The former Goldman Sachs wealth advisor who left to address the UK's £567 billion gender investment gap.

Ayesha Ofori, a former Goldman Sachs wealth advisor, left her high-profile job to address Britain's gender wealth gap, having realized she had spent her career increasing the wealth of wealthy men.

Propelle, a female-focused financial investment platform founded by 40-year-old Ofori, launched on Wednesday. The app-based platform provides investment options from Vanguard, Blackrock, and HSBC.

Propelle has secured over £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in pre-seed funding, with Google investing $100,000. Other investors include Stefan Bollinger, Julius Baer CEO and former Goldman executive, and Lucy Demery, managing director of fintech investments at Barclays.

Despite being a Black woman who had worked at Goldman for six years and handled just over £500 million in client money, Ofori wasn't satisfied with her job. She typically worked with entrepreneurs and first-time founders who built highly profitable businesses and sold them for a lot of money.

"I had reached a pinnacle in my career where everything was going exceptionally well," Ofori stated. "I was appointed as executive director, and I began to generate substantial revenue. I surpassed the half-billion mark, which is the benchmark they advise you to aim for. I accomplished that."

Ofori sat in a meeting with her boss and contemplated the future. She realized that the next six to ten years would likely bring more of the same, leaving her feeling unfulfilled and uninspired. "It was almost getting monotonous," she said.

"Six years shouldn't have been necessary for it to hit me, but I recall that one day I woke up and realized, 'I make rich men even richer, that's my daily routine,'" she stated.

Women were not investing as much as men, according to Ofori.

Although women tend to live longer than men, "we have less money that isn't being utilized effectively," she stated.

The gender investment gap in Britain has increased by £54 billion between January 2023 and January 2024, reaching a total of £567 billion, according to data from Boring Money. The research company surveyed over 6,000 adults in the U.K. and found that men have £1.01 trillion invested compared with £450 billion for women.

The gender pensions gap is more than double the gender pay gap, according to the latest data from Prospect.

The gender pension disparity pertains to the variations in retirement income or retirement funds between men and women.

Ofori was stunned by the statistics she found, which led her to quit her well-paid executive role at Goldman in 2018 and embark on a mission to empower women financially.

'Women naturally default to saving'

Ofori stated that the women he conversed with were more inclined towards saving, and mistakenly believed that depositing their money in a cash Individual Savings Account (ISA) was a form of investing.

An ISA in the U.K. is a high-interest, tax-free individual savings account with an annual allowance of £20,000.

Ofori stated that although saving and investing are commonly used interchangeably, they are not the same, and women often default to saving, assuming it is the same as investing.

Although you may believe you've invested by putting your money in a cash ISA, you won't achieve your goal.

A 2022 BNY Mellon Investment Management report surveyed 8,000 men and women across 16 countries and found that almost half of women globally feel that investing in the stock market via an individual security or a fund is too risky, while only 28% of women felt confident about investing their money.

According to Ofori, two primary factors prevent women from participating in the investing boom: a shortage of time and self-assurance.

"Women often express that they feel overwhelmed by the abundance of information and lack of time to sort through it, leading them to not take any action."

Ofori organized events for women in London while at Goldman, and within a few months, 2,000 women had registered to attend.

""Just because women haven't been investing doesn't mean they don't want to invest. They clearly do," she said, realizing that she was onto something."

Attendees to Ofori's events found regular investing platforms unappealing and were unsure of how to begin.

Ofori stated that the platforms' portrayal of information and investment structure did not align with how women approach investing and accumulating wealth.

"Now, my purpose is to help women build wealth," Ofori said, as she decided to build an FCA regulated multi-asset class investment platform for women.

Investment platforms are designed for men

Ofori often heard complaints from women who had spoken with him about their investing journey that regular investing platforms tend to be male-dominated.

Women find certain factors off-putting, such as the language used, lack of transparency about investment risks, and funds not aligning with their personal goals.

Ofori stated that most, if not all, of the platforms were run by men, and their teams were predominantly men. As a result, when designing products, there are inherent things that they are built with men in mind. The data shows that the customers of these companies are mostly men.

Propelle is introducing new features in the near future, including a risk assessment tool that explains various types of risks and measures users' personal risk tolerance levels. Additionally, its smart goal setting feature will enable users to invest in funds with varying risk levels based on whether their goals are short-term or long-term.

Propelle offers personalized investing options based on users' values, including sustainability and Shariah-compliant funds. The platform plans to expand its offerings to include alternative investments such as fractionalized real estate, startup investing, and wine and art investing.

Ofori stated that he did not want to create a platform that only had women investing in things without considering their needs. Instead, he emphasized the importance of ensuring that the platform was tailored to the specific background of each woman user.

"The rich have been investing in asset classes for years, making tons of money. Just because you may have a smaller amount of money, you should not be excluded from these opportunities. It's clear why the rich continue to get richer."