Gen Z and the resale boom, public to private deals, and Fortune 500 female CEOs brake records
Welcome to Nº 27 of In The Money, your weekly newsletter on keeping up with all things finance, tech, and startups. As always, this week’s newsletter is filled with all the financy things. This week we learned that Fortune 500 female CEOs have broken three all-time records this year. We talk about mental health amid Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open. We learn why public companies choose to go private. Etsy buys Gen-Z-focused clothing resale app, while Rent the Runway plans for IPO. Pandemic-darlings, Lululemon, and Zoom reported earnings. We brought out the popcorn as, meme stock, AMC Entertainment has had a wild ride this week. This and much more. I hope you enjoy this edition.
Fortune 500 female CEOs broke records 🏆
The female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have broken three all-time records this year. First, the number of women running businesses on the Fortune 500 hit an all-time record of 41. That corresponds to 8.2%. Secondly, for the first time two Black women are running Fortune 500 businesses (Roz Brewer of No. 16 Walgreens Boots Alliance and Thasunda Brown Duckett of No. 79 TIAA). Finally, Karen Lynch of CVS Health (No. 4) is making history at the helm of the highest-ranking business ever run by a female CEO. The three milestones together amount to an exceptional year for the leadership of the Fortune 500, which ranks the US largest companies by total revenues for their respective fiscal years. The 67-year-old list has long been seen as a microcosm of US businesses at large. Thus, the number of female chief executives on the ranking is a closely watched statistic among those who track gender diversity in board rooms and C-suites. The number of women running Fortune 500 companies is influenced by several factors, including executive leadership changes and companies either growing large enough to make the list or shrinking to fall off of it. So, while the number is not a scientific assessment of the state of women in US business, it does provide a useful snapshot. One watershed moment this year was Karen Lynch taking over as the CEO of CVS Health in February. With CVS ranked No. 4 on this year's list, the $268 billion health care giant is now the largest company ever to be run by a female chief executive. That merit was previously held by General Motors when the now No. 22 ranked automaker was listed as No. 6 in 2014. General Motors is still led by CEO Mary Barra. Lynch's announcement was quickly followed by another big hire by Walgreens Boots Alliance of which Roz Brewer, the former Starbucks executive, became CEO in March. That announcement made Brewer, briefly, the only Black woman running a Fortune 500 company until she was joined by ex-JPMorgan Chase executive and new TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett in May. Before Duckett and Brewer began their new jobs, only one Black woman, former Xerox chief Ursula Burns had ever run a Fortune 500 business. Brewer, Duckett, and Lynch all took over from male CEO predecessors. As did new Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, who achieved an important first of her own, being the first woman to run a major Wall Street bank. Her appointment, alongside Duckett's at the retirement and investment manager TIAA, marked notable progress for the finance industry.
Let’s talk about mental health 💙
Over the past week, the French Open has been overshadowed by a heated debate around the obligations of its players to engage with the media. Last Wednesday, following Naomi Osaka’s victory over the Romanian player Patricia Maria Tig, the Japanese-American champion and current world number two completed her courtside post-match interview but chose not to attend the post-match press conference. As a result, the Grand Slam fined her $15,000 for breaking her “contractual media obligations.” Then on Monday, Osaka announced her withdrawal from this year’s French Open altogether. “I think the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris,” Osaka wrote in a statement on Twitter. The decision was a measure to look after her mental health. “The truth is I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she wrote. Osaka’s decision received mixed reactions from other players on the tour. Some said that talking to the media is part of the job and that the athletes have benefited from press recognition. All the same, many agreed that the media spotlight is a test of an athlete’s mental health. Serena Williams expressed her support: “I wish I could give her a hug because I know what it’s like. I’m thick (skinned). Other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently,” she said. Osaka has used her platform to call for racial justice and social change, famously sporting masks with the names of seven Black Americans killed by police at the US Open. In an era of increased athlete activism, she has stood out as one of the most outspoken, if not with words then certainly with symbolism. Osaka earned an estimated $37.4 million last year, the most of any female athlete ever.
According to studies cited by academics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), one-third of athletes have suffered at some point from a mental-health crisis that manifests as depression and anxiety, eating disorders, and burnout. Psychological well-being is also an important social issue in Osaka’s home country of Japan, which has the second-highest suicide rate and where there’s also a movement to bring more awareness about mental health in sports. In 2019, the IOC started a campaign to raise awareness, citing public disclosures by US medalist Michael Phelps about his struggles with depression after winning gold medals in London in 2012, and struggles by other prominent athletes. The Olympic Committee has also established a Mental Health Working Group, to better identify athletes at risk for mental health symptoms and disorders. Even though this is not directly a piece of finance-related news, I wanted to bring it up because it naturally raises a number of questions, including What’s to be done when one’s job includes tasks that pose risks to mental health? I believe, mental health is increasingly seen as a workplace issue and that employers need to be paying more attention to their employees’ well-being. Furthermore, the global pandemic opened the floodgates for discussion around mental health and propelled startups focused on the sector with both renewed demand and venture capital investment. According to Crunchbase data, investors have pumped $5.1 billion into 315 startups focused on mental health since 2016. Of that, over $1.8 billion has been invested so far in 2021. Of those 315 global companies, 97 mental health companies have female founders, with those companies raising nearly $1.7 billion in funding since 2016.
Guild Education more than triples valuation 📚
On Wednesday, Guild Education announced it has raised a $150 million Series E funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $3.75 billion, more than tripling its previous valuation of $1 billion. The Denver-based edtech company helps companies including Disney, Chipotle, Walmart, Taco Bell, and Lowe’s offer debt-free degrees to their employees. On Guild’s platform, users can enroll in programs from high school to trades, associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. The courses are usually flexible and don’t require a student to leave during the workday to complete a lesson or take an exam. For example, Chipotle has seen a 3.5 times higher retention rate among students enrolled in Guild programs, and frontline employees who participate in the Guild programs are 7.5x more likely to move into a management role than peers not enrolled. Guild sees an opportunity to grow among the 88 million working Americans that need to learn new professional skills to compete for jobs and to supplant the traditional notion that first obtaining a college degree is the way to a good job. The company currently offers between three and four million workers at major employers access to its platform, which helps the companies retain and upskill workers. Workers receive access to education benefits, including tuition reimbursement and tuition assistance. The new capital will be used to fuel the company’s growth, doubling the size of its product and engineering team, while also investing in its payments and technology platform. Investors in the new financing include Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Salesforce Ventures, and GSV.
Guild founder and CEO Rachel Carlson recently spoke on a panel about reframing the female founder narrative during the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit. She said that the business media landscape needs to reframe its coverage of female founders by carving space for diverse management tactics and that it should allow for “feminine leadership” styles. “We were all taught a masculine model of leadership and part of where the media narrative breaks down (and the employee narrative about what to expect of us as female CEOs breaks down) is that we have no playbook for [feminine leadership], right?” Carlson said.
“We all need to collectively redefine a standard for feminine leadership; it doesn’t have to be just women who practice it.”
Partially to achieve this end, Carlson started an employer-sponsored daycare for the children of Guild employees. “That’s part of my ability to employ a lot of badass moms and create a lot of generational wealth.” Carlson wants to be recognized by Guild’s daycare, and the company’s other accomplishments, rather than her face. “What I get frustrated by is that my male counterparts get coverage that talks about their companies as their brainchildren,” she says. “I get asked to be the poster child of Guild. Women shouldn’t have to be the poster children for our companies; we should be honored for our brainchildren.”
Public to private deals 🤝
Cloudera announced on Tuesday that private-equity firms KKR and Clayton Dubilier & Rice will take the cloud-based data analytics company private for $4.7billion. The $16 per share cash offer represents a premium of over 24% to Cloudera’s closing price last Friday (the US stock market was closed on Monday). The pandemic has boosted the demand for cloud-based services. As such, major cloud services providers including Amazon, Alphabet’s Google, and Microsoft have been pushing to provide products similar to ones offered by Cloudera. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. The deal also includes a 30-day “go-shop” period, which allows the company to consider alternative offers. Shares of Cloudera jumped more than 24% in premarket trading after the news.
Why does a public company choose to go private? There are obvious advantages to being a public company. For example, the buying and selling of public company shares is a relatively straightforward transaction for investors seeking a liquid asset. There is also a certain degree of prestige to being a publicly-traded company, implying a level of operational and financial size and success. However, there are also tremendous regulatory, administrative, financial reporting, and corporate governance laws to which public companies must comply. These activities can shift management's focus away from operating and growing a company and toward adherence to government regulations. Public companies must also conduct operational, accounting, and financial engineering to meet Wall Street's quarterly earnings expectations. This short-term focus on the quarterly earnings report can reduce the prioritization of longer-term functions and goals. As such a public to private transaction is when a large private-equity group, or a consortium of private-equity firms (as in the case for Cloudera), acquires the stock of a publicly traded corporation. Due to the large size of most public companies, it is normally not feasible for an acquiring company to finance the purchase single-handedly. Thus, the acquiring private-equity group typically needs to secure financing from an investment bank or related lender that can provide enough loans to help finance the deal. But the private equity groups also need to provide sufficient returns for their shareholders. Leveraging (debt financing) a company reduces the amount of equity needed to fund an acquisition and increases the returns on capital deployed. In other words, leveraging means the acquisition group borrows someone else's money to buy the company, pays the interest on that loan with the cash generated from the acquired company, and eventually pays off the loan balance with a portion of the company's appreciation in value. The rest of the cash flow and appreciation in value can be returned to investors as income and capital gains on their investment (after the private equity firm takes its cut of the management fees). As such, going private can be an attractive and viable alternative for many public companies. Being acquired can create significant financial gain for shareholders and CEOs while fewer regulatory and reporting requirements can free up time and money to focus on long-term goals. As long as debt levels are reasonable, and the company continues to maintain or grow its free cash flow, operating and running a private company may provide more long-term benefits to the company and its shareholders.
Gen Z and the resale boom 🛍
On Wednesday, e-commerce firm Etsy announced that it is buying the second-hand fashion marketplace app Depop for $1.62 billion. The acquisition is a part of an effort to reach a younger audience. Depop was founded in the UK in 2011 and claims to now have approximately 30 million registered users, of which 90% are under 26, across 150 countries. The online marketplace gives people the ability to sell their used clothes and other items. The cash deal, which is expected to close by the third quarter of this year, underscores the growing influence of clothing resale platforms. According to Boston Consulting Group, the global market for pre-owned apparel is worth up to $40 billion a year which is approximately 2% of the total apparel market. It is expected to grow 15 to 20% annually for the next five years. In a statement, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said that the company is “thrilled” to be adding what it believes to be the “resale home for Gen Z consumers” to Etsy. Depop’s CEO Maria Raga said in a statement that the company is “where the next generation comes to explore unique fashion and be part of a community that’s changing the way we shop.” Depop will remain headquartered in London, operating as a standalone business run by current management. The deal marks the biggest acquisition yet for Etsy, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015. In the past 12 months, shares of Etsy have roughly doubled thanks to an e-commerce boom resulting from the pandemic. However, the stock is down 5% year-to-date. After the acquisition announcement, Etsy shares were down marginally in US premarket trading. Prior to agreeing to a sale to Etsy, Depop had raised a total of $105.6 million from investors including General Atlantic, Creandum, Balderton Capital, Octopus Ventures, and Klarna CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
Also, on Wednesday Rent the Runway said it is expanding into resale, a major evolution for the fashion rental platform. In addition to renting designer clothes, customers will soon be able to buy used designer clothes from the business. No membership will be required, as Rent the Runway looks to broaden its reach and give shoppers more feasible entry points. Previously, only paying members were able to buy gently used clothes, at a discount. According to a Bloomberg report, Rent the Runway is interviewing banks for a potential IPO this year.
When life gives you lemons, make sure they are lulu’s 🧘♀️
On Thursday Lululemon Athletica reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings and saw revenue soar 88%, topping analysts’ estimates, as shopper traffic steadily rebounded to its stores.
Here’s how Lululemon did compared with what analysts were expecting:
Earnings per share: $1.16 adjusted vs. 91 cents expected
Revenue: $1.23 billion vs. $1.13 billion expected
Net income grew to $145 million, or $1.11 per share, from $28.6 million, or $0.22 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time charges, Lululemon earned $1.16 a share, better than the $0.91 per shares that analysts estimated. The pandemic fueled shopper demand for fitness gear to wear at home and to dress for at-home workouts such as running and spin biking. The trend, which hasn’t appeared to slow down, has benefited companies including Lululemon, Nike, and Under Armour. Lululemon’s direct-to-consumer revenue climbed 55% to $545.1 million year over year. Sales in North America grew 82% and increased 125% internationally. The company also owns the at-home fitness platform Mirror (which it acquired for $500 million in June 2020), a rival to Peloton. This year, Lululemon expects Mirror to drive between $250 million and $275 million in revenue.
Zoom in 👩💻
On Tuesday, another pandemic-darling, Zoom reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, with sales growth of 191%.
Here’s how the company did vs. analyst expectations:
Earnings per share: $1.32 per share, adjusted, vs. 99 cents per share as expected by analysts
Revenue: $956.2 million, vs. $906.0 million as expected by analysts
Revenue in the quarter, which ended on April 30, jumped from $328.2 million a year earlier. In the previous quarter, revenue rose 369% as Zoom lapped the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, which brought in millions of new users.
This week I started reading Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money, which discusses the often-overlooked impact that psychology and behavior have on our dealings with money.
Bring out the popcorn 🍿
This week shares of AMC Entertainment have continued to surge (last week’s ITM reported on the comeback of meme stocks), on Wednesday rising as much as 30% in premarket trading. The shares opened at an all-time high of $37.52, jumping nearly 20%, then climbed as high as $41.95, up more than 30%. Continuing on Wednesday, the frenzy of buying AMC stock triggered several trading halts, with meme-stock traders fueling a surge of more than 100%. Trading was halted several times for brief periods as shares changed hands at a brisk pace. More than 500 million shares have been exchanged, and at one point, AMC’s price peaked as high as $72.62, far above its previous intraday high of $36.72, which occurred last Friday. The stock closed at an all-time high of $62.55 per share, nearly double Tuesday’s closing price. The manic activity comes despite a report that a hedge fund had sold its stake in the movie theater company. On Tuesday, AMC reported it had sold 8.5 million newly issued shares to Mudrick Capital. The hedge fund later turned around and sold all of its AMC stock for a profit. AMC said in a securities filing that it raised $230.5 million through a stock sale to the investment firm. The movie theater operator said it would use the funds for potential acquisitions, upgrading its theaters, and deleveraging its balance sheet. AMC’s business was effectively halted during the pandemic, as cinemas were shuttered in most of the US for months. With no money coming in from ticket sales, the company fell behind on its rent. On the brink of bankruptcy, short-sellers swarmed the stock. But retail investors have used their growing numbers to fight back. Last week, investors shorting the stock were estimated to have lost $1.23 billion as the shares rallied more than 116%. As such, the company has been making special efforts to communicate with its new investor base. On Wednesday, it said it launched a new portal on its website for its retail investors, which includes special offers including a tub of free popcorn. Then on Thursday, AMC Entertainment said it plans to sell 11.5 million shares amid the trading frenzy in its stock. The same day the company revealed that it had sold an additional 11.5 million shares for $587 million. Then, again on Thursday, AMC sought approval from shareholders to issue up to 25 million more shares. If approved, the company would not be allowed to sell any of that stock until 2022. AMC shares ended a rollercoaster trading session down 18% on Thursday. AMC shares are up more than 3,000% so far this year, bringing its market capitalization to more than $32 billion. That makes it worth more than stocks like Delta Air Lines, State Street, and Best Buy.
Oil production and oil futures 🛢
On Tuesday a group of some of the world’s most powerful oil producers agreed to continue gradually easing production cuts amid a rebound in oil prices. OPEC (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and its oil-producing allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to boost output in July, in accordance with the group’s April decision to return 2.1 million barrels per day to the market between May and July. Production policy beyond July was not decided on. The group will meet again on July 1. On Tuesday, international benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $71.17 a barrel on, up around 2.7%, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures stood at $68.65, for a gain of more than 3% and the contract’s highest level in more than two years. Crude Oil futures are standardized, exchange-traded contracts in which the contract buyer agrees to take delivery, from the seller, a specific quantity of crude oil (crude oil is measured in thousands of barrels) at a predetermined price on a future delivery date. Oil prices have climbed more than 30% this year. The Middle East-dominated group, which is responsible for over one-third of global oil production, is seeking to balance an expected upswing in demand with the potential for an increase in Iranian output. The alliance announced massive crude production cuts in 2020 in an effort to support prices when the coronavirus pandemic coincided with a historic demand shock.
Global economic outlook 🌍
The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) revised higher its forecasts for the global economic outlook. On Monday, the organization said that the global economic outlook is improving as vaccine rollouts allow businesses to resume operations and as the United States pumps trillions of dollars into the world’s largest economy. It said that the global economy is set to grow 5.8% this year and 4.4% next year, raising its estimates from 5.6% and 4.0% respectively in its last forecasts released in March. The global economy has now returned to pre-pandemic activity levels but has not yet achieved the growth expected prior to the global health crisis.
How central banks target inflation 📌
In May, Eurozone inflation surged past the European Central Bank's (ECB) elusive target, heightening a communications challenge for policymakers who will happily live with higher prices for now but may face a backlash from irate consumers. Inflation in the 19 countries sharing the euro accelerated to 2% in May from 1.6% in April. A rise that was driven by higher energy costs to its fastest rate since late 2018 and above the ECB's aim of "below but close to 2%". And May is unlikely to be the peak. Inflation could be closer to 2.5% late in the year as the recovery from a pandemic-induced double-dip recession and recent commodity price increases add to price pressures. But, getting through this period is more a communications exercise for the ECB. The bank has already made clear that this is not the sort of inflation it is looking for after nearly a decade of undershooting its target, so policy will remain loose for years to come. Even the most conservative policymakers argue that the surge in inflation is temporary. The drivers of price growth will fade early next year, and inflation will be below target for years to come, especially since wage growth, a necessary component of durable inflation, remains anemic. Also, higher oil prices mask weak underlying trends and inflation for services and durable goods, more meaningful measures for central bankers, remains weak, rate-setters argue.
How do central banks target inflation? First of all, inflation is essentially the rate at which the value of a currency (here the euro) is falling and consequently the general level of prices for goods and services is rising. Most modern central banks target the rate of inflation in a country as their primary metric for monetary policy, usually at a rate of 2-3% annual inflation (ECB has a target of below but close to 2%). If prices rise faster than that, central banks tighten monetary policy by increasing interest rates. Higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive. Likewise, if inflation falls and economic output declines, the central bank will lower interest rates and make borrowing cheaper. As a strategy, inflation targeting views the primary goal of the central bank as maintaining price stability.
This week in the stock market 🎢
The week started off quietly, with public holidays both in the UK and the US. On Tuesday, European markets closed higher after recording their fourth straight month of gains, as investors grow confident about the prospects of the region’s economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis. In the US stocks got a muted start for June. During regular trading, the Dow gained 0.14%, while the S&P 500 broke a 3-day win streak to close down just 2 points. Nasdaq was the relative underperformer, shedding 0.09% for its second negative session in three. Despite the muted action, there were some gainers during the session, notably in stocks connected to the reopening. Airline and cruise operator companies saw their stocks jump on reports that coronavirus cases in the US continued to decline. Overall, inflation fears, and the ways in which the Federal Reserve might respond, have weighed on sentiment recently, although the major US averages are still hovering around all-time highs. Except for the meme stocks, Wednesday was again a quiet day of trading. The Dow rose just 25.07 points to close at 34,600.38. Similarly, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the day up 0.14%. On Thursday, the major US averages closed lower as gains in economic comeback plays were offset by declines in tech shares. The Dow fell 23 points, the S&P 500 slid nearly 0.4%, and Nasdaq was again the relative underperformer, dipping more than 1% as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google-parent Alphabet (the stocks are also known under the acronym FAANG stocks) dropped. Boosting sentiment around economic reopening was May’s US private job growth that rose at its fastest pace in nearly a year as companies hired nearly a million workers. Total hires came to 978,000 for the month, a jump from April’s 654,000 and the largest gain since June 2020. Economists surveyed had been looking for 680,000. The latest unemployment data was also better than expected. First-time claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended May 29 totaled 385,000, which marked the first time that jobless claims fell below 400,000 since the early days of the pandemic.
Plus ➕
New name: The new media company from the AT&T spin-off (reported in a previous edition of ITM) will be called Warner Bros. Discovery. The new company’s tagline will be, “the stuff that dreams are made of,” in a nod to the 1941 Warner Bros. film, The Maltese Falcon
Birdwatch: Twitter announced a bunch of things this week, including ads coming to Twitter’s version of Stories aka Fleets, “Tomorrow” a local weather news service that it is partnering up with veteran climate journalist Eric Holthaus, “Birdwatch” a fact-checking note, “Twitter Blue” a subscription service, and a redesign of the app itself
Baby shark: Shares of Samsung Publishing, a major shareholder in the producer of “Baby Shark,” soared more than 10% on Wednesday after a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the viral children’s song
Close the gender pay gap: Mario Draghi’s government gives Italy 10 years to close its wide gender pay gap
Ride it: Berlin-based Tier Mobility has raised $60 million from Goldman Sachs to help the e-scooter company expand its fleet and its network of battery charging stations in 2021
Fintech SPAC: SoFi Technologies went public by merging with Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corporation V, a special-purpose acquisition company or a SPAC. The SPAC deal assigned SoFi a post-money equity value of $8.65 billion. Shares closed up more than 12% after the debut on Nasdaq
And a music SPAC: The hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is nearing a deal with Universal Music Group that would see his SPAC Pershing Square Tontine Holdings acquire a 10% in the record label behind artists such as Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper. The deal will value the world’s largest record label at about $40 billion
Woman of the Week
Kathy Matsui
Kathy Matsui is the General Partner of MPower Partners, and the former vice-chair and chief Japan equity strategist of Goldman Sachs.
Matsui's parents were Japanese Christians who immigrated from Nara Prefecture in Japan to the US in the early 1960s. Matsui was born in California where she grew up working in the family business while attending school and taking Japanese classes on Saturdays. Matsui earned an AB, magna cum laude, in Social Studies from Harvard University and an MA from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. She has conducted research on Japanese foreign policy at Kobe University Graduate School on a Rotary Scholarship. After her Rotary Scholarship, she joined the Japan Strategy team of Barclays de Zoete Wedd Securities in spring 1990, just after the Japanese bubble economy peaked. She joined Goldman Sachs Japan in 1994, where she became managing director in 1998 and the first female partner in Japan in 2000.
“My passion is getting more women into the economy. In a country like Japan with a shrinking economy and population, using half that population more efficiently makes sense.”
In August 1999 Matsui published a report in which she coined the term "womenomics", in which she argues increasing the participation of women in the workforce as a better solution to Japan's economic stagnation than increasing immigration or the birthrate. At the time, only 56.7% of working-age women participated in the workforce in Japan. She likened such low participation to "running a marathon with one leg". Matsui’s interest in gender issues was piqued by her own climb. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe incorporated Matsui's womenomics research into his Abenomics economic reforms in 2012. In 2001, at age 36, Matsui was diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned to California for chemotherapy and recuperation. She returned to Goldman Sachs eight months later wearing a wig. Kathy has been ranked No. 1 in Japan Equity Strategy by Institutional Investor multiple times. She was chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of the "10 Women to Watch in Asia" for her work on the "Womenomics" theme and was also named to Bloomberg Markets magazine’s “50 Most Influential” list in 2014. Matsui left Goldman Sachs at the end of 2020, after which her next steps have been subject of speculation.
On Monday this week Matsui announced the launch of the MPower Partners Fund. In the male-dominated venture capital sector, the new fund is expected to be one of the top players worldwide founded by women. Matsui is one of the fund's three general partners (GPs). She is joined by Yumiko Murakami, former head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Tokyo Center, and Miwa Seki, who worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Eriko Suzuki, the former general partner at Fresco Capital, serves as managing director. The $150 million venture capital fund is focusing on environmental, social, and governance investing. The MPower fund will put money into startups with promising growth prospects that use technology to tackle social challenges, with an emphasis on fields such as health care, financial technology, education, and the environment. It plans to target growth-stage and more established Japanese startups, as well as earlier-stage companies abroad, with check sizes around 500 million yen to 1.5 billion yen ($4.55 million to $13.7 million). The fund anticipates using the GPs’ expertise to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs build a foundation for sustainable growth.
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I’m Marianne, an early-stage VC based in Stockholm. You can reach me by replying to this email, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.