Welcome to our #76 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we focus on the rise of sexual wellness and sextech. And how are female founders like Cindy Gallop driving change in a market ready for disruption?
And we spotlight female celebrities including Emma Watson, who are turning to business and investing in startups. Emma recently invested in a biotech startup called FabricNano.
You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Angelo Robles. We talk about the single family office, the definition of wealth, investing trends, adapting to change, ESG investing and women’s wealth.
Stay safe everyone & look after yourselves.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
Women’s health: the rise of sexual wellness & sextech
Female founders are opening up new markets
Female pleasure has been misunderstood and ignored. And historically women’s orgasm has been considered secondary.
In fact, a study (US) found that women’s orgasm is put on the back burner for nearly every age group.
Men have access to far more medicinal products for sexual arousal and orgasm than women.
And the adult entertainment industry is dominated by men and geared towards their pleasure (in some cases showing sexual abuse in culture).
Sexual wellness & sextech markets-here are some stats:
The sexual wellness industry is estimated at $125bn by 2026
Sextech is estimated at $30bn+.
But sex is still considered a taboo subject...
…and (mostly white, male) investors are squeamish (biased), especially when it comes to talking about female pleasure. Therefore, you could argue that sexual health falls into a vice category like gambling or alcohol, for investors. And it shouldn’t.
80% of healthcare VCs have never invested in women’s health
…which includes women’s sexual health, even though women’s orgasms help to regulate menstruation, boost immune systems and help pain.
The women’s global health market has been estimated to be worth $3.1tn+. And women spend approximately $500bn a year, on medical expenses but only receive 4% of the healthcare R&D budget.
Here’s a funding gap illustration, in real terms (both startups are 4 years old):
US men’s health startup, Roman: raised $897m, valued at $5bn
US women’s sexual wellness startup, Modern Fertility: raised $22m (recently sold to Ro for $225m).
Changing perceptions..
According to Bryony Cole, host of the Future of Sex podcast, sex toys have moved into the wellness category and is seen as an important part of self-care.
Bryony also expects that: ‘with more acceptance and normalised attitudes towards sextech.. department stores will stock these (sex toy) devices and sexual wellness routines will be highlighted in mainstream media and by celebrities’.
Thomas Buisson from Fable Investments, has said to Forbes: ‘sexual wellness does deliver in the same way as good food or good sleep’.
Also, according to female founder of Emjoy, Andrea Oliver Garcia (quoted in Sifted): ‘we don’t have anything about how your sexuality evolves during or after pregnancy. When you have children. When you have been married for a long time…’
Sexual care is self-care and changing culture
For founder and CEO, Éva Goicochea who has recently raised $5.8m Series A (total funding exceeding $10m) for her sexual wellness startup Maude, she is committed to changing how we all think.
Cindy Gallop, Founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn (MLNP), a social sex platform, is on ‘a mission to socialise and normalise everything around sex in the real world to make it easier for everyone to talk about, to promote consent communication, good sexual values, and good sexual behaviour’. She considers MLNP to be in the market of human happiness.
Cindy’s main objective is to end rape culture and create world peace.
It is worth emphasising, that female founders often unlock new markets or categories (with pent up demand) and which also has a positive social impact.
The next trillion dollar category in tech
According to Cindy, every business obstacle she encounters is a huge disruptive business opportunity in itself, which includes infrastructure (like payment systems) and advertising on social media.
She wants to build out the entire underlying ecosystem and considers sextech to be the next trillion dollar category in tech.
This is also why Cindy has set up her own sextech VC fund called, All The Sky.
Listen to our full interview with Cindy Gallop.
News in Brief
Financial news
Over $40bn pledged to advance gender equality during the Generation Equality Forum (convened in UN Women in Paris). For example, this includes the consumer goods company, P&G, which has committed to spend $10 billion with women-owned and women-led businesses by 2025.
The US labour department on Friday said 850,000 jobs had been created in June. This is well above economists’ expectations (surpassing the upwardly revised 583,000 gain posted in May).
US consumer confidence jumps to pandemic-era high. Consumer confidence rose for a fifth straight month to hit a new pandemic-era high, reflecting optimism over improving economic conditions
Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey says it is important not to over-react to inflation which is ‘temporary’. UK inflation hit 2.1% in May (exceeding the 2% target) and is likely to surpass 3%.
Rishi Sunak to announce £15bn green finance deal. The aim is to turn Britain into a world leader for low-carbon financial services, to fund infrastructure schemes and to create more green jobs in the UK. Read more.
UK house prices rise at fastest rate since 2004 amid stamp duty rush. The average price of a UK home rose 0.7% in June from May to £245,432, taking the annual rate to 13.4%.
UK households increased their borrowing in May for the first time in 8 months as lockdown is lifted (as interest rates are low). This is mostly because of car finance deals and personal loans.
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi
Cathie Wood's Ark ETFs invested in crypto-related investments as bitcoin fell below $30,000 on Tuesday. Ark funds bought over 1m shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and 214,718 shares of Coinbase. Cathie still believes Bitcoin price will hit $500,000 in the long-term.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is teaming up with 21Shares US LLC, which filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to create a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF). ARK Innovation ETF was the top-performing U.S. equity fund last year, has been a vocal proponent of bitcoin.
Morgan Stanley bought 28,289 shares, worth over $1.3m (at the time of the sale) in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust through its Europe Opportunity Fund. It first gave its funds exposure to digital assets in April this year.
UK bans cryptocurrency exchange Binance from operating without ‘written consent’.
Elon Musk gives Dogecoin a sudden boost. ‘Release the doge,’ Musk posted on Twitter alongside a meme depicting Marlon Brando as The Godfather. The dogecoin price jumped by 4% following the post. (Market cap is at approximately $30bn).
Female celebrities: investing in startups
Emma Watson invests in a London-based biotech startup
Emma Watson, an actress and businesswoman, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter jaggernaut franchise, has recently become an angel investor.
An angel investor is a high net worth individual (earning over £100K per annum or who has over £250K+ of investable assets, excluding a pension and family home).
She has joined a group of investors, including Twitter cofounder Biz Stone and Elvie founder Tania Boler, to fund a biotech startup based in London called FabricNano.
The company has developed a method to make plastics without using fossil fuels and chemicals (without being more expensive).
Their investment in this round totals $12.5m (Series A) and will enable the startup to launch its products on the market in between 12-18 months. With this investment, the startup has raised a total of $16m.
In 2009, Emma launched an ethical fashion range with People Tree, and used her press tour for 2017 film Beauty and the Beast to highlight sustainable fashion.
Women are investing
Female celebrities are turning to business and investing.
Here are a few examples:
Priyanka Chopra has invested in dating app, Bumble, Jessica Alba, one of Hollywood’s most successful investors and businesswomen through her Honest Co. company, also invests in Headspace.
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, invested in a wellness startup called Clevr Blends in December of last year.
Meanwhile tennis champion, Serena Williams setup her own venture capital firm called Serena Ventures in 2014. Her investments include startups like billie, Cointracker and Hello Alice.
Here’s more about angel investing and crowdfunding
Listen to our podcast with Sarah Turner, about how more women can invest in startups.
You can also invest smaller amounts via crowdfunding sites. Listen to our podcast with Julia Elliot Brown where we talk about crowdfunding as a way to invest.
The Purse Podcast
Family offices: ESG & Women’s Wealth
We cover the following in our conversation:
The single family office: what is it and why set one up?
The definition of wealth (& the pandemic)
Investing trends family offices are tracking
How engaged are female family members?
How do women manage money & invest?
ESG & gender-lens investing
Investing in female-led companies & startups
How can investors allocate their capital to build a better world?
Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes, Spotify and Anchor.
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.
The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.
The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.
Share this post