According to a 2016 Future of Wealth Management report by Accenture , 40 percent of the global workforce is female, but that group controls only one percent of global wealth.

Despite this disparity there is $11.2 trillion in assets at stake, so women are stepping in to cater to this market. They’re doing this by hiring more female employees , taking care of the investment needs of this demographic and investing in female-owned companies.

Read on, to see how far women have come in ensuring they control and manage their own finances.

Vestpod

Vestpod is an online finance and investment literacy platform. It’s founded by Emilie Bellet and Melissa Katsoulis who together have vast experience in private equity and journalism. Vestpod aims to empower women through workshops that focus on money management and investment, bi-monthly book clubs and weekly newsletters covering personal finance. The founders created the platform to give women advice about money. Other online platforms created with the same objective, are Daily Worth in the US and Savvywoman in the UK.

Ellevest

Ellevest is an online wealth management and investment platform that was set up to look after the unique financial needs of women. It is more than an online finance education platform, offering unique investment opportunities through the Ellevest app. This makes use of an algorithm specially created to factor in the gender pay gap, potential career breaks in a woman’s life and the average life expectancy of its clients. The founder and CEO of Ellevest, Sallie Krawcheck, has used her many years of experience in the wealth management divisions of Citigroup and the Bank of America to enable women to unleash their financial power. Another company is Arya, Turkey’s only female-focused investment platform, aims to connect female entrepreneurs to female investors so that women can invest in women.

Above: Ellevest’s “Invest Like a Women” Campaign

Penda

The Penda app aims to empower women to achieve financial freedom. It was set up so that women trapped in a cycle of domestic and family violence, could find a way out. It combines financial advice with personal safety and legal information to assist women in Australia find nationwide referrals that could help them escape the situation they find themselves in. The app was developed by the Women’s Legal Service Queensland, headed by a female CEO, in collaboration with the Financial Rights Legal Centre, Financial Literacy Australia and Credit Union Australia. The app has some built-in safety features and can be used by people who want to help others get out of an abusive relationship.

Above: More about the Penda app

It’s clear that women and organisations have taken great strides to ensure they close the investment gap and achieve financial freedom.

By: Tumelo Mojapelo

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About Tumelo
Tumelo Mojapelo is a silent force behind the scenes at Flux Trends, and steers the direction of the content created by the Flux Trends Team. Her interest in trends analysis emanates from her desire to want to give people opportunities to do, think and act better – to make better decisions because they understand the connections between seemingly unrelated factors and phenomena.

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Image credit: Raw Pixel AND Vestpod AND Angel List AND Australian Women Online
Video credit: Ellevest AND Penda App