Nationwide has become the sole banking partner of Female Founders Rise ahead of the building society’s planned entry into business banking under its own brand next year.
The partnership will provide support to a community of more than 12,000 female and non-binary founders. Female Founders Rise works with entrepreneurs from the idea stage through to building businesses with £1m in revenue.
Its services include fundraising support, masterclasses, networking, commercial opportunities, an eight-week accelerator, and events across the UK.
Nationwide currently provides business banking services through Virgin Money, which it acquired in 2024. The forthcoming Nationwide proposition will extend the society’s own brand into a market in which established banks, specialist lenders, fintech companies, and accounting platforms are competing for small business relationships.
Through the partnership, Nationwide gains access to a large and engaged founder community before launching the new service. Female Founders Rise, meanwhile, gains a national financial services partner capable of supporting programmes, events, and practical business education.
Hannah Bernard, director of business banking at Nationwide, said: “Female-led businesses make a vital contribution to the UK economy, driving growth, innovation and creating jobs but too many still face barriers. We’re proud to be working with Female Founders Rise to help female business owners build successful, sustainable organisations, while also strengthening our support for UK SMEs more broadly.”
The Rise Report estimates that as much as £310bn of additional economic value could be created if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men. Its underlying research drew on responses from more than 2,200 female founders operating businesses with combined annual turnover of approximately £1bn.
Female entrepreneurs continue to report barriers involving funding, networks, confidence, caring responsibilities, and access to relevant advice. Those constraints affect founders differently, but capital remains one of the most persistent gaps.
Emmie Faust, founder of Female Founders Rise, said: “Our purpose is to help women build profitable, sustainable businesses and create financial freedom through entrepreneurship. Nationwide’s purpose-led approach and commitment to supporting long-term prosperity for its members and communities aligns closely to our values. That’s why this partnership is such a strong fit. We already support 12K women, and with Nationwide as our banking partner we can help so many more across the UK.”
The commercial context extends beyond sponsorship. Small business banking relationships can produce deposits, lending, payments, cards, foreign exchange activity, insurance referrals, and longer-term personal financial relationships with founders.
Winning those customers is difficult because many smaller companies regard switching accounts as disruptive and see relatively little differentiation between providers. A partnership with an established community can help a bank understand customer needs and build credibility before products reach the market.
That access also creates expectations. Founders will judge the relationship by the availability of finance, the quality of service, the suitability of products, and the practical support offered when their businesses encounter difficulties.
Events and programmes will not compensate for lending criteria or account processes that fail to reflect the way early-stage businesses operate. Community engagement will need to influence product design rather than remain separate from it.
The Maple Review’s call for wider access to enterprise identified structural obstacles that prevent more people from starting and growing companies. Financial providers influence that access through credit decisions, product design, information requirements, and the availability of human support.
Female founders can face a particular mismatch with conventional assessment models. Businesses may have limited trading histories, depend initially on personal capital, or grow through services and intellectual property rather than physical assets that can be used as security.
Data can improve lending decisions, although it can also reproduce existing patterns where historical outcomes reflect unequal access. Nationwide will need to combine risk discipline with a detailed understanding of how emerging businesses generate revenue and manage cash.
The integration of Virgin Money adds another operational dimension. Nationwide is entering the market with an existing business banking platform and customer base rather than building entirely from the beginning.
Its challenge will be to translate that capability into a proposition consistent with the Nationwide brand and its mutual structure. Account opening, credit assessment, digital service, and access to human support will all influence whether the new proposition is seen as meaningfully different.
Community partnerships can support product development by creating a route for research, testing, and feedback. They become less effective when treated primarily as marketing channels.
Maintaining the independence and trust of Female Founders Rise will require clarity about how member information, referrals, and commercial opportunities are handled. Founders will also expect the partnership to recognise the diversity of their businesses rather than treating female entrepreneurship as a single category.
Banks, software providers, professional services companies, and investors are increasingly supporting accelerators and networks because early relationships can influence which products a founder adopts as the company grows.
Nationwide’s entry could increase competition in a market where many smaller companies remain dissatisfied with access to finance and service. Its partnership with Female Founders Rise provides an early indication of the customers and values it wants associated with the new proposition.
The strength of that positioning will ultimately be tested through product terms, lending decisions, service quality, and the ability to support founders beyond the launch period. The partnership creates access to a substantial community, while the banking offer must still address the barriers that led the community to form.
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