Open Business Creators Fund for Women in Business

Welcome to the Open Business Creators Fund for Women in Business sponsored by NatWest

Have you got a great business idea but need a little support? Perhaps you have recently started a business and could benefit from creating a portfolio and receiving some funding to grow? The Open University is reopening its Open Business Creators Fund in October 2025 with £50k sponsorship from NatWest to support ideas and early-stage businesses founded by women.

This opportunity is open to women in the UK at the idea or early stage of starting a business. It is designed to build your confidence, capabilities, and connections, to help you need succeed. We will award individual grants of up to £2,500. These funds form part of a support and workshop package for new business creators as they start their entrepreneurial journey. 

To find the most promising ideas and businesses, we are asking you to use the Validate platform – a tool that helps you clearly explain your business idea, whilst learning some of the fundamentals of business, and create a portfolio submission to apply for funding. 

How to enter 

The deadline to enter is Friday 21 November 2025. By this date you need to create your portfolio in Validate and upload it to this site after completing the entry form. Validate (a tool paid for by The Open University) will walk you through business ideas (identifying problems and opportunities), business modelling (scoping out key partners, activities and propositions) and generating your polished business portfolio – so every entrant will benefit from the use of the Validate software.

A panel of judges will review the portfolios and provide feedback to each entrant, giving advice on considerations to make to create a more sustainable business or idea. Successful grant recipients will be announced by 19 December 2025.

The Open Business Creators Fund is open to both commercial and social enterprise ideas. The fund aims to help nurture your ideas and support entrepreneurs who are committed to taking the next steps with their business.

What to do next

1. You must log-in and enrol on this site via the link below so that you receive a link to Validate and are able to access the entry form. 

2. You will need to work on your business idea in the Validate platform and complete your portfolio for review by our judges panel.  When you are ready, you will export the link to your portfolio for submission.

3. To apply for funding, you will need to complete the Open Business Creators entry form and submit the link to your Validate portfolio. The deadline for entries will be midnight on Friday 21 November 2025. 

Where to find help

Open Business Creators are also hosting a 3-part webinar series across October and November, where we will be engaging a group of inspirational women who are changing the world around them. To get the webinar links, please sign up using the links below. 

Webinar 1: Confidence - Tuesday, 21 October (12:00 - 13:00)

Webinar 2: Capabilities - Wednesday, 5 November (12:00 - 13:00)

Webinar 3: Connections - Tuesday 18 November (19:00 - 20:00)

You can find more supporting resources, our terms and conditions and the entry form by visiting the "Competition content" tab at the top of this page.

This funding opportunity is open to women and those that present as women or whose gender identity aligns with being a woman (trans woman). Participants are eligible to apply for funding if they reside in the UK and are over 16 on 21/11/2025. Existing businesses must have been registered for less than one year on 21/11/2025. Employees of The Open University and NatWest Group employees and their families are not eligible to enter. If you have questions or need materials in other formats, please reach out to us at Open-Business-Creators@open.ac.uk. 

You're also welcome to share feedback via our form