Girls Are Investors

What Girls Are Investors does

Girls Are Investors (GAIN) is a UK-registered charity (no. 1182317) founded in Autumn 2019 and headquartered in London, operating with a women-led, fully remote team. Its mission is to improve gender balance in the investment management industry by running free educational programmes for young women and non-binary students from secondary school through university. The portfolio includes the Schools Investment Challenge, the University Investment Challenge, the GAIN Investment Insight Programme (GIIP), Insight Days hosted by partner firms, and the flagship GAIN Empower Investment Internship Programme, which places students in paid internships with leading investment firms (530+ interns completed across 87 partner firms as of 2025). Supporting resources include a bursary for low-income students, a Resource Library, a Jobs Board, a fortnightly newsletter, a podcast, and a volunteer portal that tracks mentoring and issue digital badges.

The technology stack is light and operationally focused: Beacon Forms for application processing, Mentorloop as the mentoring platform, AmplifyMe for pre-internship technical training, and AI tools (including Anthropic's Claude) for application originality checks and internal document drafting. There is no proprietary platform product; the IP is in the programme curriculum, the curated firm network, and the brand.

GAIN does not generate revenue from student-facing services — all programmes are free. The financial model is a donation-and-sponsorship model: multi-tier corporate sponsorships (Platinum, Gold, Silver) from 60+ investment firms (including Apollo, Troy Asset Management, Brown Advisory, Findlay Park, St. James's Place, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Baillie Gifford, Man Group, UBS, Barings), individual donations, and institutional/foundation grants. The organisation also earned three industry awards between 2024 and 2025 (Investment Week Diversity & Inclusion Initiative of the Year, Mentorloop Most Impactful Mentoring Programme, Money Awareness Inclusion Awards Closing the Gender Gap) and expanded internationally in May 2024 with the launch of GAIN Sweden.

Name

Girls Are Investors

Legal name

Girls Are Investors UK

Website

https://gainuk.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

GAIN is a UK-registered charity running free educational programmes, mentoring, and paid internship placements to help young women and non-binary students explore investment management careers, funded by corporate sponsorships, donations, and grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Workforce Diversity & Education Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Gender Lens / Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Funds (FSANAJAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Scholarships, Grants & Education Benefits Administration (Financing-adjacent) (FSAKAEAM)

Keywords

• Charity education programmes
• Investment diversity initiatives
• Women in finance
• Student mentoring services
• Career pathway programmes

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Corporate Sponsorships: Investment firms sponsor GAIN at various tiers (Platinum, Gold, Silver) gaining visibility, access to talent pipeline, and association with diversity initiatives. Sponsorship includes logo placement, event participation, and recruiting opportunities.
2. Donations: Individual donations from supporters of GAIN's mission to improve gender diversity in investment management. GAIN is a registered charity (number 1182317) in England.
3. Institutional & Foundation Grants: Corporate foundations and institutional grant-makers provide funding to support gender diversity in finance initiatives. GAIN welcomes strategic grants to scale impact.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Girls Are Investors (GAIN) is a UK-registered charity that delivers free educational programmes, competitions, mentoring, and paid internship placements to young women and non-binary students interested in investment management careers. It connects students with more than 60 corporate sponsor firms and 90+ university societies through programmes such as the Schools Investment Challenge, GAIN Investment Insight Programme, University Investment Challenge, and the GAIN Empower Investment Internship Programme.

Product overview

GAIN (Girls Are Investors) is a UK-registered charity dedicated to improving gender diversity in investment management. The organization offers a portfolio of free educational programmes and resources for young women and non-binary students: the Schools Investment Challenge (national stock pitch competition for Years 10-13), the GAIN Investment Insight Programme (10-week programme with workshops, mentoring, and Spring Insight Days), the University Investment Challenge (team-based investment competition for university students), and the GAIN Empower Investment Internship Programme (flagship paid internship programme with technical training and mentoring). Additional offerings include Insight Days hosted by investment firms, a GAIN Bursary for financial support, a Resource Library with guides and videos, a Jobs Board, Student Newsletter, and a Volunteer Portal for managing volunteer engagement. The organization also expanded internationally with GAIN Sweden in 2024.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Schools Investment Challenge

Quantifiable outcome

• 64% of GAIN interns were offered an investment role or subsequent investment internship (in 2025)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and community partner.

• GAIN SwedencoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 May 2024International expansion of GAIN's programmes and initiatives in Sweden, operating as a separate entity with local management. Launched with Altor Equity Partners as first investment partner.
• AmplifyMecommunity partnerTechnology or IntegrationCommunity partner providing technical training modules for GAIN's pre-internship programme, helping students develop investment skills.
• Mentorloopcommunity partnerTechnology or IntegrationPlatform partner providing mentoring management system used by GAIN to match mentors with mentees and track mentoring programme performance.
• CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment)community partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvides prizes for GAIN Investment Challenges including professional qualification courses, student memberships, and cash awards.
• Smart Workscommunity partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvides interview skills support to GAIN internship applicants, offering dressing service and interview coaching.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Investment Week: UK trade publication that hosted the Investment Week Awards where GAIN won its D&I Initiative of the Year 2024 award. Functions as an industry media partner and recognition channel rather than a direct competitor.

Broad incumbents

• The Investment Association: UK trade body representing investment managers; runs industry-wide D&I initiatives and convenes many of the same firms that sponsor GAIN. Potential partner but also broader industry coordination body.
• CFA Institute: Global investment professional body that runs the CFA programme and increasingly pursues diversity and inclusion initiatives. Provides the broader professional qualification ecosystem that GAIN alumni enter into.

Direct peers

• Girls Who Invest: US-based nonprofit running scholarship and internship programmes that prepare college women for careers in asset management. Closely comparable mission, programme structure (summer intensive + internship), and corporate sponsorship model.
• SEO London: UK arm of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, providing educational and internship programmes to students from underrepresented backgrounds across multiple industries including finance. Operates a comparable pipeline-and-sponsorship model.
• 100 Women in Finance: Global nonprofit advancing women in alternative investments and finance through education, mentoring, and networking — operating a similar pipeline-building model targeting the investment industry with firm sponsorship.
• Out for Undergraduate (o4u): US-based nonprofit running investment-industry conferences and mentoring programmes for LGBTQ+ undergraduates. Comparable model: corporate-sponsored pipeline events, mentoring, and internship placement targeting the buy-side.
• SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity): Parent organisation of SEO London; broader US pipeline programme into finance and consulting for underrepresented students. Closely comparable pipeline-and-firm-sponsorship structure with industry placement outcomes.
• The Diversity Project: UK investment-industry-led initiative whose members include most of the same asset managers that sponsor GAIN. Overlaps heavily in mission (improving diversity in UK investment management) and convenes the same sponsor firms.

Emerging players

• Mission Investors Exchange: US-based membership network for foundations deploying impact capital. Comparable in that its members (and the firms they engage) increasingly overlap with GAIN's gender-lens/DEI sponsor base, though focused on capital deployment rather than talent pipeline.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@girlsareinvestors
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gain-girlsareinvestors
• Instagraminstagram.com/gainuk_org
• TikToktiktok.com/@gainuk_org
• Xx.com/AreInvestors

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Girls Are Investors