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Hi, fintech fam! 💜

I woke up this morning, greeted by the big 3-0!

Time flies. It's unbelievable that I was only 27 when I decided to deviate from the traditional life path and pursue a bigger dream, which has now become a reality with Fintech Is Femme.

I want to thank each of you for being a part of this journey and shaping this community into what it is today. Thank you for inspiring me every week to use my pen to make history and amplify the stories of the incredible humans in this industry.

As a birthday treat, I’m excited to share that my debut book, Fintech Feminists, is officially available for pre-order!

My publisher, Wiley, told me that Barnes & Noble is offering 25% off all books until Friday. Use the code PREORDER25 online to secure your copy here!

If you’re not a B&N member, you can grab your copy on Amazon here!

(P.S. Every pre-order contributes to helping us make it onto the best-sellers list).

Thank you for making my milestone birthday even more memorable!

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Learn more.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I share news stories and trending pieces I follow. Think of it as a way to quickly find the most important news in the fintech world.

Note: Since it's my birthday and I'm trying to take a break from work to celebrate, I want to share three of my favorite Forbes articles from the past year. These pieces are among the most important and deserve revisiting as they remain prominent today.

#1 How Fintech Can Unlock The $31 Trillion Female Economy

This past summer brought an undeniable force that will continue to thrive in 2024—the power of the female dollar.

Fueled by icons like Beyoncé, Barbie, and Taylor Swift, women across the globe are making their mark in the global economy.

This emergence of economic power raises a serious question: How can fintech companies use this momentum to shape the future of our economy?

The power of the female consumer is reshaping industries and economies, and fintech has the potential to lead this transformation if the sector can adapt from within.

The Female Economy: A Lucrative Opportunity

Women make up a staggering 85% of global consumer spending, translating into over $31 trillion annually. This astronomical figure represents a veritable goldmine for fintech, a sector that, ironically, remains significantly underrepresented by women. Globally, women make up less than 30% of the fintech workforce, and a mere 8% hold leadership roles, according to research conducted by Deloitte.

To fully realize the potential of this trillion-dollar market, fintech must recalibrate its approach. Companies should ensure that their leadership teams reflect the unique experiences and needs of the female demographic they aspire to serve. Inclusivity is not just a buzzword; it's a strategic imperative.

Despite the eye-watering numbers, it is disheartening to observe that many companies underestimate the power of female customers. Often, they offer repackaged versions of products initially designed for men. This underestimation results from the stark gender imbalance in the fintech industry.

Female-led companies like Ellevest, Tala, and OnlyFans have made commendable strides. They are making financial services accessible to women across different income brackets, powering them to make informed financial decisions and enhance their economic well-being. Importantly, these companies boast leadership teams comprising more than 50% women.

Diversity Within The Female Demographic

Acknowledging that women are not a monolithic market is critical. Half the world's population encompasses a vast spectrum of experiences and financial needs.

Research by Cake Ventures has further substantiated this point, revealing that women aged 18-24, women of color, older women, mothers, and single professional women represent distinct and sometimes overlapping groups within the broader female market. Each group has its unique financial service essentials.

Ellevest Founder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck wrote in a blog that women of all different backgrounds feel more confident than ever this summer, boosting the economy through ventures they love – like concerts and movies representing the female experience.

"They couldn't put Barbie back in her box. I don't think 'they' can put this — this power — back in its box either, now that we've seen how much fun it is," she wrote.

The power of the female dollar is here to stay, and businesses must focus on catering to the specific needs of different groups of women to reap the benefits.

Seizing The Opportunity

OnlyFans has identified its unique market opportunity that broadly encompasses women — the creator economy. OnlyFans' objective is to assist creators in earning money through their work. The newly appointed CEO, Keily Blair, is committed to catering to the needs of female consumers and creators and bridging the gender gap in female leadership within the larger fintech industry.

"If you look at the gig economy and the creator economy, so much of that work is about flexibility, about being in control, about owning your own time, being able to work around your schedule, those are things that have traditionally been women's issues," Blair said during an interview with me. "Now they're everybody's issues because everybody wants more flexibility. In fintech, we need to think about those problems and solve them in a way that is inclusive of women."

Blair notes that while OnlyFans does not provide a precise breakdown of its gender demographics, a substantial proportion of creators on the platform are female, including many high-profile ones. A Collabstr report affirms this, indicating that 77% of influencers actively monetizing their content on social media are female.

OnlyFans is home to over 3 million creators across 100 counties and over 220 million "fans" or users paying out to creators globally. Last year, OnlyFans announced it has paid out $10 billion in creator earnings since being founded in 2016.

OnlyFans operates on a simple model: creators retain 80% of their earnings, with OnlyFans claiming the remaining 20%. This translates to creators earning four times as much as the platform itself—a testament to the substantial returns the creator economy can offer.

Goldman Sachs estimates that the creator economy is already a $250 billion industry, with projections suggesting it could reach $480 billion by 2027. This sector's rapid growth presents a tremendous opportunity for financial services, yet traditional institutions have been slow to embrace it, clinging to outdated criteria for financial eligibility and societal norms.

"There are creators on OnlyFans who are earning incredible amounts from the platform, but they're unable to get a mortgage, but they're not a credit risk," Blair said. "What's the decision-making process behind that, and why is it not designed with the creator economy in mind?"

Creating A Cycle Of Growth

Blair's ultimate goal is to see the creator economy receive the same respect and recognition as other economic sectors. In her vision, financial institutions should provide creators with access to banking, financial services, and wealth management. This would break down barriers that hinder wealth accumulation for women in the creator economy.

"Creators need access to financial services products, they need access to wealth management products," she said. "If you're not solving those problems, somebody else will eat that market share."

The importance of fintech addressing the creator economy is a means of fostering growth cycles within the female economy.

By recognizing the distinct needs and experiences of female consumers and creators, fintech can help promote financial independence and inclusivity for women while benefiting from its significant impact on our economic landscape.

We need more women leading the way to get there.

This story originally appeared in Forbes, published August 22, 2023.

#2 How Embedded Finance Can Unlock Funding For Female Founders

Embedded finance allows female entrepreneurs without backgrounds in Wall Street or Silicon Valley to break into fintech, creating a new wave of founders who may have previously felt excluded from finance and technology.

Fintech has the potential to provide access to financial services to a broader range of people than ever before, yet sadly, the industry still needs to improve in diverse perspectives. Women represent 30% of the workforce and 12% of founders, according to research by FT Partners. Additionally, all-female founding teams garnered 1.9% of venture capital funding in 2022, a decrease from 2.4% in 2021, according to PitchBook data.

To improve these figures, venture capitalists need to diversify the industries where they look for startup founders, and entrepreneurs need to explore opportunities to innovate outdated industries and break into the male-dominated world of finance technology.

Beyond Traditional

Venture capitalists have long overlooked women and diverse founders due to the social and racial homogeneity of the industry, perpetuating a cycle of male founders receiving the most funding.

Katie Palencsar, managing director at Anthemis Group, said embedded finance unlocked a cohort of founders whose backgrounds are wildly different, creating a new cycle of female leaders who bring more women into the fintech workforce.

The investment firm has seen thousands of pitches from female founders from backgrounds including sustainability, law, beauty, and mobility, according to Palencsar. In 2021, Anthemis Group raised more than $700 million to invest in pre-seed through Series B embedded finance startups and early-stage fintechs.

"We can get more women involved in fintech," Palencsar said. "But not everyone is going to look the same on paper."

Take Ami Kumordzie, founder of Sika Health, for example. In January, she raised $6.2 million in a round led by Forerunner Ventures as a Black female-founder physician with no technical experience. Kumordzie has developed a fintech platform to connect consumers with IRS-compliant merchants.

Unlike financial services, healthcare is a largely female-dominated industry, with women holding 76% of all healthcare jobs, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. When women use fintech to innovate in healthcare, they show other women the potential to create more financial services solutions in their industry.

Network Effect

By opening up fintech to entrepreneurs outside of finance and technology, investors widen their pool of potential startup founders and increase the likelihood of more capital being raised by women.

"Founders with less traditional finance or tech backgrounds were also hiring more women who didn't necessarily think they would be in fintech," Palencsar said. "It creates this network effect."

When women lead startups, there's a better chance of attracting female talent. Businesses with female founders build teams with 2.5 times more women, and companies with a female founder and executive hire six times more women than those led by men.

Plus, women founders with diverse experiences and backgrounds are well-suited to build outside fintech's oversaturated marketplace. This is critical to embedded finance as more business sectors look to expand their presence.

Greater Market Share

Embedded finance allows businesses to differentiate their offerings and tap into a broader customer base. In 2021, embedded finance already reached $20 billion in revenues in the United States alone, according to McKinsey.

This figure is expected to grow significantly in the coming years as more companies realize the potential of this form of finance and consumers' expectations for digital financial tools increase.

By leveraging embedded finance, companies can create innovative products and services that provide customers with greater convenience and value. It also enables them to maintain a competitive advantage over other fintechs in the market.

However, capitalizing on the growth of embedded finance will require companies to diversify their workforces. That requires women leadership as researchers found that male-founded startups have less diverse teams compared to women-founders.

In that light, investors and businesses have a significant incentive to ensure embedded finance unlocks funding for female founders.

Ultimately, misconceptions around fintech and biases within venture capital perpetuate cycles of exclusion for investors and female founders.

To evolve, venture capitalists must look beyond traditional finance and technology and focus on investing in more women and diverse founders in adjacent industries.

By exploring solutions to the financial services pitfalls in different industries, female business leaders can have a hand in pushing the fintech industry forward. With the proper support, more female entrepreneurs will become a formidable force in the fintech space.

This story originally appeared in Forbes, published February 17, 2023.

#3 How Fintech Boosts Economic Equity For Women Worldwide

Female-led fintech companies are helping women worldwide gain access to financial services, allowing them to take control of their financial decisions and well-being with newfound confidence.

Women have been historically underrepresented in finance, so much so that financial services firms are missing at least a $700 billion revenue opportunity each year by not fully meeting the needs of female customers, according to research by Oliver Wyman.

Female founders from diverse backgrounds and with different life experiences are ideally suited to create solutions specifically designed to meet the needs of female users. This, in turn, leads to an increased female user base and helps to bridge the gender wealth gaps.

Building A Foundation

Take Tala, for example, a fintech company that uses smartphone data to extend loans to people with little or no borrowing history, which has served over 7.5 million customers in emerging markets, including Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and India. Tala's customer base is 58% female.

"We're helping improve women's lives at the foundational level," said Tala founder and CEO Shivani Siroya. "This creates cycles of improvements in families and other areas."

The company found that 76% of its customers reported improved quality of life, with 80% saying they could now pay for major expenses they couldn't afford prior, increasing self-confidence, according to a report by Tala.

That's a much higher percentage than statistics reported in the U.S., where the majority (57%) of U.S. adults cannot afford a $1,000 emergency expense, according to Bankrate's Annual Emergency Fund Report. In addition, more than three in five working Americans feel anxious about their current financial situation, according to new Harris Poll research.

"At the core of all of this is the idea of peace of mind for women and having the ability to show up in life in a more confident, controlling way by knowing their basics are covered," Siroya said.

With access to digital loans, 63% of Tala's customers reported reduced financial stress. Meanwhile, 58% of women borrowers experienced an increased influence on decision-making, and 67% talked about having more financial independence.

It's a step in the right direction, proving that fintech solutions are helping women create pathways to wealth.

Growing Businesses

Women can leverage fintech to gain the financial tools they need to become business owners, creating a new cycle of female entrepreneurs.

Nav.it, an all-female founded and run money management app, is focused on financially empowering its 65% female user base so they can put money back into their community.

"Female founders are more likely to have a social mission built into their companies, and they're more likely to serve under-represented populations in the market," said Erin Papworth, Nav.it founder and CEO. "This creates a unique business opportunity to take existing fintech solutions and build innovation on top of the infrastructure we have seen boom in the last seven years."

Using a behavioral finance-driven approach to money management, Nav.it is specifically designed to help women make the most out of their income, with the knowledge that up to 90% of a woman's income goes back to her community.

Back To Basics

Fintech companies in the U.S. provide too many choices, leading to an oversaturated market with little effect on financial well-being. Meanwhile, most (79%) of fintech users are looking for finance apps to offer education around starting an emergency fund, improving credit scores, and starting a savings habit, according to Plaid's 2022 fintech effect report.

Financial mindfulness and literacy is the cornerstone of the female-founded fintech company Aura. While financial access to products is essential, the impact should be felt by consumers in terms of emotional well-being, economic confidence, and peace of mind.

"The next generation of investors looking for more than just financial advice," said Courtney Cardin, Co-Founder of Aura. "They want an accountability partner and behavioral coach to keep them on track."

Measuring success by the number of accounts opened is easy, but fintech companies must also consider emotional factors.

Paving Pathways

Women-led fintechs are changing the game by leveraging digital platforms to curate content and tools to deconstruct systemic issues that have made access to financial services typically cumbersome.

Sure, it's tough being a fintech company right now, but the industry's potential to change the future of economic equity for women is front and center this Women's History Month.

Fintech companies like Tala, Nav.It, and Aura help women take control of their financial futures while spreading awareness of fintech tools to larger groups of women worldwide.

"If a financial service works for one woman, they will tell 10 other women in their community," Siroya said.

With the right fintech tools, women can access the same playing field as their male counterparts, empowering them to reach their goals while increasing market share for fintech companies focused on serving them.

By providing more women with the opportunity to participate in financial services, fintech companies are helping to create a more equitable world for everyone.

This story originally appeared in Forbes, published March 8, 2023.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Join us every Thursday to stay updated on the top fintech events each week! These events are a great way to network, learn, and connect with our fintech community. Let's fill our calendars with these awesome events - I would love to see you there! If you have an event to share, please inform me!

_{MONDAY 6/3}

[NYC] Fintech Is Femme Founders Summit NY #TechWeek

Building on the success of our SOLD OUT New York Fintech Week Leadership Summit, I’m so excited to invite you to our Fintech Is Femme Founders Summit—Building A Resilient Future.

​As part of New York Tech Week, join us at Rise Created by Barclays for a full-day summit centered around the Founder Experience. Enjoy panel discussions, fireside chats, and founder spotlights that provide blueprints and tactics for building a resilient organization in this uncertain economy.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Beyoncé - YA YA

Let’s party.

That’s all for now! Stay safe, everyone. Hug your loved ones. See you Sunday!

Love,

Nicole

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