In celebration of International Women’s Day, FinTech Global is shining a spotlight on seven FinTech companies with woman founders.
Despite initiatives focused on greater gender equality in all walks of life, there is still a major gap. FinTech might be at the forefront of innovation and change, but it is still lacking behind in terms of gender equality. A study from Findexable in 2021 found that just 30% of the total FinTech workforce were women. Even more shocking is the fact that just 19% of executives in FinTech companies are executives, 11% are board members and only 1.5% of FinTech founders are women.
The lack of representation does not depict an accurate picture of the use of FinTech, with women typically more eager to utilise their services. A recent report from Marqeta revealed that British women have higher usage rates for digital financial tools, such as mobile wallets and buy now, pay later solutions. The study found that 44% of female respondents in the UK used a mobile wallet in the past week, compared to 29% of males. Similarly, 18% of women had used BNPL in the past month, compared to just 9% of men.
Not only are women more likely to use a FinTech, but they might also be more financially savvy. A report from Warwick Business School found that women investors in the UK outperformed men by 1.8% over a three-year study period.
Change is happening within the FinTech sector. More FinTech companies are sprouting up to encourage more women to support the needs of women. For example, Denmark-headquartered Female Invest recently launched an educational app that aims to improve women’s financial literacy through comprehensive courses on areas including, budgeting, investing and retirement.
Elsewhere, Hamsa recently launched its subscription-based investment tool that aims to tackle the gender investment gap. The app helps empower users to build investing habits over time via regular payments and a supportive community. Another FinTech aimed at boosting women is Alinea Invest, which recently raised $3.4m in its seed funding round. The company offered AI-powered WealthTech solutions aimed at supporting younger generations and women. A distinct feature is its ‘playlists’ which allow users to create ETFs based on themes, such as female leadership. One final FinTech to note is Mamamoni, which was recently awarded a €250,000 grant. The Nigerian FinTech is on a mission to empower low-income women.
Progress is being made, but much more work is still needed. In celebration of International Women’s Day, here are seven FinTech companies with women founders.
Velexa
Velexa is a fully customisable API-based investing platform that offers global market access across all major asset classes and currencies. It was founded by Tamara Kostova to help foster the democratisation of wealth management and investing.
In an interview with FinTech Global Kostova told FinTech Global that when she was building the company, many people told her there were already solutions in the market that was already doing what she set out to do. This was not the case. She said, “This is still not happening at scale. The global reality is that a majority of the population is still excluded from the wealth management and investing market.”
The company is headquartered in the UK, but also has offices in Bulgaria and Latvia. Velexa also has regional presence in Spain, the UAE, Chile, Mexico, Indonesia and Singapore. Velexa offers a fully customisable API-based investing platform that offers global market access across all major asset classes and currencies. This means they can easily add asset classes and instruments to meet customer demand. On top of this, Velexa offers customised interfaces that can be tailored for each targeted segment.
Velexa is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Last month, it released a brand-new feature – Fractional Bonds. This new tool enables institutions to offer retail investors the chance to explore a diverse portfolio of more than 300 high-quality corporate government bonds. Some other recent developments include a partnership with Mirae Asset to transform Brazil’s investment space and a partnership with TradingView for enhanced web trading capabilities.
Kostova recently spoke to FinTech Global about the wealth gap and why it is important a solution is found.
Muinmos
Muinmos was founded in 2012 by Remonda Z. Kirketerp-Møller after she predicted the need to modernise client onboarding through new technologies. The aim was to create a new onboarding process that was quick but didn’t forgo compliance.
Over the years, the company has attracted investment and established a team of experts to offer an innovative client onboarding platform. Muinmos claims its platform is the only solution capable of fully automating the whole onboarding chain, from AI powered client categorisation to fully automated risk assessments and KYC/AML checks.
It has three core product lines. The first of these is mPASS, which provides instant regulatory clearances and keeps up to date with changing regulation. Its second tool is mCHECK, a KYC/AML tool that produces instant and comprehensive KYC and AML reports. The final flagship solution is mRX, which is a risk assessment tool that provides instant client risk assessments.
One of Muinmos’ recent developments saw it receive the ISO 27001 certification, an accolade that underscores the firm’s steadfast dedication to information security. The company also named a new chief product officer and a new customer success director.
Taina Technology
Taina Technology was founded by Maria Scott in 2016 and its mission is to revolutionise client lifecycle management, step by step, by building the best-in-class regulatory technology. Taina is an award winning FATCA and CRS validation platform that boasts a team that help lead the way forward for regulatory technology.
The platform was designed to read all types of tax forms, regardless of its format, and digitise the information so it can be cross checked and validated against golden sources of information, including books and records, tax authorities and stock exchanges. Its automated, flexible and lightweight platform helps businesses cut costs, reduce risk and improve the customer experience.
Some impressive stats from Taina include an 85% reduction in rejection rates, 84% cost saving per form, 75% faster validation, 40% operational team free up and 63% faster form completion.
The company recently took an internal look to see how it is helping to foster diversity and inclusion in the workplace and why this is so important for business success. The company also recently offered a guide to the new guide for The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s third edition of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) e-Tax.
Red Oak Compliance
Red Oak Compliance is an intelligent compliance software developer that serves over 1,800 firms around the world. Its clients include more than half of the top 20 global asset managers. The company was founded in 2010 by Cathy Vasilev, Stephen Pope and Rick Grashel.
Vasilev and Pope had experience building an internal advertising review solution whilst working together at a large hybrid BD/RIA/Insurance Distributor. During their work, they noted a rising need for intelligent software solutions that could help compliance teams streamline their efforts and mitigate risk. They teamed up with Grashel and started work on building Red Oak.
Today, Red Oak has a number of tools, but its flagship solution is the advertising review tool. This is a comprehensive suite of SEC 17(a)-4/WORM compliant features that are 100% books and records compliant. It is powered by AI and builds an efficient review process, increasing accuracy of reviews and helping deliver compliant content to market faster. Its other main products are the Smart Review, which solves the management and intelligent application of disclosures, Registration Management, which automates licensing and registration management, and Complaints Manager, which provides the ability to effectively track, maintain, resolve, and report critical complaint information.
Earlier this month, Red Oak Compliance acquired SiteQuest Compliance, a firm specializing in compliance monitoring and website surveillance software. The acquisition will see integrate SiteQuest’s innovative technologies, including Eagle Eye, SQWatcher, and Policies products. This expansion into social and digital content monitoring promises to offer compliance teams a more comprehensive set of tools to streamline their processes, minimize regulatory risks, and maintain competitiveness in the market.
KYND
KYND, which offers cyber risk technology to help firms improve the assessment, understanding and management of business cyber risks, was founded by Melanie Hayes and Andy Thomas in 2018.
The platform was initially developed to help businesses stay one step ahead of cybercrime as the cyber threat landscape continues to become more complex and fraught with challenges. Since then, the company has evolved to a team of 40, and services 5,000 customers across 30 industries.
KYND has been very busy over the past few months. Earlier this month, it launched a brand-new Exposure Management solution. This new tool equips insurers with the tools needed to evaluate and manage the accumulation and catastrophe exposure across their portfolios. This, in turn, facilitates more informed and profitable underwriting decisions. The genesis of this product came from the insurance industry’s never-ending battle with systemic risk. Through KYND’s deterministic catastrophe modelling and loss projections, insurers can quickly achieve an accurate assessment of potential cyber incidents, model the impact of customizable cyber disaster scenarios, and boost capacity by improving risk and accumulation communication with providers.
Another recent development from KYND was a new partnership deal with Probitas 1492, a leading Lloyd’s of London underwriting syndicate. This collaboration aims to bolster Probitas’ cyber book growth ambitions by leveraging KYND’s industry-leading risk intelligence and analytics to assess and manage cyber risk effectively across the insurance lifecycle.
One final accomplishment to highlight this year for KYND was the close of a substantial investment from Verisk, a leading global data analytics and technology provider, along with existing investor BGF, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest and most experienced growth capital investors. The investment, which closed on an undisclosed amount, has been earmarked to help KYND bolster its expansion and development plans.
Air Doctor
Air Doctor helps travellers find a doctor whilst they are abroad. The InsurTech company was co-founded by Jenny Cohen Derfler, Efrat Sagi-Ofir, Yegor Kurbachev and Yam Derfler.
The platform’s genesis came from the personal experience of one of its founders. They had been on holiday in South America and struggled to find adequate healthcare while they were away. Today, Air Doctor facilitates seamless connections between travellers and a network of 20,000 doctors across 75 countries. To help travellers feel confident in the healthcare provider, the app allows users to access information about the doctor, such as their professional background, spoken languages and reviews from other patients.
Air Doctor recently offered an insight to how helpful its solution can be for travellers, by offering an insight into the use case from one of its customers. Netherlands-native Jane is a regular user of the app, having used it eight times in various locations around the world, including Bali, Bangkok, Koi Samul and Paris. She recounted one time in Lombok Island where she needed to urgently find a doctor after her daughter was bitten by an insect and was suffering from extreme discomfort.
Jane said, “When we returned to Bali, we used Air Doctor to schedule an appointment for her to see a doctor. It was expensive. But I don’t care – I got everything back from my insurance company. The doctor was just so friendly – especially good with children – but this is also a cultural thing. Balinese people are so considerate, friendly, and reassured us as worried parents. Everything was okay, but all the doctors I’ve seen everywhere are very friendly. All the doctors I’ve used through Air Doctor are really good.”
Ellevest
Ellevest is a female-focused investment platform that helps users build and manage their wealth. The company was founded in 2014 by Sallie Krawcheck and Charlie Kroll with the idea for making investing more accessible for women.
Since its beginnings, the team has established a community of over three million and has secured a number of sizable investment rounds. Its most recent capital injection was its $53m Series B in 2022. The round was co-led by BMO and Contour Venture Partners, but also received contributions from several new women-led investors, including Halogen Ventures, Cleo Capital, New York Ventures of Empire State Development, Stardust Equity, The Venture Collective, and Envestnet, as well as the LGBTQIA+ investment syndicate Gaingels.
The Ellevest platform includes digital investing tools, banking services, professional career and money coaching and learning resources, as well as private wealth management for high net worth clients who want a personalised financial strategy that may include impact investing.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, FinTech Global has also spoken to several key industry players in the FinTech space to understand some of the most pressing challenges for women in the industry.
For more insightful articles focused on women in FinTech, last year we spoke to senior women in the industry to find out their thoughts on the gender gap, the role of financial education and the importance of building a world with more female representation.
Elsewhere, FinTech Global also spoke to several successful women in senior positions about their careers, challenges they have encountered and how greater gender equality can be fostered in the FinTech industry.
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