Former City banker Ayesha Ofori has introduced Propelle, the UK’s first trading platform tailored for women, aiming to close the £550 billion gender investment gap.
Launch of Propelle: Ayesha Ofori Unveils the UK’s First Female-Focused Trading Platform
London – Former City banker Ayesha Ofori has announced the launch of the UK’s first dedicated trading platform for women, Propelle, in an effort to address the significant £550 billion gender investment gap.
Ayesha Ofori, who previously held prominent positions at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, decided to create Propelle following her frustrations with the gender disparity in investment. Propelle aims to empower women to invest more confidently and effectively by providing them with comprehensive tools and support.
Ofori has secured £1.2 million in pre-seed funding to facilitate the development and launch of Propelle. The platform, which debuts today, is designed to merge education, events, and access to various investment funds to bolster financial assets controlled by women. Statistics from Boring Money reveal that men in the UK have invested more than £1 trillion, whereas women have invested significantly less, totalling only £450 billion. This profound gap poses a financial disadvantage with implications for savings and pension funds.
Recounting her experience, Ofori remarked, “I got to a point where I started to feel frustrated, I was making incredibly wealthy men even richer and I lost my sense of purpose.” During her tenure at Goldman Sachs, Ofori managed £500 million of clients’ investments and became increasingly disenchanted by the lack of female clientele. “The lack of female clients bothered me, I would say ‘where are the women’.”
Propelle’s mission is to dispel the myth that substantial wealth is a prerequisite for investing. “The whole beauty of investing is the compounding that happens over time,” Ofori explained. Compounding refers to the process where re-invested interest or dividends continuously generate returns, amplifying the initial investment over time.
The platform will facilitate access to investment funds from major financial firms such as Vanguard, BlackRock, and HSBC. Beyond traditional investments, there are plans to expand into other asset classes, including property, in the future. Propelle offers a fee structure consisting of a 0.48 per cent annual fee, translating to £48 for a £10,000 investment. Additionally, there is a premium membership option that grants customers access to advanced financial education and other exclusive benefits.
While Propelle enters a burgeoning market of financial education aimed specifically at women, with other players like Female Invest and Your Juno, its unique combination of investment access and educational resources aims to provide a comprehensive solution to curb the gender investment gap.
This new initiative launched by Ayesha Ofori represents a targeted effort to equip women with the necessary confidence and tools to participate actively in investment opportunities, ultimately striving to bridge the vast investment disparities between genders.
Source: Noah Wire Services