Wunderman Thompson has announced the launch of Fund Femme, a global database of women and non-binary-owned businesses.
The aim of the database is to help tackle gender inequality in the economy.
Despite making up 50% of the population and having 80% of spending power, women represent only 33% of business owners. Covid-19 has dealt a massive blow to femme-owned business with women-founded startups receiving 27% less funding.
Similarly, women were a third more likely to work, or own a company, in a sector that was shut due to Covid-19 regulations last year. With the investment gap widening, small to medium owned femme businesses have become even more vulnerable.
Fund Femme, created by global marketing communications agency, Wunderman Thompson, is designed to tip the scales and put balance back into the economy.
Fund Femme
The global platform allows consumers to discover, and shop from, women and non-binary business owners across beauty, fashion, food, homeware, technology, health and wellness, travel, fitness, arts and culture, media and charities. Users can filter based on category, location or through tags that businesses have added to identify themselves.
A core part of the platform’s mission is to celebrate and promote femme founders, tell their stories and establish support networks for business owners via an editorial hub on the website and designated Instagram.
The aim is to create the world’s largest database of women and non-binary businesses – and entrepreneurs all over the world are invited to sign up and take part. Businesses joining can be of any size, all that is asked is that the entrepreneurs share Fund Femme’s principles rooted in equality, ethics, honesty, passion and consideration.
Oriel Irvine Wells, cofounder of Fund Femme and copywriter at Wunderman Thompson UK, said, “Our economy does not represent us, and that needs to change. By giving businesses owned by women and non-binary people a platform, we hope to make people more aware of the many amazing founders out there who are often overlooked. By thinking more about who we support when we spend our money and changing our shopping habits to reflect this, we can create genuine, long-lasting change and bring our economy back into balance.”
