Inside UBS Female Founder Award 2025.

Turning Recognition Into Power.

Awards can be more than trophies — they can be catalysts. Recognition has always played a quiet but powerful role in funding: it builds credibility, attracts investors, and accelerates partnerships. The UBS Project Female Founder takes that truth global, spotlighting women entrepreneurs who are scaling businesses that combine financial strength with social impact.

For many founders, visibility is the missing ingredient. You can have a strong product, loyal customers, and proven traction, yet still be invisible to investors who default to familiar networks. UBS is using its global platform to change that equation — by recognising women whose ventures prove that profitability and purpose can thrive together.

What the Award Offers

Launched under the UBS Women and Wealth division, Project Female Founder identifies and elevates women-led companies building scalable solutions for the future of business, sustainability, and social progress.

The program offers:

• Visibility: Global media exposure through UBS’s networks and partners.

• Mentorship: Access to senior UBS wealth advisors, investors, and industry experts.

• Community: Entry into a global peer network of women founders.

• Capital Access: Tailored investment readiness support and introductions to potential funders.

The initiative recognises founders at different stages of growth — from early revenue to scale-ready. In previous cycles, honourees have gone on to secure investment rounds, board appointments, and partnerships with multinational firms.

Applications for the 2025 round open in November via UBS Project Female Founder. Nominees can be self-entered or referred by ecosystem partners. Winners will be announced in March 2026 at UBS’s Global Women in Business Forum in London.

Why Recognition Matters for Women Founders

Over two decades in the funding ecosystem, I’ve seen how public recognition often precedes capital. Funders may claim to be data-driven, but credibility — the human trust factor — still shapes decision-making. Awards like this compress that trust-building timeline.

UBS’s own research shows that women control more than $34 trillion in global wealth, yet receive less than 3% of venture capital funding. That’s not a gap — that’s an inefficiency. The market is catching up, and gender-lens investing is rapidly moving from “impact niche” to mainstream asset strategy.

Project Female Founder positions itself at that intersection: where financial institutions, investors, and policy influencers meet women founders ready to scale. It’s less about celebrating one story and more about shifting how leadership itself is valued.

Beyond the Stage: The Real ROI of Awards

Here’s the hidden advantage: awards become multipliers. They compound brand trust and open doors long after the ceremony ends.
For a founder pitching for capital, a credible award signals three things to an investor — traction, validation, and leadership. It’s an implicit endorsement that your business isn’t just viable; it’s investable.

I’ve worked with founders who turned recognition into runway. One client used a national innovation award to negotiate better terms on her seed round. Another leveraged a finalist mention into media coverage that doubled her customer base within a quarter. Visibility converts to capital when you treat it as part of your growth strategy, not an ego metric.

How to Leverage This Opportunity

1. Nominate Yourself Early. Too many women wait for validation. Don’t. Nominate yourself or peers — that act alone is a leadership move.

2. Build the Story, Not Just the Numbers. Combine commercial milestones with mission-driven outcomes. Investors respond to financial rigour backed by purpose.

3. Use the Platform. If selected, publish, post, and share your journey. Awards create permission to amplify.

4. Network Intentionally. Reach out to past winners and UBS mentors — this is where new partnerships often start.

5. Document Impact. Keep a simple dashboard of metrics (revenue growth, jobs created, social reach). It strengthens both applications and investor conversations.

Awards like this are not about competing with other women. They’re about expanding the narrative of what leadership looks like — collaborative, decisive, values-driven. When you show up for visibility, you’re not just representing your business; you’re modelling what equitable funding can look like in practice.

Changing the Optics of Success

I believe every founder who claims space publicly makes it easier for the next woman to be seen, funded, and heard. Recognition shifts market psychology — it teaches investors to look beyond stereotypes and into performance.

So if you’re leading a venture that’s ready for its next stage of growth, don’t shrink from visibility. Apply, nominate, and share. The world needs to see women founders not as exceptions, but as the standard for what resilient, intelligent leadership looks like.

Awards like Project Female Founder are more than spotlights — they’re signals to capital markets that the future of business is inclusive, profitable, and unstoppable.

Learn more or apply at UBS Project Female Founder.

Author Bio
As a mentor and funding strategist, Lisa Erhart uses Funding4Growth to equip founders with the tools and strategies to win funding. Explore our approach.