social-finance
(4)
Christina Leijonhufvud
Christina Leijonhufvud is the co-founder and CEO of BlueMark, the leading independent provider of impact verification and market intelligence for investors. A veteran of Wall Street, she spent more than 15 years at J.P. Morgan, where in 2007 she created the bank's Social Finance business and helped put impact investing on the map for institutional investors. She later co-founded the impact consulting firm Tideline before launching BlueMark in 2020 to bring third-party verification and benchmarking to a fast-growing industry facing scrutiny over impact-washing.
Forte
Forte is a New York-based social enterprise that finances reskilling and workforce development at no cost to individuals or governments and without relying on philanthropy. Founded by Dr Nat Ware on an idea he developed during his economics PhD at Oxford, Forte (Financing Of Return To Employment) sits between funders of education and training and the providers who deliver it, so funders 'never fund failure' - they only pay when people are trained and placed into better jobs. Repayment is tied to the future income-tax uplift generated by newly employed workers. Forte has run programs across Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, the United States and Peru, and its model has been endorsed by the World Economic Forum.
Frich
Frich is a New York-based social finance app for Gen Z that turns money - historically the most awkward topic on earth - into a shared, anonymous conversation. Users answer a daily 'Question of the Day' and benchmark their spending, saving, debt, and parental support against real peers in similar cities and tax brackets. Founded in 2021 by former NYU Abu Dhabi classmates Katrin Kaurov and Aleksandra Medina, Frich has grown past one million users and monetizes through a B2B model, partnering with credit unions and regional banks that want to reach younger members.
Katrin Kaurov
Katrin Kaurov is the Estonian co-founder and CEO of Frich, a New York based social finance app that lets Gen Z anonymously compare how their peers spend, save and invest. A former international model who worked across 20+ countries before age 18, she went on to Harvard's entrepreneurship program and built Frich with co-founder Aleksandra Medina out of a shared NYC apartment.