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Methodology

Data Comparison

The data used within the dashboard is the same dataset that was used to:

  • support the 2022 Rose Review
  • support the 2022 Gender Index review
  • provide on-going data to The Gender Index website (www.thegenderindex.co.uk)
  • support the 2022 Stewart Review
Company Analysis

The analysis is based on companies recorded within Companies House and utilises a combination of information made freely available under the Open Government Licence 3.0 and mnAI’s proprietary technology that autonomously extracts, processes and cleanses unstructured data. Machine learning algorithms are used to derive directors’ gender and, for smaller companies, business size.

The results have been compiled from an analysis of 8,953,331 UK companies held within the mnAI database. Of these 3,933,500 were dissolved leaving 5,019,831 companies which were active effective of 6th September 2022. Of the active UK companies, 635,344 belonged to the following classifications and were removed:

  • dormant and non-trading companies
  • insolvent companies and companies in administration
  • companies with no officers
  • companies with no SIC codes
  • overseas companies

This leaves an active population of 4,389,631 companies that were active in the last 12 months (7th September 2021 to 6th September 2022) which provide the basis for the current analysis.

Director Analysis

The total number of directors analysed within the 4,389,631 active companies was 7,082,797 with the following breakdown:

  • Male: 4,699,607
  • Female: 1,934,020
  • Uncertain gender: 448,820
  • Corporate: 28,350

For the purposes of the report, corporate directors were removed from the calculations leaving 7,054,447 individuals. ‘Uncertain’ labels are assigned where there is no additional data to support the male or female identification of a director: i.e., Alex Sam Thompson, Harley Smith etc.

When assigning a gender of ownership to a company, the following rules were applied:

  • Where male or female directors are more than 50.1% of the total the corresponding gender is identified and applied as either “female-led” or “male-led”.
  • Where male and female directors are in equal number, a “mixed-led” label is applied
  • Where unisex directors are identified and there are no other values to indicate a gender preference, an “uncertain-led” label is applied.
Company Size

Companies were categorised by size using government standard taxonomies:

  • Micro: with 1-9 employees
  • Small: with 10 - 49 employee
  • Medium: 50 – 249 employees
  • Large: 250 or more employees.

In addition, two new categories were created:

  • New: Newly incorporated companies with no filings
  • Pending: When there are no identifying markers in a company that is active (i.e., No employees + no turnover + no total assets less liabilities)

Categorisation was undertaken using a combination of data sources including a variety of statutory filings which, when combined with mnAI’s proprietary data, provided the basis of the research

Investment Analysis

mnAI tracks 1,246 Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) firms across the UK, broken down as:

  • Venture Capital: 587
  • Private Equity: 659

In the investment analysis we show four types of investor:

  • Angel Investors: defined as per EIS rules as an investor who is unconnected to the company and is undertaking the investment knowing that capital is at risk. NB. This is different to a “Family Investor” (i.e., an investor connected to the founders by direct familial connections) which have been excluded on the advice of the UKBAA.
  • Venture Capital: defined as a venture capital firm
  • Private Equity: defined as a private equity firm
  • Corporate Venture Capital: defined as a limited company which owns shares in another company

For clarity, mnAI also tracks:

  • Founding director/ officer: defined as a founding director or officer who retains their shareholding
  • Family investor: defined as someone connected to the founders by direct familial connection

Contained within the mnAI database is the following breakdown of all investment types:

  • Founding director/ officer: 7,994,574
  • Angel: 2,882,918
  • Family: 1,364,860
  • Corporate: 957,159
  • VC: 18,524
  • PE: 17,682
Regional Analysis

ITL1 regions are as per Eurostat definitions

High Growth Analysis

“High growth” is calculated as per the OECD definition of 72.8% growth over a three-year period and excludes any company that has less than 10 employees. We also removed any company that had a turnover of less than £1,000.00 in year one to reduce large % variations in growth.

Sector Analysis

With agreement from a cross-industry group including colleagues from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the British Business Bank (BBB) and the UK Business Angel Association (UKBAA), mnAI created a parent/ child sector taxonomy that is based on Standard Industry Classification 08/09/22 Document classification: Confidential 3/4 codes as defined by the Office for National Statistics 2007, to help modernise and refresh historical sector groupings.