Welcome to our #231 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight a short extract from our interview on The Purse Podcast with Pierre Rolin, who founded Ankh Impact Ventures in 2020.
Pierre invests in female and diverse founders globally and has a very powerful message for male investors about why they need to back women.
Listen to the full interview here.
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And you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
Investing in female founders and why male investors need to back women
We interviewed gender lens, angel investor Pierre Rolin who founded Ankh Impact Ventures in 2020.
We interviewed Pierre Rolin on The Purse Podcast.
Pierre N. Rolin is Founder and CEO of Ankh Impact Ventures. A Canadian entrepreneur with over 35 years of real estate investment advisory as well as venture capital experience, Pierre was previously based in London, Frankfurt, and New York and has closed more than 550 real estate investments valued in excess of $17 billion and delivered an average 20% net IRR for his clients.
Pierre has shared his experiences at numerous conferences and events globally, such as The World Economic Forum in Davos, The Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, and the Young Presidents Organisation in London.
In the podcast interview we talk about: Ankh Impact Ventures, investing in female and diverse founders, the investment thesis, female pitch competitions, why female founders are a better investment and why male investors need to back women.
Below is a short extract from the interview. (We have made slight adjustments to the below for ease of reading only).
Pierre Rolin:
“…50% of the planet's consumer is a woman, yet less than 2% of capital goes to them. And the irony is that some of these businesses are “women founder advantage” businesses where men have no idea about, say, women's health … and as a result, women don't get the capital to build these businesses.
So there are vacuums…
I'll give you a very good example… of one of our companies that we invested in very early, and it is called “Mission Driven Tech”. It’s an American company founded by a Google executive who was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was pregnant six months with her second child and left Google.
The female founder had to take on a very difficult process of radio oncology with medical equipment which is antiquated from the seventies. So together with her radio oncologist, they formed a company after she recovered and applied her experience and mission to expanding global access to quality cervical health care.
How is a man going to do that? And her business partner and Chief Medical Officer was the one who effectively saved her in the hospital. And then the hospital backed her.
So you've got a cervical cancer survivor who quit her job and decides to dedicate the second chance in life…
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…She had a horrendous experience on a medical instrument, which I've been told by her was designed in the seventies and the hospitals globally haven't put a dime into advancing this medical instrument (I won't get into too much detail), but there's I think about five procedures and a third of women pass away because they don't complete the procedures because the pain and the mental and the surrounding medical effects of that cause enormous issues, internal bleeding, huge mental Issues and physical issues. And you combine those three and apparently a third of women don't complete it.
I think 300, 000 American women pass away for that reason.
…But the fact of the matter is, there has been no advancement in global cervical cancer for this particular procedure and medical instruments since the 70s because the resources haven't gone into it…”
News in Brief
Financial news
Gold has hit fresh all-time-high despite a rise in US real yields. At the current 2%, 10 year real rate, Gold at $2,300/oz is ~$270/oz expensive, Jefferies has calculated. The fundamental reasons are increased government spending and indications of a willingness to accept higher inflation.
Gold is soaring while Bitcoin digital Gold – is slumping? Bitcoin has shown itself to be more correlated w/risk-sensitive assets.
The return of volatility? The fear index Vix jumped >14%, most since October.
Bond yields jump and US dollar rises on hot US jobs report: US added 303,000 jobs in March, way higher than Street estimates of +214,000.
The odds of a June US Federal rate cut are now almost a coin toss (59%) following hot jobs report with ok inflation.
Brent oil jumped >$90/bbl for the first time since October as the conflict in the Middle East showed signs of escalating.
Eurozone inflation cools, setting stage for June rate cut: headline CPI slowed to 2.4% year-on-year in March from 2.6% in February below consensus forecast of 2.5%.
House prices across the UK fell by 1% last month following five months of growth, according to Britain’s biggest mortgage lender.
Shares of Donald Trump’s social-media business wiped out their gains from IPO last week after company disclosed that it lost $58m+ in 2023 while generated just $4.1m in revenue, underscoring how richly valued Trump Media is relative to peers.
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs
Markets ended the week in the red, with the Bitcoin price below its old 2021 high of $69,044. Today is is trading slightly higher at $69,422. The price drop—the coin is now down nearly 3% over the week—is likely due to crypto fund manager Grayscale shifting even more crypto
Bitcoin’s next halving now just two weeks away. The estimated time remaining would see Bitcoin’s fourth halving arrive on April 20, with the block reward dropping from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Bitcoin Cash had its halving this week. As a result, it's up big—14% over seven days. Right now, its price stands at $695.71. The 14th biggest digital asset rocketed up to its highest price since 2021 but has since retreated.
Solana has lost out the most: it's now priced at $176.82, having dropped by nearly 10% over seven days.
Popular meme token Dogwifhat (WIF) dropped by close to 25% in a week and is now trading hands for $3.38.
While popular Solana-based Bonk is also down by over 18%. The meme coin was on a good run last week as one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies.
JPMorgan anticipates SEC approving spot Ethereum ETFs after litigation process.
The Purse Podcast
We cover the following in this conversation:
Why Pierre started Ankh Impact Ventures
Investing in female and diverse founders
Investment thesis- patient capital
Female pitch competitions
Female founders are a better investment
Why male investors need to back women.
Please enjoy! Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify+
Coffee Break? Read This
We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and janicka. We do no provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial adviser.
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Investing in female founders and why male investors need to back women. Listen to the podcast interview with investor Pierre Rolin