THENA Capital Closes £45M Fund as First All-Female Team to Win British Business Bank Backing

THENA Capital Closes £45 Million Fund, Becoming First All-Female GP Team Backed by British Business Bank

THENA Capital has closed its inaugural Fund I at £45 million, marking a structural milestone in UK venture capital. The fund is the first led by an all-female general partner team to receive backing through the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme, a government-backed scheme designed to increase the supply of equity finance to high-growth businesses.

The significance of this close extends well beyond the headline number. The ECF programme has been running since 2006 and has committed over £1 billion to venture funds across the UK. In all that time, no all-female GP team had received its backing. That THENA Capital has broken through is not simply a feel-good story about diversity; it reflects a shift in how institutional capital is beginning to recognise the returns potential of fund managers who have historically been overlooked.

A medtech focus with deep sector credibility

THENA Capital’s investment thesis is focused on UK medtech startups, a sector where the UK has genuine competitive strength but where gender diversity among investors remains notably thin. The fund has already backed five UK medtech companies, with one launching in the United States through a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s most respected medical institutions.

This is not a generalist fund making a diversity argument. The team brings deep healthcare and life sciences expertise, and the LP base reflects that. Senior executives from GSK, Novartis, and AstraZeneca have invested alongside Baroness Martha Lane Fox and the chair of BlackRock Switzerland. When pharmaceutical industry leaders put personal capital behind a fund, it signals confidence in the team’s ability to source and support companies in a complex, regulated sector.

The LP base tells its own story

Perhaps the most quietly remarkable detail is that over 50 per cent of THENA Capital’s limited partners are women. In an industry where female LPs remain a small minority, this is significant. It suggests the emergence of a reinforcing cycle: when women lead funds, other women invest in those funds, which in turn directs more capital toward the kinds of companies and founders that traditional venture capital has underserved.

This matters for women considering where to place their investment capital. The growth of female-led funds creates new options for investors who want exposure to venture returns while backing teams that reflect their values and perspective.

Why the ECF backing matters

The British Business Bank’s ECF programme is not a grant. It is a commercial investment programme where the Bank acts as a cornerstone investor, taking a stake in funds that meet rigorous criteria around team capability, investment strategy, and return potential. Receiving ECF backing is a signal to the wider market that a fund has passed serious institutional due diligence.

For years, the absence of all-female GP teams from the ECF portfolio was a conspicuous gap. The British Business Bank has made public commitments to improving diversity in its programmes, and THENA Capital’s inclusion suggests those commitments are beginning to translate into actual capital deployment. The question now is whether this represents the start of a pattern or remains an isolated achievement.

The structural picture for female fund managers

The UK venture capital industry has been slow to change. According to the British Business Bank’s own research, fewer than 10 per cent of senior people in UK venture capital are women, and all-female founding teams receive a fraction of total venture investment. These figures have shifted only marginally over the past decade, despite a growing body of evidence that diverse teams deliver competitive returns.

THENA Capital’s close is therefore best understood not as a single success story, but as a data point in a larger structural shift. The fund joins a small but growing cohort of female-led and female-focused investment vehicles in the UK, including the Women Backing Women Fund of Funds and Angel Academe’s Female Founders EIS Fund. Together, these initiatives are beginning to build an alternative pipeline for capital that does not depend on the networks, pattern-matching, and unconscious biases that have historically shaped venture allocation.

For women running or scaling businesses in the UK, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, science, and technology, the practical implication is that new sources of funding are opening up. But the gap between a handful of landmark fund closes and a genuinely level playing field remains wide. THENA Capital has demonstrated that all-female teams can raise institutional-scale capital. The challenge for the industry is to ensure this is the beginning, not the exception.

The fund’s medtech focus also carries a broader message for the women’s enterprise ecosystem. Healthcare innovation has long been an area where female founders bring distinctive insight, particularly in areas such as women’s health, diagnostics, and patient-centred care. Directing more capital toward these founders is not just an equity issue; it is a market opportunity that the venture industry has been slow to capture.

Prowess covers funding, investment, and the changing landscape for women in business across the UK. Read more about startup investment in women, explore advice for first-time female investors, or browse the Prowess directory for women-friendly business support.