Krisztina Benczik 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇭🇺’s Post

Female Foundry has released its first ever State of Gender Diversity in European Venture report. It found that: 🥉 Female founded startups raised €5.9 billion in 2023 – their 3rd biggest year ever 👩💻 AI attracted some of the largest funding rounds for female founders 📈 Female fund managers are on a roll, with 26 female-(co)led funds raising €4.4B (that’s 76% more than last year!) This detailed report uses over 300 insights to paint a vivid picture of female entrepreneurship, investment, and innovation. While funding for female-led businesses is still much too low, this close look helps uncover opportunities for investors to support female founders and fund managers in Europe. We’ll be sharing more insights from the report soon, but we think everyone should read it here: https://grp.hsbc/6043pwaxc HSBC Innovation Banking UK is a proud partner of Female Foundry, supporting their work to make the innovation ecosystem more diverse. #femalefoundry #venturecapital #femalefounders #Europeanventure #HSBCInnovationBanking

Tune in this Thursday, Feb. 15 at noon EST for a fireside chat between our Managing Partner Eva Yazhari and Gender Consultant Katie Turner of the Canada Forum for Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID). 🗓 We're looking forward to more insights from this continuing conversation about innovative profit sharing and gender bonus models such as BCV's Equitable Venture structure. We'll see you there! 💻 #genderlensinvesting #EquitableVenture #rethinkingvc #acceleratechange

“SwissFinTechLadies and Colivar: Pioneering the Closure of the Wealth Gap for Women Through Innovation and AI” We are gratful and blessed, that focus future of finance has created a brand report about SwissFinTechLadies and their collaboration with Colivar as a good example of financial innovation, helping to close the female wealth gap. Closing the Female Wealth Gap through Joining the SwissFinTechLadies Female Angel Club and the Use of AI Solutions The SwissFinTechLadies Female Angel Club is dedicated to narrowing the female wealth and entrepreneurship gaps. Despite considerable progress in the workplace, women remain underrepresented as investors. The reality is unavoidable: if you're not investing directly, your money in the bank is being invested by others on your behalf. Investing goes beyond mere saving, yet many women, despite saving, lack an investment account. Alarmingly, over 70% of women do not have a secondary income from investments. The challenges of time management for working mothers and female executives, combined with perceived complexities in investing, often deter women's participation. The disparity is most striking in the digital assets sector, where women hold a mere 1% of assets. https://buff.ly/3TPTGvX

“SwissFinTechLadies and Colivar: Pioneering the Closure of the Wealth Gap for Women Through Innovation and AI” We are gratful and blessed, that focus future of finance has created a brand report about SwissFinTechLadies and their collaboration with Colivar as a good example of financial innovation, helping to close the female wealth gap. Closing the Female Wealth Gap through Joining the SwissFinTechLadies Female Angel Club and the Use of AI Solutions The SwissFinTechLadies Female Angel Club is dedicated to narrowing the female wealth and entrepreneurship gaps. Despite considerable progress in the workplace, women remain underrepresented as investors. The reality is unavoidable: if you're not investing directly, your money in the bank is being invested by others on your behalf. Investing goes beyond mere saving, yet many women, despite saving, lack an investment account. Alarmingly, over 70% of women do not have a secondary income from investments. The challenges of time management for working mothers and female executives, combined with perceived complexities in investing, often deter women's participation. The disparity is most striking in the digital assets sector, where women hold a mere 1% of assets. https://buff.ly/3TPTGvX

Women represent the world’s largest and fastest-growing market—and one that has been largely overlooked by the incumbent and fintech sectors alike. By overlooking the female economy opportunity, fintechs are leaving trillions on the table.   The Financial Alliance for Women Hackathon 2024 represents a unique chance for #fintechs to learn how to become gender-intelligent!   Calling all fintechs around the globe working to solve one of the below challenges to apply to the Alliance Hack by filling this form before July 14th!   -      Financing Women-owned/led Businesses -      Building Business Capability of Female Entrepreneurs -      Transforming Mass Market Women's Investment Capabilities -      Greening the CVP For Women   Fintechs selected to participate in the Alliance Hackathon 2024, will receive one-on-one mentoring from a highly experienced mentor cohort, take part in peer learning clinics focused on building a successful women-centered strategy, and get the chance to pitch in front of a panel of high-impact executives from global financial services institutions.   The winning fintech will be positioned as the FEMALE ECONOMY FINTECH OF THE YEAR 2024 and receive a US$25,000 cash prize.   The top three winners will also receive a year-long free membership to the Financial Alliance for Women, enabling them access to world’s largest network of financial services providers with winning strategies for the Women’s Markets.   #AllianceHack24 #AllianceHack2024 #ChampionTheFemaleEconomy #fintechs #financialinclusion #FintechFounders #FintechCircle #FintechPulse #WomenInFintech #Fintech https://lnkd.in/dXpU3jdw

In case you missed it, check out our on demand webinar session where we dive into the vital conversation around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Assessments and discuss ways your program can incorporate best practices, starting with Test Development. Learn how Prometric and NBME are leading the charge in ensuring fairness and inclusivity throughout the testing journey. Don't miss out on valuable insights and strategies. Access the session now: https://bit.ly/4c9h2VJ #DEIB #InclusiveAssessment #Webinar

Over 400 million women entrepreneurs worldwide have the potential to grow their businesses, contribute to the economy, and create jobs, but lack the necessary financing. Closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship—where women and men participate equally—could add $5-6 trillion to the global economy, representing a $1.7 trillion growth opportunity for financial service providers (FSPs). Our next #FintechFriday session, “Fintechs Financing WMSMEs,” will showcase best practices and lessons from fintechs successfully reaching and financing WMSMEs. It will cover strategies for attracting WMSMEs, addressing their key barriers (e.g., lack of collateral, documentation, thin credit files, algorithm bias), and converting them into clients—ultimately bridging the global gap in access to finance and usage. Join us this Friday, October 25 to hear firsthand from fintechs implementing effective strategies to ensure greater access for WMSMEs. Meet our speakers: - Carmia Lureman-Norton, Head of Strategic Delivery & CX, JUMO - Lucinda Revell, Co-Founder and COO, Boost Capital Register Now: https://lnkd.in/euufpy63 #ChampionTheFemaleEconomy #Fintechs #FintechFridays #WMSME #WomenEntrepreneurs #FintechFounders #GenderIntelligentFintech

【Congrats to Vivi Hu, Co-Founder of YoujiVest, for entering the finalist of UBS Female Founder Award 2023】 Vivi Hu, Co-Founder of YoujiVest Technology, Cyberport Incubation Programme start-up, has recently been entering the finalist of UBS Female Founder Award 2023! Congratulations! The UBS Female Founder Award 2023 recognizes the next generation of women-led companies around the world, in the fields of fintech and enterprise technology. The award aims to help close the funding gap between women entrepreneurs and their male counterparts, providing women-led businesses with access to investor-readiness training, mentoring, and networking opportunities that will help them take their company to the next level.   Specializing in providing analysis and consulting services for ESG solutions and climate data, YoujiVest was born out of a vision - combining cutting-edge technology with in-depth local expertise to create unique products that provide precise, actionable insights into the Asian ESG landscape. Vivi is a firm believer in technology and sustainability investment that can be combined to build an ecosystem to enhance investment returns and create positive value-add for society as well as the environment. She said, “My journey of YoujiVest wasn't just about founding a fintech company. It was about challenging the norms of women in tech and changing the way we think about sustainability. Every decision we make, every dollar we invest, shapes the future of our planet. Female founders need to make more effort on showing our professionalism to win the trust; yet each challenge was an opportunity to grow stronger, more resilient.”   Cyberport will continue to empower aspiring entrepreneurs to flourish and succeed, through the support on training, mentorship, and networking opportunities to foster the dynamic ecosystem. #Cyberport #CyberportCommunity #UBSFemaleFounderAward2023

Women of Fintech, in partnership with Leading Point / Datatomic, held a coffee morning today aimed at female entrepreneurs and FinTech women that literally made me both laugh and cry. With Iba Jaggi moderating, we heard uplifting personal anecdotes and advice from Priya Guha MBE, Sashi Dias Valtz, Adele Sumner, Caroline Hughes and Terrie Smith, five awe-inspiring leaders who are genuinely helping to change the world we live in. Shockingly, female-founded companies received only 2% of all venture capital investment in 2022, due to gender bias and a scarcity of female investors. Furthermore, new UK angel investing rules from 31 Jan 2024 (e.g. raising the wealth threshold) disproportionately impact the ability of women and other underrepresented groups to invest which, in turn, impacts the diversity of the entrepreneurs who will secure funding. Caroline explained how Hive Founders supports female-owned start-ups to launch, scale and fund their companies, including training on how to present their businesses cases differently from men. (An HBR 2017 article explains that VCs ask men about hopes and achievements, whereas women are mostly asked about safety, responsibility, and similar "prevention-oriented" questions, which are correlated with lower funding levels. Bottom line: women are perceived as less competent.) Topics today included the use of tokenisation to ensure authenticity, AI copyright issues, ESG/impact initiatives and, of course, increasing female representation in FinTech, and overcoming gender bias. We were advised to broaden our networks, fight back, and to be resilient, optimistic and tenacious 💪 A huge thank you to all involved for this wonderful event 😍 #womeninfintech #femalefounders #diversityandinclusion #genderbias

Technology is often seen as gender agnostic, potentially removing human biases in financial services. However, barriers excluding women from digital access persist in both traditional and fintech ecosystems, underscoring the need for intentional design. The Financial Alliance for Women Hackathon 2024 promotes gender-intelligent fintech, uniting diverse talent to create inclusive financial services that empower women and tap into a significant market opportunity. Selected fintechs will receive one-on-one mentoring, participate in peer learning clinics focused on women-centered strategies, and pitch to top global financial executives. The winning fintech will be named FEMALE ECONOMY FINTECH OF THE YEAR 2024 and receive a $25,000 cash prize. If you’re a fintech addressing any of these challenges, apply by *July 14th*! - Financing Women-owned/led Businesses - Building Business Capability of Female Entrepreneurs - Transforming Mass Market Women's Investment Capabilities - Greening the CVP For Women Apply Here 👉https://lnkd.in/dxDUecr3 #AllianceHack24 #ChampioningTheFemaleEconomy #Fintechs #FinancialInclusion #FintechFounders