INVESTING
GERRY POIRIER
Unleashing the Economic Power of Women with AngeLink, The World’s First Social Fintech Built by Women With heated political rhetoric in today’s current climate, the divide among individuals is greater than ever. Gerry Poirier, who has dedicated her career to the financial sector, understands the power of creating unity through a trusted and safe online community called AngeLink. Developed to address socio-economic barriers and bring women together on a crowdfunding digital platform, AngeLink is a social impact company that truly delivers on its promise of breaking barriers. By Amy Poliakoff
“Early on, when I was working on Wall Street, I was often the only woman in the room. But when I worked overseas in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, I was sometimes the only woman in the building. I experienced firsthand the economic disparity women face around the world and saw a significant problem that I wanted to solve. Women were being underserved across the entire economic spectrum, so I vowed one day to start a company to help level the playing field for women,” said Poirier. Poirier started AngeLink with the idea of a “Female-Centric GoFundMe” to create a radically new ecosystem of financial inclusion and to elevate women to their highest potential. The company’s innovative crowdfunding platform enables a large number of individuals to come together and support those in need with small amounts of money shared through collective unity. “I founded AngeLink to address pervasive gender inequality and economic disparity that continues to deny women a voice on a global level,” said Poirier.
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Her idea was simple: to develop the world’s first female-powered crowdfunding community to connect, empower, and amplify female voices and improve the lives of billions. “Every day, women struggle. No one should have to choose between feeding their children or paying rent. Women live a shared experience, being disadvantaged in so many aspects of their lives. Change is long overdue. The world faces a reckoning from centuries of gender bias and economic inequality in nearly every country,” said Poirier. Women control over 85 percent of household spending on a global basis. However, they face significant economic inequality and make 20 percent less than men for doing the same work. According to a recent Forbes article, 78 percent of the U.S. population now live paycheck to paycheck. "What people don’t realize is that the vast majority of this number are women, leaving them with less savings for unexpected expenses such as medical bills or emergencies. What’s worse is when women
try to start a small business to earn more money and boost their income, 98 percent of them will be turned away from venture capital firms, leaving women disillusioned and economically disadvantaged,” said Poirier. With AngeLink, Poirier is on a mission to unleash the economic power of women on a global scale, giving them a voice. “With a focus on female-forward missions, we’re helping to fill the gap for women who represent the global majority of underserved communities in every country,” said Poirier. Having launched in June 2022, raising $8 million and gaining over 80,000 users thus far, AngeLink is growing rapidly. The company recently won the Best New Marketplace Bold Award by Crowdsourcing Week as well as the coveted Mindshare Award. AngeLink surpasses competitors with its innovative safe, secure, and trusted AI-driven platform, user-friendly free tools, and empathetic, caring female-centric community. The company announced the first AI-driven fundraising technology to help users share their stories. AngeLink’s unique, first-of-