What a 48-Economy GEM Survey Found: Women Lead About 40% of High-Potential Businesses

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has published its 2025/2026 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, based on 150,799 adults in 48 economies from its 2025 Adult Population Survey. The report was uploaded to GEM’s website on 8 October 2026, and Forbes reported on its findings on 12 October.

The report finds activity falls sharply at the established business stage. Forbes reports that globally 12% of women run new businesses, compared with 14% of men, while women are active in high-potential ventures. GEM has run the study since 1999 and publishes global and women’s reports.

Women Are Active in High-Potential Startups but Trail in Established Firms

Forbes reports that women lead about 40% of high-potential businesses. They outpaced men in leading those businesses in five countries: Chile, El Salvador, India, Israel and Oman. For established businesses, Forbes puts the average woman-to-man ratio at 0.69 in 2025.

The report also tracks exits. Forbes reports that women’s exit-to-entry ratio was 7.6% higher than men’s. It also reports that women were 55% more likely than men to cite family or personal circumstances as a reason for leaving, while a GEM headline puts the figure at 47% for women closing a business due to family or personal reasons.

The GEM abstract argues that international development programmes track women’s business activity through the lens of poverty reduction. It describes the resulting invisibility of high-potential women as a consequence of how measurement is designed, rather than simple neglect. The abstract also introduces a composite high-potential index that combines product and process innovation, export intensity and job creation expectations.

Pipeline Gap
Forbes reports that 12% of women run new businesses globally, compared with 14% of men. Forbes also reports women lead about 40% of high-potential businesses.

Funding Gaps Persist in Informal and Formal Markets

Forbes reports that 70% of informal investment globally went to male entrepreneurs. Amanda Elam is the report’s lead author. Forbes quotes her saying that investors avoid certain areas because the return is not very high. Forbes also reports that women are concentrated in sectors such as social and government services and retail, which investors often avoid because returns are lower.

Burges Salmon’s key takeaways from the Investing in Women Code Annual Report 2026, posted 6 October 2026. They report that 37% of women-led businesses applied for debt finance, against 49% of male-led businesses. Women-led businesses are just as likely to have loan and overdraft applications approved, but they typically request smaller amounts.

Its signatories are organisations that are actively focusing on improving outcomes for female entrepreneurs. It launched in 2019 with 12 founding signatories and now has more than 330, including lenders, venture capital firms and angel groups. These figures come from Code signatories, not GEM data.

In venture capital, Code signatories directed 32% of their investment value to teams with at least one female founder, more than double the wider market’s share. All-female founding teams received 6% of signatories’ total investment value, compared with 2% in the wider market.

Caregiving, Digital Tools and the Programs Built to Help

Forbes reports that 44% of women entrepreneurs in the study use digital tools, 43% use AI to develop products or services, and 42% report product or process innovation. Forbes reports that tech adoption varies by sector, which may slow growth in some women-led businesses.

Forbes lists the report’s recommendations as measuring high-potential startup activity directly, providing growth-stage support for women, widening access to digital and innovation ecosystems, broadening the definition of industries where high-potential activity happens, addressing caregiving directly and investing in women’s investment networks.

Forbes profiles Susan Namirimu, founder of Mtindo in northern Uganda. Forbes reports Mtindo’s figures: it has trained 227 women and created about 50 jobs a year since 2020.

Cristina Campero Peredo is CEO of PROSPERiA. Angela Ursem is co-founder of Food for Skin.

Forbes reports that the report was sponsored by the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the School of Management Fribourg and the Frank & Eileen Institute for Women and Allies. Forbes said a free webinar on the report was scheduled for 15 October, and GEM’s homepage lists a recording of the report’s launch webinar.

Photo: Aziz bm · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons