The Global Rise of Female-Made Brands
FemWealth Issue #36
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
Throughout the last decades, women’s increased educational attainment and participation in the paid labor force have led to a significant increase in their economic power and changes in marketing, sales, and customer engagement.
Women dominate consumer spending, making up to 70-80% of all consumer purchasing decisions. Yet many established global brands fail to understand and cater to women’s needs and values.
“[…] despite women representing the most valuable target audience on earth, and despite the immense progress and achievements of women through the world on both a micro and macro level, and despite the fact that last decade has seen an upending of traditional notions of gender and male-female relationships - despite all of this, the majority of brands still speak to women from a male perspective, explaining to them what they are and telling them what they can be.” - Jane Cunningham & Philippa Roberts, authors of Brandsplaining and founders of PLH Research
According to a recent Bloomberg report, global economic growth could get a $20 trillion boost by 2050 if women are educated at the same levels as men and hold the same number of jobs.
Female entrepreneurs have understood the enormous potential and founded women-focused brands in industries such as apparel, cosmetics, consumer products, and healthcare. Fenty, Glossier, ThirdLove, Elvie, Maven, Tia are some of the firsts that come to mind.
The fast adoption of digital health and e-commerce worldwide creates massive opportunities for women-founded and -led brands to reach female and gender-nonconforming customers.
A brilliant example is the Indian e-commerce beauty brand Nykaa, founded by Falguni Nayar. FSN E-Commerce Ventures, the entity that operates Nykaa went public this week, valued at $14 billion. It is India’s first woman-led unicorn to debut in the public markets.
“Women need to allow the spotlight of their lives to be on themselves. I hope more women like me dare to dream for themselves.”
“India is going to be a huge retail market. Indians will aspire for more, their spending power will grow and they’ll increasingly spend on lifestyle brands and services. Nykaa is in a good place.” - Falguni Nayar
World’s Newest Billionaire Urges Women to Seize the Day [Bloomberg]
Founded in 2012, just months before Nayar turned 50, the Mumbai-based company offers over 2,500 brands of makeup sold on its website, app, and in 70-odd brick-and-mortar stores, bringing the company revenues of 24.5 billion rupees ($330 million) in 2020. Nayar, who owns half the company, is the wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the country, with a net worth of nearly $7 billion.
Read more:
Women Drive Majority of Consumer Purchasing and It's Time to Meet Their Needs
How Women’s Economic Power Is Reshaping The Consumer Market
The advertising industry sold us the perfect woman – do we finally understand the price we paid?
📚 Brandsplaining: why marketing is (still) sexist, and how to fix it by Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts
What are your favorite female-led brands? Which industries and sectors do you think are ripe for innovation by women-founded brands?
FemWealth Favorites ❤️
🔔 Nextdoor, founded by Sarah Friar, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company).
💸 Millennial Parenting Platform Babylist Raises $40 Million, Expects To Hit $250 Million In Annual Revenue - founded by Natalie Gordon
💸 Framework raises $2M seed to create an ‘on-demand business school’ aimed at startups
💸 Fitness creator economy platform Talent Hack, founded by Alexandra Bonetti, has raised $17M in Series A financing
💸 Female Invest Raises $4.5 Million To Empower Women To Invest
“It’s not about helping more women get money, it’s about giving them financial independence and freedom. That’s really what it is all about. Most of these issues are systemic and won’t be solved in our lifetime. But what women can do today is begin investing.” - Camilla Falkenberg, co-founder of Female Invest
💸 UK-based Healthtech Company Forth Raises £1.6M to Invest in Its Female Hormone Mapping Product
“Today, more and more people are realizing that understanding and measuring your body’s biochemistry is key for a long and healthy life. For women, in particular, gaining a unique insight into how their hormone levels fluctuate throughout their unique cycle can give women the support they have been lacking and help to close the gender health gap”. - Sarah Bolt, Forth CEO and Co-Founder [via FemTech Insider]
💸 Founderland, a non-profit organization that supports women of colour founders to grow sustainable businesses, empowering them through community, education, and investor-readiness support, has been selected as one of 34 recipients of a $25 million fund from the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls
🌍COP26: How Jane Goodall advocates for change - and why hope is a call to action
🙌 Asia’s Power Businesswomen 2021 | Forbes
💡The gig economy is broken — but this founder thinks she has the fix - ‘Jove is the latest startup targeting the gig economy, and part of the first wave of insurtechs founded by women’ - co-founded by Lizhen (Amanda) Cai
♻️ The Senior Investment Role That’s Dominated by Women - women are still a minority in the asset management industry, but they dominate in sustainable investing
👏 9 women-led startups raising millions to fight harassment that need to be on your radar | Inside the life of a tech activist: abuse, gaslighting, but ultimately optimism
👏 Most tech policy shops want to protect tech. Bumble’s wants to protect women. - Bumble’s policy team works on laws that aim to curb the harm women face both online and off.
🤰🏽Navigating Work While Undergoing Fertility Treatments
💰Seed investors: the good, the bad and the ugly, from a founder who’s been there - Healthtech founder Napala Pratini shares her insights into fundraising after speaking with no fewer than 100 angels and seed-stage VCs across the UK, Europe and the US.
🧬 Dr. Katalin Karikó: The Scientist Who Saved the World | Glamour’s Women of the Year
🙌 Meet The World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies 2021 (Forbes)
🎶 Alicia Keys Gets What She Wants
👩🏾💻 NFTs of empowered women aim to drive female engagement in crypto
👩🏽✈️Today, don’t forget the fastest-growing group of veterans: Women - “Being a female service member means being a contrarian to both military traditions and societal gender roles. While serving, we are an obvious minority.”
Things to Ponder On and Change
Climate Change: Young Women Are Leading Climate Protests. Guess Who Runs Global Talks? | ‘World designed by men has destroyed many things,’ Cop26 warned | How climate change is disproportionately affecting girls in low-income countries | Big oil is making violence against Native women worse, COP26 protesters say | Indigenous women speak out at Cop26 rally: ‘Femicide is linked to ecocide’
Media: When it comes to media credits and bylines, men still take the lion’s share - in the US men still dominate the news media, accounting for about 2/3 of all media credits and bylines
Work: Europe wants to champion human rights. So why doesn’t it police biased AI in recruiting? | Remote work was supposed to help moms in the pandemic. Instead, it hurt them the most.
Funding: In 2020, all-women-founded startups raised just 0.7% of investment in the Nordics (one of the most gender-equal regions in the world). 7.3% went to mixed-gender founding teams, while all-men founding teams raised 92%. Average round sizes at Seed and Series A are 52.5% smaller for all-women founding teams than for mixed and all-men founding teams, according to Unconventional Ventures. Other regions don’t fare much better.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! Wish you a great week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth