The Pathways Pledge is about action.
It brings together organisations across Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to make practical, measurable commitments that improve outcomes for women in business. It is not prescriptive. Each organisation decides what action it can take, shares progress with other Pledgers and contributes to a wider movement focused on lasting change.
AccelerateHER joined the first Pathways Pledge cohort in February 2024.
For more than a decade, AccelerateHER has existed to accelerate the growth, visibility and backing of female founders. Our work already centred on increasing access to programmes, mentoring, investor insight and networks. But the Pledge challenged us to ask a better question: what more could we do?
Our 2026 Pathways Pledge Report is part of that answer.
The report shares the stories of 20 Scottish female founders who have been supported by AccelerateHER at different stages of their business journeys.
They represent sectors including AI, SaaS, LegalTech, CleanTech, HealthTech, MediaTech, RetailTech, climate innovation and digital health. Their businesses are solving real problems, building commercial traction and creating value in Scotland and beyond.
Collectively, the founders featured in the report have raised more than £24 Million in investment and created over 180 jobs.
These figures matter because they challenge outdated assumptions about female founders and high-growth businesses. Behind every number is a founder who has turned an idea into a company, built a team, attracted backing, won customers, created jobs, and contributed to the economy.
The AccelerateHER Pathways Pledge Report 2026 features:
Each story captures a different route to growth. Some founders have raised venture capital. Some have secured grant funding. Some are bootstrapped. Some are building global software companies. Others are changing healthcare, climate, retail, media, culture and community-led support.
There is no single path to building a successful business. That is exactly the point.
The Pathways Pledge recognises that no single organisation can close the gender gap in entrepreneurship or investment alone.
Progress depends on practical collaboration.
That might mean diversifying investment and selection panels, publishing and improving gender data, increasing female participation in programmes, creating more routes into investment, or making existing support visible in more places.
For AccelerateHER, it has meant continuing to strengthen partnerships, widen access to our programmes, create more investment-readiness support and increase founder visibility through storytelling, events and ecosystem collaboration.
It has also meant thinking about who gets to see entrepreneurship up close. At our most recent Female Founder Showcase, we welcomed school pupils into the room so they could meet founders, hear their stories and see what women-led innovation looks like in practice.
Visibility matters. Early exposure matters. You need to see it to be it.
As Elizabeth Pirrie, CEO and Owner of AccelerateHER, shares in the report:
This report is not a finish line. It is a snapshot of what becomes possible when female founders are seen, backed and connected to the right people at the right time.
