At a time when a mere 2.2% of funding went to female-led technology companies in 2021 and the year was touted as the worst year for VC funding in women-led startups, a London-based platform is focusing on the financial empowerment of women and non-binary people to make financial education more inclusive. Your Juno has now raised $2.2 million funding to close the gender gap in financial education and make financial education accessible for women and marginalised genders.
The round was led by InReach Ventures with participation from Mustard Seed Maze, RLC, Digital Currency Group and Sie Ventures, alongside a board of predominantly female angel investors, including Rupa Popat (ex-director of RBC), Elissa Grey (senior vice president at Essence), RaeHyun Koh (portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs), Pallavi Reddy (investment director at Aviva), Emma Cohen (ESG and impact director at Goldman Sachs) and Antoine Sakho (head of product at Busuu).
The seed funding will drive new content based on user insights, scale the existing team of eight, and grow the community in new regions around the world, with a particular focus on France, Germany and North America.
Founded by Gen Z sisters Alexia de Broglie and Margot de Broglie, the app offers users short-form video courses led by notable money experts, including Selina Flavius (author of ‘Black Girl Finance: Let’s Talk About Money’) and gamified content.
Alexia de Broglie, co-founder of Your Juno said: “We’ve moved quickly since the inception of Your Juno amid the pandemic. This shows the growing appetite for a financial education platform built by and for women and non-binary people. The strong female, racially diverse group of investors and advisors who understand our community and can help us in this next stage of our growth is a crucial step.”
Margot de Broglie, co-founder of Your Juno said: “Financial information, whether that be via mainstream media or how children are taught about money, is still delivered through a gendered lens. Women are more likely to be targeted with articles about spending less, whereas men are more likely to be targeted with articles related to investments. The impact of this is women's financial education is always skewed away from their interests and needs. Gen Z’s interest in personal finance has skyrocketed since the pandemic and we want to make sure our generation is getting content that speaks directly to their experience and represents them as a diverse group. This year is really about scaling our community to ensure that women and non-binary people are no longer considered a niche audience in the personal finance world.”
Amanda Jones Floyd, investor at InReach Ventures said: “Over the pandemic, Gen Z became increasingly engaged with personal finance. FinTok has blown up and Gen Z became a rapidly growing audience for investment and money management platforms.”
Triin Linamagi, co-founder and investor at Sie Ventures said: “We were particularly interested in Your Juno's focus on educating Gen Z women in financial literacy, as they enter adulthood and are seeking online guidance to better gauge their investment options. With over $30 trillion in wealth transfer occurring over the next decade, women will soon control more than half the world's wealth. However, one of their greatest challenges is the source of knowledge about how and where to invest, while over 80% still rely on their parents and family for financial information. Most investment platforms are targeted toward young men and women investing differently, but not in the ways most wealth managers think. The opportunity has been overlooked for too long.”
Since the app was launched on the App Store in October 2021, it has been downloaded more than 10,000 times with its audience being primarily made up of Gen Z women.
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