside dedicated “growth clinics” focused on international growth strategy, culture and leadership, and funding routes.

Broadcaster and founder of SAIRA Saira Khan, co-founder and CEO of SuperScalers Sam Smith, founder and chair of Pathways Forward Ana Stewart, entrepreneur and author Sahar Hashemi OBE, founder of Ooni Darina Garland, CEO of ScaleUp Institute Irene Graham OBE. Picture by Anna Moffat

The summit was hosted by Pathways Forward, the initiative founded by Scotland’s chief entrepreneur Ana Stewart, following her Pathways report, and delivered in partnership with SuperScalers, Buy Women Built and The ScaleUp Institute.

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Stewart said: “Scotland has never been short of ambitious women starting businesses. Where we lose ground is at the point of scale, and that gap costs the economy far more than most people realise.

“While one in five companies in the UK is female-led, less than one in 50 is scaling beyond £10m. This summit brings UK and global female entrepreneurs to Scotland to share their lived experiences and inspire others to continue on their growth journeys.”

Sam Smith, co-founder and chief executive of SuperScalers, added: “Scaling is a very different job from founding, and we’re building a network to help more women to grow. We’re on a mission to increase the number of female SuperScalers, which we define as a founder or co-founder who has scaled a business to £50m+ revenue. To do this, community and inspiration matter and I’m excited to present our latest research and some scaling techniques in Edinburgh.”