Your quarterly guide to purpose-driven investing, emerging trends, and accessible opportunities.

🔎 What to Expect?

We'll break down key insights and opportunities in the three core areas that drive investment success: Think Different, Investment Spotlights, and Future of Investing. Click any section to jump straight to it.

🕒 Read Time: 9 minutes

This isn't a quick skim – it's designed for a thoughtful read during your morning coffee or commute. We respect your inbox and your time, which is why we send this newsletter out only once per quarter.

📅 What's Next?

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Think diversity is just about optics? Think again. Investing in women isn't just good for society—it's one of the most overlooked economic opportunities of our generation. And we've got the receipts to prove it.

• A wealth wave is coming: By mid‑decade, women will direct investment decisions for over $70 T in assets—roughly 70 % of annual global GDP. Too massive for financial institutions to ignore. (Boston Consulting Group)

• Success speaks volumes: Investment products designed with women in mind are attracting capital at twice the rate of traditional offerings—proving that inclusive approaches deliver results that markets reward (Fidelity)

• Community loyalty: Women‑centric platforms such as Ellevest have surpassed $2B in assets and 70,000 clients, showing how a sense of belonging converts into scale and retention. (Barrons)

• Values driving value: Women's higher interest in sustainable investing, education, and impact measurement is reshaping product development across the industry—creating entirely new market categories and revenue streams (Morgan Stanley)

• Growth engine for everyone: McKinsey finds that closing the gender gap could add trillions to global GDP—equivalent to combining the economies of Japan, Germany, and the UK.

• Profit upside: Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 25 % more likely to outperform on profitability, delivering stronger margins and investor returns (McKinsey)

• Broader tax base: When more women work, governments collect additional funds for schools, healthcare, and infrastructure—without raising individual tax rates. (OECD)

• Growth dividend: If women participated in the workforce at the same rate as men, GDP across OECD countries could rise by up to 12 % by 2030. (Citi GPS)

• Prosperity spreaders: Women typically channel the majority of their income toward family education, preventative healthcare, and community needs—creating a multiplier effect that expands opportunity far beyond their households (McKinsey)

• Market gap spotters: Gender-diverse teams consistently identify customer pain points others miss and develop solutions that tap untapped demand—turning diversity directly into revenue and competitive advantage (Harvard Business Review)

• Legacy architects: Women investors tend to build financial plans that extend beyond their own lifetimes—creating wealth transfers that strengthen family security for generations to come (Fidelity)

• Network multipliers: When women join investment communities, they don't just learn—they take action, funding businesses, mentoring others, and bringing more participants into the financial ecosystem (Fidelity)

• Expanded talent access drives growth: In a tight labor market, companies that effectively recruit and retain women gain access to a broader talent pool—giving them a competitive edge in innovation and execution

• Massive market opportunity: Women drive approximately 70-80% of consumer spending decisions globally—over $15 trillion annually. Teams that reflect their customer base consistently develop more successful products and marketing approaches (Forbes)

• First-mover advantage: With gender lens investing showing substantial growth in recent years, companies making measurable progress on gender diversity are increasingly attracting investment capital—creating a performance advantage as more institutional investors incorporate these metrics (MSCI)

• Global competitiveness: Countries and regions with higher female workforce participation consistently show economic growth—the data holds true across political systems and cultural contexts (World Bank Group)

The financial case stands on its own merits: more talent, more innovation, more customers, and more capital access. That's not politics—it's economics.

🔎 This quarter, we're highlighting two female-founded companies raising capital through Wefunder that are tackling crucial gaps in their respective markets. Each represents an opportunity to align your investments with both impact and potential returns, with entry points accessible to most investors.

Diem is building a social search engine for women and gender-expansive individuals, addressing the persistent gender information gap online. The platform transforms private conversations into searchable resources by combining AI with community knowledge—essentially creating "Google, but for hot girls."

• Structure: Female-founded social search engine combining AI with community knowledge

• Focus: Closing the gender information gap and making internet searches more inclusive

• Traction: 1,100% user growth in 13 months; partnerships with FEMINIST and Bumble

• Funding: $5M raised from Acrew Capital, Flybridge, and Techstars

• Impact Potential: Democratizing access to information on taboo topics that affect millions of women globally

• Fixing the search gap: The web still defaults to “male‑first” answers. Diem flips that script with a search engine tuned to women and gender‑expansive folks.

• Real talk, real answers: Diem blends AI with community stories, so guidance comes from lived experience—not faceless bots.

• Breaking taboos: From money stress to sexual health, the platform surfaces topics the regular internet buries.

• Network effect in action: Every new question answered feeds Diem’s AI, so the more users join, the smarter—and more valuable—the platform gets.

• AI-Human Hybrid Model: Diem AI combines machine learning with community-contributed knowledge

• Social Search Experience: Makes internet searching less isolating by incorporating real experiences

• Strong Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with FEMINIST, National Domestic Violence Hotline, Bumble, and other aligned organizations

• Rapidly Growing Community: Building a vibrant community both online and through in-person engagement

• Invest: Via Wefunder with $100 minimum (SAFE agreement)

• Participate: Download the app to contribute to the knowledge ecosystem

• Connect: Join their growing community to shape platform development

Note on Risk: Early‑stage crowdfunding investments are illiquid and carry a high risk of loss. Consider your financial situation and consult a licensed financial advisor before investing.

Sphere creates climate-friendly investment options for retirement plans. Most Americans with 401(k)s have no choice but to invest in fossil fuel companies through their retirement accounts. Sphere's funds provide an alternative that maintains the diversification and competitive returns that 401(k) plans require—finally letting people align their retirement savings with their climate values.

• Structure: Female-founded climate-friendly 401(k) investment platform

• Focus: Redirecting retirement funds away from fossil fuels while maintaining competitive returns

• Traction: 378% year-over-year growth; available on 150+ 401(k) plans including Fidelity

• Funding: Backed by climate-focused VCs including Pale Blue Dot and Climate Capital

• Impact Potential: Shifting billions from fossil fuels toward climate solutions through the $30T retirement market

• Freeing up stuck retirement dollars: Your 401(k) sits inside a $30 T nest egg that still props up fossil‑fuel giants. Sphere reroutes those dollars toward cleaner companies—no plan switch needed.

• Clearing the red tape: Built to pass every ERISA and Department of Labor test, so HR can add it without legal headaches.

• Built for 401(k)s, built for the planet: Same diversification and fee structure you’d expect—just minus the fossil fuels.

• Big‑picture fix: When retirement money moves, entire industries follow.

• 401(k) Compatible Design: Can be added to existing retirement plans without requiring employers to change providers

• Competitive Performance: Designed to deliver returns and risk profiles comparable to traditional options

• Growing Corporate Demand: Pioneered the concept of 401(k) emissions measurement, which is gaining traction with corporate sustainability teams

• Celebrity-Backed Awareness: Viral campaigns featuring 70+ celebrities have generated over 26 million views, building momentum for change

• Invest: Via Wefunder with $100 minimum (equity investment) in the company, not in their climate-friendly fund itself

• Advocate: Help colleagues and employers add climate options to their 401(k) plans

• Learn: Explore their resources on retirement plan carbon footprints

Note on Risk: Early‑stage crowdfunding investments are illiquid and carry a high risk of loss. Consider your financial situation and consult a licensed financial advisor before investing.

What began as a niche $2 B segment in 2018 has expanded to about $20 B today—$4.6 B in equity funds and $15.8 B in gender‑themed bonds. (Financial Times)

• Better metrics, better results: Early approaches simply counted "women on boards”. Today's strategies examine how companies address gender throughout their entire business – from hiring practices to leadership pipelines to product development

• Wall Street gets on board: This isn't just for impact investors anymore. When firms like BlackRock and State Street start embedding gender analysis into their mainstream investment processes, you know something's working (Morningstar)

• The private market advantage: Want to know where some of the most eye-popping returns are happening? Portfolia's Rising America Fund I is performing in the top 5% of the 1,800+ funds founded in its vintage year, with an estimated 40% IRR (Portfolia)

• From good intentions to hard data: As gender-specific metrics become as standard as checking P/E ratios, investors gain powerful new tools to identify outperformers hiding in plain sight.

The bottom line? What started as a values-driven approach has revealed itself as a powerful performance indicator that Wall Street can no longer ignore.

• Trillion-dollar accounts demand results: Japan's $1.6 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund now requires every asset manager to integrate gender metrics into investment processes—because they've seen the performance difference it makes (Morning Star)

• Rules with teeth: Europe’s new SFDR rules force funds to publish gender‑pay‑gap and board‑diversity stats, turning “nice‑to‑have” data into must‑share numbers investors can compare.

• Beyond stocks: Specialized vehicles are gathering momentum—IFC’s Banking on Women social‑bond programme channels capital to female‑led businesses, while Hamilton Lane’s $95 M Inclusive Economy Fund targets market‑rate returns alongside measurable social impact.

• Major asset owners shift strategies: CalPERS, New York State Common Retirement Fund, and Harvard's $50 billion endowment have all updated their investment policies to include gender metrics—moving hundreds of billions in assets toward gender-aware investment approaches.

This isn't just about large institutions—these shifts are creating new investment vehicles that all investors can access, from gender-focused ETFs to diversified funds with strong gender metrics.

• Know what you own: Tools like As You Sow's Gender Equality Funds and Equileap's Gender Scorecard let you see how your existing investments stack up on gender metrics—often revealing surprising strengths and weaknesses in familiar companies.

• Add exposure with proven vehicles: Consider starter positions (5-10% of equity allocation) in established options like State Street's SHE ETF or Pax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund (PXWEX), which have matched market returns with less volatility while providing gender-diversity exposure.

• Look for operational excellence, not just board seats: Focus on companies addressing gender across their entire business—like Microsoft and Accenture, which publish comprehensive diversity data, or Unilever, which evaluates suppliers on gender metrics.

• Incorporate gender in risk assessment: Companies with poor gender metrics often face higher litigation risk and talent retention challenges—issues that can hurt long-term performance before traditional financial metrics reflect the problem.

Remember: This isn't about replacing your existing investment strategy but enhancing it with an additional performance factor that markets are increasingly recognizing. Start small, measure results, and consider quarterly rebalancing as you see how these investments perform in your portfolio.

The economic case for gender equity continues to matter every day—not just on special occasions. We challenge you to take one concrete action to advance gender equity in your financial life:

1. Research and invest in a gender lens fund or ETF

2. Support a woman-owned business in your community

3. Join a financial education community focused on women

4. Mentor or sponsor a woman in your professional network

5. Advocate for gender-inclusive policies at your workplace

Share your action with us by replying to this email with "Gender Equity Action" - we'd love to hear how you're making an impact!