Ayesha Ofori is a British entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Propelle, a UK financial education and investment platform designed for women. A former executive director and private wealth adviser at Goldman Sachs, she left banking to help close the gender investment gap and now speaks and writes about financial confidence, money psychology and women’s wealth.
Last updated: 10 November 2026
Reading time: about 8 minutes
How we wrote this article: this article was written by Saj Ali. It draws on interviews with CNBC Make It and Tempus Magazine and on Ayesha Ofori’s own website, quoting her only where her words are published, and links research on financial literacy.
Ayesha Ofori at a glance
- Role. Founder and CEO of Propelle, a women-focused investment platform in the UK.
- Background. Former Goldman Sachs executive director managing over £500 million in client assets.
- Education. Master’s in Physics and an MBA from London Business School.
- Turning point. Realising she had lost her sense of purpose at work.
- Message. Confidence, not capability, holds many women back from investing.
Contents
- From Physics to Private Wealth
- The Turning Point: Losing and Finding Purpose
- Testing the Idea Before Leaping
- The Problem She Set Out to Solve
- Building Propelle
- Lessons From Ayesha Ofori’s Story
- Ayesha Ofori Today
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Key Takeaways
- Explore More on Self Help Supermarket
- Sources
From Physics to Private Wealth
Ayesha Ofori holds a Master’s degree in Physics and an MBA from London Business School, and spent more than a decade in banking (Tempus Magazine, 2025). At Goldman Sachs she became an executive director and private wealth adviser to ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Over six years at Goldman, she managed just over £500 million (about $650 million) of client money, often for entrepreneurs who had built and sold successful businesses (CNBC Make It, 2024).
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| Education | Master’s in Physics; MBA (London Business School) |
| Banking | More than a decade in banking |
| Goldman Sachs | Executive director and private wealth adviser for six years |
| 2018 | Left Goldman to work on women’s wealth |
| September 2024 | Propelle’s investment platform launched |
| Today | Founder and CEO of Propelle; speaker, podcast host and author |
The Turning Point: Losing and Finding Purpose
By outward measures, Ofori’s career was going very well. She told CNBC: “I had gotten to a point in my career where things were going amazingly well. I was promoted to executive director, and I started to bring in lots of money. I hit that half a billion threshold.”
But looking ahead, she saw more of the same. “I realized it’s just more of the same … I’d lost my sense of purpose every day. It was almost getting monotonous,” she said. Then came a moment of clarity: “I remember one day I woke up and I was just like ‘I make incredibly rich men richer, that’s what I do, day in, day out'” (CNBC Make It).
In an interview with Tempus Magazine, she described the contrast that sparked her change: “I’d go from talking about millions at work to seeing how many of my brilliant, capable female friends didn’t feel confident managing their own finances… That was my lightbulb moment.”
The self-help lesson: success on paper does not always mean fulfilment. Noticing when work no longer feels meaningful can be the start of a better path. See our guide to life purpose and meaning.
Testing the Idea Before Leaping
Ofori didn’t build a company straight away. Before leaving Goldman, she started hosting events for women in London to share how wealth is built. Within a few months, 2,000 women had signed up to attend.
“I realized that I was onto something,” she told CNBC. “Just because women haven’t been investing doesn’t mean they don’t want to invest. They clearly do.”
The self-help lesson: test a new direction with small, real steps before a big leap. Events, side projects and conversations reveal whether there is real demand, and they build confidence. She also reframed boldness: “boldness doesn’t always come from loud gestures, sometimes it’s quietly building something that changes lives” (Tempus). Our guide to the GROW coaching model can help you plan the next step.
The Problem She Set Out to Solve
The UK’s gender investment gap stood at £567 billion (about $750 billion) in 2024, according to research by the firm Boring Money cited by CNBC, with men holding £1.01 trillion in investments compared with £450 billion for women.
Ofori identified two main barriers for women: time and confidence. “A lot of women tell us they don’t know where to start. There’s too much information. It’s too overwhelming and they don’t have time to sit there and figure it out,” she said. “So rather than make a mistake, they just don’t do anything” (CNBC Make It).
She also highlights the difference between saving and investing: “Saving and investing are not the same thing… women naturally default to saving and they save thinking they’re investing.”
Research supports the role of knowledge. A major review of financial literacy research found that financial knowledge is linked with better saving, planning and investing decisions, and that women on average score lower on financial literacy questions and are more likely to say they don’t know an answer (Lusardi and Mitchell, 2014).
Building Propelle
Propelle describes itself as the UK’s first financial education and investment platform designed specifically for women, though it is open to everyone. In her words to Tempus: “We help women build confidence with their money and investing through bitesize, jargon-free learning and we guide them through how to invest in a way that works for them. Community is also a big part of what we do.”
Key facts reported at launch (CNBC Make It):
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Launch | September 2024 |
| Pre-seed funding | Over £1.2 million (around $1.6 million), including $100,000 from Google |
| Investments offered | Funds from providers including Vanguard, BlackRock and HSBC |
| Features | Risk-tolerance tool, goal-based investing and values-based options such as sustainable and Shariah-compliant funds |
Tempus reported that partnerships with Google and McKinsey had supported more than 300 women, and that half of Propelle’s users start with education while the other half move straight to investing. As Tempus put it, this suggests “confidence, not capability, has been the key obstacle for women.” She was also shortlisted for the 2025 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards.
Building the company was not easy. “Fundraising has been one of the biggest challenges,” she told Tempus, noting that less than 2% of venture capital funding goes to women. “I’ve had to be incredibly resourceful. But maybe that’s part of what’s made Propelle work, we’ve been scrappy, smart, and focused on what actually matters.”
Lessons From Ayesha Ofori’s Story
| Lesson | How to apply it |
|---|---|
| Purpose matters more than status | Ask yourself whether your work still feels meaningful, not just successful |
| Notice the gap you care about | Ofori’s idea came from the contrast between her clients and her friends |
| Test before you leap | Run small experiments, like her women’s events, to check demand |
| Confidence can be learned | Start with small, low-risk steps to build skill and belief |
| Saving is not investing | Learn the difference and set goals that match your timeline |
| Community helps | Talk openly about money with people you trust |
For more on building confidence, see our guides to self-confidence, money and abundance mindset and imposter syndrome.
Ayesha Ofori Today
Alongside leading Propelle, Ofori speaks and writes on financial wellness, money psychology and women’s economic participation. Her website describes her as a “leading voice on financial decision-making, wealth building and women’s economic power” and lists keynotes, a podcast and a book on “becoming and staying a wealthy woman”. Her core message is optimistic: “The wealth gap is not inevitable. Access can change. Decision-making can change. Confidence can change. When they do, outcomes change.”
This profile is for general information and is not financial advice. Investments can go down as well as up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Ayesha Ofori?
Ayesha Ofori is the founder and CEO of Propelle, a UK financial education and investment platform for women, and a former Goldman Sachs executive director and private wealth adviser.
What is Propelle?
Propelle is a UK investment and financial education platform designed for women but open to all, offering jargon-free learning, community and access to investments.
Why did Ayesha Ofori leave Goldman Sachs?
She told CNBC she had lost her sense of purpose and realised she was making rich men richer, while many capable women around her lacked confidence with money.
When did Propelle launch?
Propelle’s investment platform launched in September 2024.
What is the UK gender investment gap?
Research by Boring Money, cited by CNBC in 2024, put the gap at £567 billion (about $750 billion), with men holding £1.01 trillion in investments and women £450 billion.
What does Ayesha Ofori say holds women back from investing?
Mainly lack of time and confidence: too much information, not knowing where to start, and worry about making mistakes.
Key Takeaways
- Ayesha Ofori left a senior Goldman Sachs role after realising she had lost her sense of purpose.
- She tested her idea with events for women before building Propelle.
- Propelle launched in September 2024 to help women invest with confidence.
- She sees confidence, not capability, as the main barrier for women investors.
- Her story shows the value of purpose, small experiments and learned confidence.
Explore More on Self Help Supermarket
Use these pages alongside this one:
- Money and Abundance Mindset – building a healthy relationship with money
- Self-Confidence – practical ways to build belief in yourself
- Life Purpose and Meaning – finding work that matters to you
- Imposter Syndrome – overcoming self-doubt
- GROW Model – planning your next step
- Bill Kenney – a professional spotlight on trust and authenticity
- Browse all self-help techniques – compare every method on Self Help Supermarket.
Sources
- Bhaimiya, S. (2024, September 25). Meet the ex-Goldman wealth advisor who quit to solve Britain’s £567 billion gender investment gap. CNBC Make It. https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/2024/09/25/ex-goldman-director-quit-to-solve-uks-gender-investment-gap-.html
- Dubey, S. (2025, April 24). Interview: Propelle founder Ayesha Ofori on her quest to make investing accessible for women. Tempus Magazine. https://tempusmagazine.co.uk/news/propelle-founder-ayesha-ofori-investing-accessible-women/
- Ayesha Ofori. Official website. https://ayeshaofori.com/
- Lusardi, A., and Mitchell, O. S. (2014). The economic importance of financial literacy: Theory and evidence. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(1), 5–44. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.52.1.5
Self Help Supermarket guides are for general information and are not a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice.