The Financial Alliance for Women and The Billion Dollar Fund for Women are partnering for a high-level breakfast to connect fund managers and general partners with institutional investors, asset managers and commercial banks to discuss concrete actions and commitments to leverage the power of women as investors and innovators.
A BCG study conducted on 350 companies shows a US$1 million-dollar funding gap per female founder startup pitching to investors. In the US alone, women-founded companies get less than 2 percent of venture capital investments and received just US$1.9 billion of the US$85 billion total invested by venture capitalists in 2017. Yet businesses founded by women deliver better results—more than twice as much revenue per dollar invested—than those founded by men.
The Billion Dollar Fund campaign has pledged to mobilize more than US$1 billion in venture funding to women entrepreneurs within the next decade. The Billion Dollar Breakfast™ brings together venture funds that have committed to the Billion Dollar Fund and investors who have either already invested or are seriously thinking about investing in these ear-marked funds. Co-founders and Managing Directors of the Billion Dollar Fund K. Shelly Porges and Sarah Chen will lead the discussion, sharing how, through collective action, we can take part in this concerted effort.
This morning session will conclude with a look at the role financial services providers can play in building women’s wealth. By 2020, women around the world are expected to control US$72 trillion, up from US$51 trillion in 2015. Globally, women’s wealth is expected to continue to increase as women’s education rises, their employment levels increase, they venture into entrepreneurship and they inherit more wealth in what is considered the greatest transfer of wealth in history. At the same time, women face a financial penalty – factors such as pay gaps, career breaks, and higher life expectancy can contribute to lower investable assets. Further, women have less financial confidence, lack or report lower financial education, and may emphasize different drivers when making investment decisions. This panel – featuring Isabelle Hernu-Sfeir, Lead of the Wealth Team, Multinational Client Group at Mercer; Sydney Atkins, Head of Private Wealth Management at Ellevest; Jennifer Auerbach-Rodriguez, Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; and Olga Miler, former lead of UBS Unique – will explore the findings from the Alliance’s latest global research on women investors, highlighting diverse cases from financial services providers that have successfully tapped this market and exploring the key factors for successfully developing a women’s investor strategy.
Learn more about the Billion Dollar Breakfast™ and the rest of the 2019 Summit agenda here.
