Female founder states women still have to work harder…
The national loyalty scheme, My VIP Card, crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube has reached 114% of target with only days left to invest. The scheme fronted by female founder, Maddy Alexander-Grout will use the funding to expand its services and offer support to even more local communities across the UK. The national scheme has over 4,500 discounts, vouchers and offers and helps local shoppers save on average £500 a year while supporting their local high street and community.
Maddy Alexander-Grout, founder of My VIP Card, commented, “Staggeringly only 1%* of all funding available for businesses goes to female founders which is massively disappointing to hear in 2021. I have certainly felt dismissed or not taken seriously due to being a female founder and although our campaign was successful, I certainly had to work harder to achieve the target than some male counterparts.
Unfortunately, many women in business are overlooked and the investor community needs to work hard to ensure ‘unconscious’ bias is removed from the decision-making process. The fact is that 50% of the population are not being fully utilised or even worse are being ignored”
The funding has come from over 270 investors who were quick to capitalise on an opportunity to gains shares in the largest loyalty and discount scheme in the UK in a sector that is extremely buoyant having shown huge growth in the last few years. The national scheme has over 4,500 discounts, vouchers and offers and helps local shoppers save on average £500 a year while supporting their local high street and community. Even though the campaign has hit target there is still time to invest by visiting My VIP Card’s Crowdcube page.
In the last 4 years, My VIP Card has won multiple awards including Entrepreneurial Spirit for the South East at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, High Business Growth at the Successful Women Awards, Theo Paphitis SBS and Small Business Saturdays #smallbiz100. The loyalty scheme’s mission is to get people to shop local wherever they are in the UK using the My VIP Card App.
Maddy Alexander-Grout, founder of My VIP Card, added, “We are delighted our Crowdfunding campaign has hit target and I would personally like to thank all our investors for backing us.
With the new investment we can support even more small businesses across the UK and offer our members further discounts and rewards. Please check out our campaign on the Crowdcube page and help us help your local community.”
* UK Venture Capital and Female Founders report (british-business-bank.co.uk)