Darktrace Co-Founder wins BVCA Inspirational Women Award recognising high growth leaders

Darktrace’s Co-Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer, Poppy Gustafsson, won the ‘Inspirational Women Award’ by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA), for successfully leading and twice-exiting high-growth private organisations.

Born out of the government’s ‘women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce’, the newly launched award aims to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs by celebrating the success of leaders from high growth businesses backed by private equity and venture capital.

The initiative will help to meet ‘opportunity six’ identified in the taskforce’s report published earlier this year – ‘Inspire girls and women to expand career choices and strive for female entrepreneurship’.

Poppy was announced the winner at the inaugural edition of the Awards, taking place at the BVCA’s flagship Summit Main Conference at Sancroft in London on 12 September 2024.

The independent judging panel included, Helen Steers, Partner at Pantheon, Kerry Baldwin, Managing Partner at IQ Capital, Anne Glover, Chief Executive of Amadeus Capital Partners and Cheryl Potter, Non-Executive Director of Level 20 and Marks & Spencer.

Commenting on her win, Poppy Gustafsson, Co-Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer at Darktrace said:

“I am thrilled to receive the Inspirational Women Award: this recognition is not just a personal achievement but a testament to the incredible potential and impact of women-led businesses. But there simply aren’t enough of us. Just 18% of high growth business include one or more women on the founding team, as we had at Darktrace.

“This award underscores the importance of visibility and support for female entrepreneurs, and I hope it inspires the next generation of women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams with confidence and determination.”

Michael Moore, BVCA Chief Executive said:

“Women-led high growth enterprises are changing the UK economy. The inauguration of this award showcases the talent, best practice, dynamism and innovation that is at the heart of these businesses, providing another crucial layer of visibility for these ventures.

“As the first winner of this prestigious award, Poppy Gustafsson is setting an exceptionally high standard for future leaders and award nominees to aspire to.”

Helen Steers, Partner at Pantheon Ventures and member of the Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce said:

“I am proud and humbled to have chaired the judging panel for this new BVCA award, which has shone a light on the inspiring examples of women making an outstanding contribution to the UK and global economy. Initiatives like this by the UK private equity industry, along with the wider recommendations of the UK Government Women-led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce, should act as a galvanizing force to encourage more women and girls to become entrepreneurs and investors, and in the process to ensure we continue to expand the pool of talent and diversity of perspective to drive British businesses into the future.”

Anne Glover, Chief Executive Officer at Amadeus Capital Partners said:

“Poppy is a well deserved winner.

“She was promoted internally to lead DarkTrace as CEO whose IPO has been recognised as one of twelve ‘Outstanding Equity Capital Markets Deals of 2021’, increasing its value from £1.7bn pre-IPO to almost £2.4bn post-IPO, before successfully leading its sale to Thoma Bravo in April for £4.3bn.

“Under her leadership, DarkTrace has seen significant growth and global expansion and is today one of the leading technology businesses in the UK. Darktrace now protects almost 10,000 customers in 110 countries from cyber disruption and employs over 2,400 employees across the world.

“Despite a demanding and complex role, she always found time to coach and mentor the other senior female executives in her own company and elsewhere.”

Media contacts

James Gribben, BVCA: [email protected]

Note to Editors

Read the Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce report here.

About the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association

The BVCA, as the representative body for private equity and venture capital, connects institutional investors, fund managers, companies, advisers and service providers together, with our membership currently comprising more than 600 businesses from across the private capital ecosystem. This includes more than 250 PE and VC firms, 100 institutional investors and 200 professional services firms.

Private capital drives growth – providing the funding, expertise and long-term view that enables companies to innovate and flourish. Our mission is to advocate the transformative nature of the private equity and venture capital community. 

About the Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce

The purpose of the taskforce is to increase the number of women-led high-growth businesses, with a particular focus on regions outside of London.

The taskforce will use its convening power to influence high-growth investors and the wider business community, and to raise the aspirations of the next generation of female entrepreneurs.

The taskforce will collaborate with the Rose Review, with which it shares common ambitions. It will also work with organisations across the UK to support the government’s overall target of increasing the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 (equivalent to nearly 600,000 more female entrepreneurs) with a particular focus on driving change in the area of growth capital.

The taskforce will raise the profile of high-growth entrepreneurship, identify the main barriers in accessing high-growth capital, and suggest areas to stimulate regional opportunities based on robust data and engagement.