Fishburners is addressing the ladies founder funding hole with a free program to assist them succeed.
The pioneering startup coworking area has collaborated with greater than 30 organisations, from enterprise funds to corporates, to launch The Ascent Undertaking, a free, on-demand program to assist, encourage and inform girls, and sort out structural gaps in readability and entry to lift capital.
Fishburners CEO Majella Campbell mentioned that not like accelerators or short-term packages, Ascent is a year-round funding infrastructure mannequin constructed on two pillars:
1. Funding schooling program
It is a free, on-demand schooling program that offers founders a transparent understanding of the complete funding system — enterprise capital, angel funding, grants, company partnerships, revenue-based finance and various pathways.
“It doesn’t simply inform founders what to do. It exhibits them the best way to execute every a part of a increase efficiently,” Campbell mentioned.
“Every module is written by specialists from the companion community, offering founders with the sensible steps required to run a increase end-to-end, in addition to the insights to navigate the funding surroundings — the expectations, patterns, alerts, and choice factors that form outcomes.”
This system delivers step-by-step steering, instruments and context designed to assist founders truly succeed of their increase, not simply perceive the idea behind it.
2. Connection & entry
This a coordinated nationwide stream of occasions, heat introductions and professional initiatives that join girls founders with the individuals who materially affect funding outcomes — traders, attorneys, operators, advisors, corporates and ecosystem leaders.
It expands entry by creating new rooms, pathways, and alternatives for women-led corporations to be seen, supported, resourced, and backed by the precise individuals round them to execute their increase properly.
Campbell mentioned the initiative is designed to shut gaps in entry, readability, visibility, and investor alignment — areas persistently recognized as obstacles for ladies looking for capital.
“The funding hole isn’t about functionality. Girls are constructing robust, investible corporations. The problem is that the funding surroundings hasn’t been constructed to recognise most of the alerts these corporations produce,” she mentioned.
“When founders don’t get readability or entry, it turns into extremely troublesome to drive the precise conversations, leaving far too many good companies to be ignored. The Ascent Undertaking offers girls a transparent view of the entire funding panorama and the instruments to maneuver by it on their phrases.”
“The hole gained’t shut with out structural alignment. Our companions know this, they usually know the chance that exists when girls are backed correctly. Ascent unites that shared understanding and directs it towards actual motion, not rhetoric.”
Nationwide alignment
Companion organisations, together with Airtree, Tractor Ventures, OneVentures, Tidal, Contact Ventures, Aspect Stage, Techstars, and Birchal, say the mannequin brings long-needed construction to a traditionally fragmented panorama.
“Reporting and transparency are important if we wish actual progress,” mentioned Fairness Clear’s Noga Edelstein, from Ascent’s nationwide reporting companion.
“For the primary time, we’ll have the ability to measure the place capital is flowing, who’s being funded, and the place gaps stay. Knowledge drives accountability and optimistic change.”
What founders get
From early 2026, girls founders could have entry to:
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- Free, on-demand schooling modules constructed by traders, advisors and operators
- Curated introductions to funders and companions
- Nationwide visibility alternatives throughout the 30-partner community
- Sensible, stage-specific instruments for valuations, capital technique, and investor engagement
- A continually evolving set of assets formed by funders themselves
Fishburners head of ecosystem Imogen Jones mentioned the initiative is intentionally open-access, eradicating value, geography, and cohort timing obstacles that usually prohibit entry into the funding ecosystem.
“The Ascent Undertaking and the ecosystem will stroll alongside founders as they run the increase and transfer into post-raise development,” she mentioned.
Why now issues
With capital markets tightening and women-led startups going through ongoing obstacles to accessing funding, Jones mentioned that is the second for coordinated intervention.
“Ascent exists so girls founders can perceive the completely different dynamics of the surroundings they’re working in, navigate it successfully, and construct corporations with out pointless friction,” she mentioned.
“It’s properly overdue, and we’re extremely proud to be main this initiative alongside so many unbelievable companions”
Diving in
The Ascent Undertaking is offered in early 2026 at no value to girls founders nationwide.
Founders, companions, and ecosystem organisations can entry the platform and preliminary modules early 2026, with further partner-led assets and reporting milestones set to roll out by 2026.
Extra on The Ascent Undertaking right here.
- Disclosure: Fishburners CEO Majella Campbell cohosts the Startup 360 podcast with Startup Each day editor Simon Thomsen.
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