Female-founded AI startups win just 2% of funding deals in UK

An "urgent issue" of gender imbalance in artificial intelligence investment must be addressed according to a government-backed body which has found that female-founded companies accounted for just 2% of AI startup deals over the past decade. The report by the Alan Turing Institute found that when female-founded companies have secured funding, they raise on average £1.3m a deal compared with £8.6m raised by all-male founder teams. In the last year, investment in AI software has grown considerably. A report by Goldman Sachs predicts that AI investment will approach $200bn (£166bn) globally by 2025, while a recent report from Bloomberg found that generative AI could become a $1.3tn market by 2032. "The recent explosion in interest and investment in AI, especially generative AI, means that there is an urgent need for women and minorities to have equal access in the tech and venture space," said Dr Erin Young, a research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute.