The fresh capital will allow StarTalers to bring its online financial advisory service to the market.

A group of European female business angels and the Seeder fund, a Belgian VC, completed the EUR 520,000 round led by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The proceeds will be mainly used to reinforce Startalers' technical team to finalize the development of its digital platform.

Subsequent to the financing, Pierre Schoonbroodt, CFO and Member of the Executive Committee of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and Dominique Wroblewski, Partner & COO of Look&Fin, will be joining Startalers’ Board of Directors. These two highly killed finance and fintech executives shall help the founding team to achieve its ambitious goals. A strategic committee with industry experts and seasoned entrepreneurs will further complement the skills of the management team.

The objective is to commercially launch its digital financial advisory service in the Luxembourg, Belgian and French markets in the upcoming year before expanding, in a second stage, into other European markets.

An award-winning start-up for the female investor community

Since its creation in 2018, StarTalers’s digital financial advisor has begun to address a subgroup of potential investors that so far has been neglected by the majority of the financial services industry, namely "women with no prior investment experience". The start-up caters specifically to each women financial situations and needs and has brought together a new community of female investors who want to make a positive environmental and social impact through their personal investments. Once launched, StarTalers will make it possible for this new and expanding group of investors to build an investment portfolio that reflects each investor’s individual values and personal goals.  

In just one year in operations, StarTalers has already won several awards for its innovative approach. Gaëlle Haag, StarTalers co-founder and CEO, received the Whoopi Goldberg Female Empowerment Award at the 2018 Arch Summit in Luxembourg for her work in providing women with an educational platform that breaks down the taboo surrounding female investment. Her co-founder, Thierry Smets, brings over 25 years of experience in wealth management and together they make a very balanced and complementary team that has been able to convince investors. StarTalers was also recognised by Luxinnovation and has graduated this year from the Fit 4 Start programme, dedicated to start-ups with high potential, whose grant contributed to the funding round.

“This investment by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange marks a huge step forward for the future of StarTalers. It provides the crucial funding needed to develop and launch our platform so that we can help women become financial investors. We estimate that women in Europe have around EUR 580 billion in assets which are not being invested today, largely because women feel excluded from the investment world. This is something we would like to change,” says Gaëlle Haag, co-founder and CEO of StarTalers.

Promoting sustainable finance

While the StarTalers team will continue to perfect their digital financial advisor, LuxSE keeps advancing the sustainable finance agenda in Luxembourg and beyond.

“The mission of StarTalers and its focus on responsible investing are fully in line with our exchange’s efforts in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals’ agenda and advancing sustainable finance. StarTalers is a young start-up with a big purpose, namely, to make the financial world more inclusive, while helping female investors make a positive environmental or social impact through their investments. StarTalers not only aligns with our leading status as a sustainable exchange, but also with the main aspects of our CSR strategy. We are proud to be part of this project,” commented Julie Becker, Member of the Executive Committee of LuxSE and Founder of the Luxembourg Green Exchange.