Danish startup, Female Invest (www.femaleinvest.com), is an EdTech platform and community which, through approachable subscription-based e-learning, empowers millennial and Gen Z women by increasing their understanding of personal finance and investing.

At a time when 70% of stocks are owned by male investors (1 in 5 British women admitting to having never held stocks), and female workers retiring with around £70,000 less in their pensions than men (Nest survey - Oct 2020), Female Invest aims to close the gender investment gap by providing a space in which women can acquire the skills necessary to control their own capital and obtain financial independence. What’s more, according to analysis by Warwick Business School, women who do take the plunge outperform men when it comes to investment returns, making the need for a company run by women, for women, that approaches finance in a fun and authentic way, all the more pertinent.

Already Europe’s largest financial educator of its type for women, following financing from the Danish state investment fund in December 2020, Female Invest’s priority for 2021 is to further expand its presence within the UK. Its British membership has grown 1,000%+ during 2020 and now more than 10% of the platform’s users are from the UK.

Female Invest - How It Works

In June 2021, Female Invest relaunched its platform. More than 500 members have been involved in the making of the new platform, either through focus groups, testing or user feedback.

For a subscription of £9.50 per month (or £7  a month if you sign up for a year) members gain access to an online universe of content, courses, webinars, video tutorials, articles, and easy-explainers: all designed to empower women to take control of their finances and underpinned by Female Invest’s message of “Get your S.H.I.T. together - (salary, home, investments, taxes).” 

The main upgrades include all content being recreated and extended with 25+ animated videos. There are three new structured learning flows; 1) Personal Finance, 2) Investing, and 3) Career. 

Furthermore, there is a brand-new integrated community where members can interact with each other and with the Female Invest team. Feedback for this aspect has been overwhelmingly positive with users saying how the new community is a safe space they have always wished they had to ask questions and share their investment journeys with other like-minded women. 

There will be a premium plan launching in July 2021 which will include recorded video masterclasses from financial experts on topics such as sustainable investments, setting your children up for financial success and how to invest in alternative stocks. 

Approximately 50% of live events have external speakers, with guest contributors from the likes of Nasdaq, SaxoBank, and UBS providing additional content and industry-specific expertise.

Another example of a popular concept is the F*** U Fund, which is a savings account that Female Invest suggests its members set up. The F*** U Fund empowers women to be able to say F*** U to something that no longer serves them - such as a job they no longer want. It gives women the financial padding that they need when choosing to make a change. 

Female Invest has members across 60+ countries. To date, more than 60,000 women have attended live events staged by Female Invest (both in-person and online, in the wake of Covid-19) where women are taught how to invest with a starting fund of as little as £400.

#BeatTheGap

On 16th June 2021, Female Invest launched its global campaign #BeatTheGap (https://femaleinvest.com/beatthegap)  to raise awareness of the financial gender gap. More than 60 women from 6 different continents, acting as ambassadors for the campaign, joined forces in support of financial gender equality. The film cuts from one ambassador to the next pounding their fists against their chests, in a direct reference to the famous scene in the Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street and the landing page for the campaign provides an interactive graph to show how your money can grow through investing compared to saving. Female Invest believes that with every woman who invests, society can move one step closer to beating the financial gender gap. 

Female Invest - Developed By Women For Women

Female Invest was founded in 2017 by Emma Due Bitz (26), Camilla Falkenberg (28), and Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen (27), and inspired by their own experiences of attending personal finance educational events at which women were largely absent, and their subsequent discovery of the unaddressed gender disparity in investments and savings. 

All three co-founders were named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2020, and in the same year, the company was the recipient of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award and the prize of 100,000 USD. 

Female Invest co-founder, Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, explains the rationale underpinning the platform: “Internationally, women are falling further behind when it comes to finance. They are earning less, saving less and then - with what money they have - they are investing less. Our job at Female Invest is to close that gap as quickly and helpfully as possible.”

Co-founder, Camilla Falkenberg, outlines the need to reinvent the paradigm of how young women experience financial advice: “When it comes to money-saving insights, the internet is filled with sites which advise young women on how to save money on beauty, clothes, food and going out. Yet, when it comes to making money, there is almost nothing on helping women make substantial investments. Female Invest fills this gap.”

Yet Female Invest intends to achieve more than just financial education. Co-founder Emma Due Bitz, who worked as a certified stockbroker from the age of 20, explains that a byproduct of the platform should be to contribute to the demystification of the world of investments: “The financial industry has traditionally been dominated by men. This is reflected in every aspect of it: from communication style to the corporate culture and product offerings. While this is not done with the intention to exclude women, it effectively does just that.”