The Ivy Collection today announces the news that each month for the rest of 2025, it will be donating private dining space to a female-led business to use for growth and development. The move comes following a report from the government’s Invest In Women Taskforce[1] which found that in the first half of 2024, only 1.8 per cent of equity capital went to fully female-founded businesses. The private dining room donation initiative seeks to tangibly help support female-led businesses by providing space and resources which they can use how they see fit, whether that is hosting business meetings, team planning sessions or networking events, to name a few.

To celebrate the launch of the initiative, The Ivy Collection hosted an International Women’s Day brunch in partnership with Veuve Clicquot, to bring together and celebrate women in business at varying stages of their careers and toast to their success. Prominent female business leaders were in attendance, including June Angelides MBE, host of CEO MUM podcast, Jada Sezer and Sharmadean Reid, founder and CEO of The Stack World, among other female trailblazers.

Veuve Clicquot, a luxury Champagne brand known for being leaders in the industry, was grown to prominence by a woman named Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. Known as ‘la grande dame of Champagne’, Madame Clicquot was widowed at the age of only 27 and became one of the first female entrepreneurs of modern times. In an era when women were challenged within business, Madame Clicquot dared to assume the head of the company founded by her father-in-law in 1772, a role she undertook with passion and determination. Her creativity and lust for innovation revolutionised champagne-making and her techniques were widely adopted by producers, becoming the basis of modern champagne production evident today.

Laura Mills, Managing Director of The Ivy Collection said: “Whist we are aware that support for female-led businesses is behind where it needs to be, it was a surprise to learn that they accounted for only 1.8 per cent of equity capital in the first half of 2024; when support for female-led businesses has been a huge talking point for the past years, it’s disappointing to see that the real-world support is still lacking. As a national restaurant brand, our private dining spaces are a unique and versatile resource which we can use to help support female-led businesses, which is why we are launching our donation initiative, not only to celebrate International Women’s Day but provide the support beyond it too. We hope that the businesses who take us up on this find the space valuable and we’re excited to be part of their business growth journey.”

To apply for The Ivy Collection’s private dining room donation initiative, female-led business should apply via the online form [HERE] by 11:59PM on Friday 21st March 2025. All that is required is that they include details about them and their business along with a short statement on what they would use the space for to help with the growth and development of their business.