Banker aims to close £550bn gender gap in investing with Propelle trading platform
New venture: Ayesha Ofori
A former City banker has launched the UK’s first trading platform specifically aimed at women, in a bid to close the £550bn investment gap between men and women.
Ayesha Ofori was a successful business executive at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs until she left to found Propelle. She became frustrated that women invest far less in stocks and other financial assets than men.
This puts them at a financial disadvantage, with lower savings and pensions.
According to figures from Boring Money, men in the UK have invested more than £1 trillion, compared to just £450 billion for women, with a lack of self-confidence cited as a major factor.
After raising £1.2m in pre-seed funding, Ofori founded Propelle, which launches today and combines education, events and access to investment funds.
“I got frustrated at some point. I was making incredibly wealthy men even richer and I lost my purpose in life,” Ofori said of her decision to leave her job at Goldman Sachs, where she managed £500 million of client money in the wealth management team.
‘The lack of female clients bothered me. I always thought, ‘where are the women?”
People often think you have to be rich to invest, Ofori said, but “the whole beauty of investing is the compounding that happens over time.” The effect of compounding is that when you reinvest interest or dividends, you make a return on top of your initial investment.
Propelle will offer funds from investment giants Vanguard, BlackRock and HSBC.
There are plans to move into other assets in the future, such as property. There is an annual fee of 0.48 per cent, meaning customers pay £48 for a £10,000 investment, and a premium membership option, where customers pay for access to financial education and other benefits.
There are several companies that offer financial education specifically aimed at women, including Female Invest and Your Juno.
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