RGU alumna backed as one of UK’s leading women entrepreneurs

Coinciding with International Women’s Day, 50 of the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs have been backed by Innovate UK for their game-changing ideas to give more support to women innovators and business leaders.

Lucy graduated from RGU in 2019 with a degree in architecture before participating in the 2020 cohort of the Startup Accelerator programme with her Knit It business idea.

The now successfully launched enterprise aims to inspire the digital generation to start knitting through modern solutions which meets technology with original style knitting, making it faster, more creative, and more fun.

The funding awarded to Knit It will go towards an innovative new web-app which will launch later this year. She said: “Woman in Innovation is such a unique opportunity and to be selected is truly inspiring.

“This award has come at the perfect time, we are on the brink of launching and achieving Innovate UK support really cements our ambition to modernise knitting. Knitting as a craft has so many benefits and we can’t wait to introduce these to a new audience in a fun, accessible way!”

As well as running her own company, Lucy also now works at RGU as a Student Enterprise Co-ordinator in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group (EIG).

The flagship Women in Innovation Awards is a key part of Innovate UK’s commitment to boosting the number of women entrepreneurs. Innovate UK will give all 50 trailblazers £50,000 as well as bespoke mentoring and coaching to enable them to scale-up their businesses.

Now in its sixth year, the competition drew a record number of 920 applications from women business leaders, 10% up from last year, reflecting the growing number of women-led businesses in the UK (according to the Rose Review Progress Report 2023, 20% of all UK businesses are now led by all-women teams).

Emily Nott, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Programmes at Innovate UK said, “Each year I am blown away by the brilliant ideas and talent we uncover through our Women in Innovation programme. Despite these challenging economic times, this year’s winners have shown great leadership, passion and resilience in driving their innovations forward.

“Innovate UK will work alongside them now to ensure they have the resources and support required to grow and scale their businesses, while encouraging a new generation of women to get involved in innovation, pursue their ambitions and transform our economy and society.”