Ayesha Ofori, a former wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs, left her prestigious role to address the gender wealth gap in the United Kingdom, having realized her career predominantly enriched already affluent men. Ofori, 40, is now the founder and CEO of Propelle, a female-focused financial investment platform that launched on Wednesday. This app-based platform provides various investment options, including funds from Vanguard, BlackRock, and HSBC.
Propelle has successfully secured over £1.2 million (approximately $1.6 million) in pre-seed funding, with $100,000 invested by Google, according to an interview Ofori gave to CNBC Make It. Other investors include Stefan Bollinger, CEO of Julius Baer and a former Goldman executive, and Lucy Demery, managing director of fintech investments at Barclays.
Ofori, who managed over £500 million in client funds during her six-year tenure at Goldman Sachs, often worked with entrepreneurs and first-time founders who had created highly profitable businesses. Despite her success and promotion to executive director, Ofori found herself unfulfilled. She realized that her work had become monotonous and questioned its long-term impact, as she primarily enriched wealthy men.
Her growing awareness of the lack of female representation in investing led her to investigate further. Notably, she observed that although women generally live longer than men, they invest significantly less. According to data from British financial research company Boring Money, the gender investment gap in Britain stands at £567 billion, with men holding £1.01 trillion in investments compared to £450 billion for women. Additionally, a report from Prospect, a British union, highlighted a 37.9% gender pensions gap between 2021 and 2022, more than double the gender pay gap of 14.9% in 2022.
Stunned by these statistics, Ofori decided to transition from her lucrative role at Goldman Sachs in 2018 and focus on empowering women financially. She noted that many women she encountered were more inclined to save rather than invest, often mistaking high-interest, tax-free cash Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) for investment vehicles. Saving, she emphasized, is different from investing, and women often default to saving, which doesn’t yield the same financial growth as investing.
Further research indicated that nearly half of women worldwide consider investing in the stock market too risky, and only 28% feel confident about investing their money. Ofori found that women are generally deterred from investing due to a lack of time and confidence, with many feeling overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available.
Ofori’s journey to address these issues began with hosting events for women in London to share her wealth-building knowledge, quickly attracting significant interest. Realizing the demand among women for investment knowledge, she focused on creating Propelle, an FCA-regulated multi-asset class investment platform tailored for women.
Propelle differentiates itself from traditional, male-centric investment platforms by designing features with women’s needs in mind. It offers a risk assessment tool that explains different investment risks and measures users’ personal risk tolerances. Additionally, a smart goal-setting feature allows users to invest according to their goals’ time frames and risk levels. Propelle also provides investment options that align with users’ personal values, such as sustainability and Shariah-compliant funds, and plans to include alternative investments like fractionalized real estate, startup investing, and wine and art investing.
Ofori’s aim with Propelle is to ensure that women, regardless of their financial background, have access to diverse investment opportunities previously limited to the wealthy, thereby addressing the systemic issue of wealth inequality.
