This week, Feminvest took the communtiy to Båstad and Nordea Open, one of the oldest women's tennis tournaments in the world. What happened on that panel was a reminder of something we already knew: the parallels between sport and business are not metaphors. They are the same story.  

 

 

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Nordea Open has existed since 1948. Serena Williams has won here. The stands fill up for the women's final. And this year, eight young Swedish players stepped onto the same clay courts as the world's best  including a fifteen-year-old for whom this week will be one of those moments that reshapes what she believes is possible. Sofia Arvidsson, Tour Director of Nordea Open, played here herself as a teenager. She knows what it means to stand across the net from someone you have only ever seen on a screen. Seeing what is possible is the first step toward believing you can build it. 

 

The women's final was sold out. That is not a small detail. It is a signal — that audiences show up when women compete at the highest level, and that the assumption that women's sport draws smaller crowds is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is finally, visibly breaking down.

Equal prize money is not charity  it is a statement 

 

Prize money remains unequal across most professional sports. Nordea Open pays equally. Sofia's view was clear: **economic recognition is not a gesture — it is a message to every young player watching that their time, their talent, and their ambition are worth the same.**

The business world has the same conversation every day. Pay transparency. Equal investment. Equitable access to capital. The language differs but the principle is identical. And tennis  a sport that has led on gender equality for decades  is still ahead of most industries. 

 

Axel Boye-Möller from VISA brought the infrastructure perspective. VISA processes an extraordinary volume of global transactions every day — and with that scale comes both responsibility and reach. Their She's Next programme has supported female entrepreneurs globally for years, and his message was consistent with what we hear from founders in our own community: **what women need most is not just capital  it is access, credibility, and the right room.**

The She's Next programme does not simply write cheques. It opens networks. It connects entrepreneurs to partners, authorities, and industry organisations who can accelerate what would otherwise take years. The power of small steps — Axel's phrase — is that each one changes what the next one can be.

####

#### Safe transactions in an uncertain world 

 

The conversation also went somewhere unexpected  to fraud, AI, and the infrastructure of trust. Studies suggest 54% of fraudulent transactions go undetected. The eight largest banks in Great Britain are now collaborating in real time to change that  sharing data, sharing intelligence, and catching what none of them could catch alone.

Axel's point was sharp: **AI is both the solution and the threat.** The same models that detect fraud are being used to commit it. The organisations that will win are those that move faster toward collaboration than toward competition  and that invest in the infrastructure of trust before the crisis forces them to.

It is the same argument we make at Feminvest about community. Infrastructure built before it is needed is the only kind that actually works.

Network is the real currency

VISA connects billions. Nordea Open brings players from 30+ countries to one place. Feminvest has had close to 2,000 companies apply in a single year. In each case, the value is not the transaction — it is the connection that the transaction makes possible.

Is "who you know" still the real currency? The honest answer from the panel was yes — but with a critical caveat: **who you know is a function of what rooms you are in. And who gets into those rooms is still not equal.** That is exactly why building the infrastructure for access matters more than any individual opportunity. 

 

A Swedish player is ranked first in the country and 200th in the world. A woman takes a loan and starts a company. A teenage girl watches the final and decides that she could do that. 

 

**Where does change begin in the big system, or in these moments?**

The answer we landed on in Båstad: both. The moments create the belief. The belief creates the demand. The demand creates the system. And the system if we build it right  makes the moments possible for everyone, not just the few who happened to be in the right room.

That is what Feminvest is building. One connection, one founder, one community at a time.

blog

Where tennis meets business

### $124 trillion will change hands by 2048. Women will receive the majority of it.  

 

We are living through the largest generational transfer of wealth in recorded history. Over the next two decades, Baby Boomers and older generations will pass an estimated $124 trillion in assets to heirs, widows, and charities. And one pattern has already emerged clearly: women are receiving the majority of it. 

 

By 2030, women in the United States alone are expected to control $34 trillion in financial assets up from $7.3 trillion just a decade ago. Women now control 32% of global wealth, a figure that continues to climb through inheritance, longer life expectancy, and rapidly growing earning power. Within five years, that share is projected to reach 38% of all investable assets $30 trillion in financial power. 

 

**Why this is happening now**

Three forces are converging simultaneously. First, inheritance, women outlive men by an average of five to six years, which means the majority of inherited wealth from couples flows to women first. Second, earnings, women are reaching senior leadership and ownership positions in record numbers, with women-owned businesses growing 12% between 2022 and 2025 and now generating $2.8 trillion in revenue in the US alone. Third, investment, younger women are entering financial markets at higher rates than any previous generation, with millennials and Gen Z women showing strong preferences for impact, ESG, and values-based investing. This is not incremental progress. It is a structural realignment of who holds economic power  and it is happening faster than most institutions are prepared for. 

 

**What women do differently with wealth**

The data on how women invest is consistent across studies: they prioritise resilience, purpose, and long-term thinking. They are more likely to direct capital toward sustainable growth, family security, and social impact. They give more philanthropically, women control a disproportionate share of charitable giving relative to their wealth. And they build differently, when women acquire businesses or make investment decisions, they tend to hire more women, creating a compounding effect through the ecosystem. This is not a soft story about values. It is a hard story about capital allocation. When $30 trillion moves into the hands of investors who prioritise impact and long-term thinking, the cost of capital for green infrastructure, women-led companies, and purpose-driven businesses changes. The whole market moves. 

 

**What this means for Feminvest**

At Feminvest, we have been building for exactly this moment. Our community-based investment model is not just about funding women-led companies today it is about building the infrastructure that will support women as investors, decision-makers, and wealth holders as this transition accelerates. Close to 2,000 companies have applied to Feminvest in our first year alone. The founders are here. The capital is beginning to follow. And the women who will inherit and earn and invest the wealth of the next two decades are already building financial literacy, network, and confidence through communities like ours.

The Great Wealth Transfer is the single most important financial trend of our generation. Feminvest exists to make sure women are not just recipients of that wealth but architects of what it builds next. 

 

[Join Feminvest membership](https://www.feminvest.se/en/medlemskap/ "Feminvest Membershio") 

 

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[Join the accelerator](https://www.feminvestaccelerator.se/ "Feminvest Accelerator")

The greatest transfer of wealth in history is going to women.

Feminvest Ventures celebrates the successful EUR 2.5 million Seed financing of portfolio company Digiclean, having been the company's first investor and an early believer in founder Charlotte Stigen Låstberg's vision to modernise industrial cleaning through data and AI. And for Feminvest Ventures' investors: the value of our initial position has doubled.

 

The Seed round is co-led by Unconventional Ventures and Almi Invest GreenTech, with participation from S-E-Bankens Utvecklingsstiftelse, Impact Shakers and Feminvest Ventures. The new capital will enable Digiclean to accelerate product development and expand commercially across Sweden and Europe.  

 

"Industrial cleaning is a fundamental part of how factories operate, yet it has remained largely unchanged for decades. We are building the tools needed to make it measurable, optimisable and aligned with modern efficiency and sustainability requirements. With the incredible support and belief of Unconventional Ventures and Almi Invest GreenTech, we can accelerate this transition across industries. Feminvest continued support through this Seed round reflects the strong partnership we have built," said Charlotte Stigen Låstberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Digiclean. 

 

Feminvest Ventures invested in Digiclean at an early stage, recognising both the strength of the founding team and the opportunity to transform one of manufacturing's least digitised yet most critical industrial processes. Today, Digiclean's platform is deployed across more than 20 industrial sites, helping manufacturers optimise cleaning chemistry, reduce chemical consumption, minimise downtime and improve operational efficiency through real-time monitoring and AI-driven automation. 

 

"Backing exceptional founders before others see the opportunity is central to our investment philosophy. We believed in Charlotte and the  

Digiclean team from the very beginning because they combined deep industry expertise with a bold vision to solve a significant industrial challenge. Seeing the company now attract leading European investors validates both the market opportunity and the team's execution," - Mareauline Bernitz, General Partner at Feminvest Ventures. 

 

Industrial cleaning directly impacts production quality, equipment performance and sustainability, yet the chemistry behind these processes has historically been managed through manual testing and experience rather than data. Digiclean is changing that by making process chemistry measurable, automated and actionable.   

 

"Digiclean has done something most early-stage companies struggle with: they have built a technically differentiated product and secured validation from leading industrial customers. The team's ability to translate a complex technical solution into commercial traction at such an early stage is particularly impressive. Combined with strong unit economics, favourable regulatory tailwinds, and deep domain expertise, we believe Digiclean is exceptionally well positioned to capitalise on a significant market opportunity." – Jonathan Lannö, Investment Manager, Almi Invest GreenTech. 

 

"At Unconventional Ventures, we look for companies working in places that have been overlooked — where the problem is real, the founder has lived it, and the commercial logic is inseparable from the impact case. Digiclean is all three. Charlotte grew up inside the industrial chemical industry. She knows the problem from the inside out. And every sensor her team installs reduces chemical consumption, wastewater, and CO2 while generating recurring revenue — impact and returns are not in tension here, they are the same thing. That is exactly the kind of company Unconventional Ventures was built to back." – Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, Partner, Unconventional Ventures. 

 

For Feminvest Ventures, Digiclean represents exactly the type of company the fund seeks to support: a female-led company solving large problems with scalable innovation, measurable customer value and global growth potential. The successful Seed round marks an important milestone not only for Digiclean but also for the growing number of women building category-defining companies in deep technology and industrial innovation.   

 

**Feminvest Ventures**

Feminvest Ventures is part of Feminvest Group, an international platform with over 55,000 participants. Feminvest Ventures focuses on investing in companies where at least 50 percent of the ownership belongs to women. [www.feminvest.se/en/ventures](https://www.feminvest.se/en/ventures) 

 

**Digiclean Solutions**

Digiclean Solutions is a Swedish deeptech company revolutionizing the way the industry manages process chemicals. Through a unique combination of sensor technology and AI, we offer a plug-and-play solution that optimizes chemical usage in real time, with a focus on cleaning processes and technical cleanliness. Our technology enables up to 60% reduction in chemical consumption, improved traceability, and minimized environmental impact, while supporting the industry’s transition to sustainable production and business models such as "chemistry-as-a-service." With strong customer traction from companies like Volvo, SKF, and Parker Hannifin, Digiclean is a leading force in enabling a more circular and resource-efficient industrial future.&#x20;

**Contact:** Charlotte Stigen Låstberg, CEO and Co-Founder [www.digicleansolutions.com/](https://www.digicleansolutions.com/)

 

**About Unconventional Ventures**

Unconventional Ventures is an impact-focused venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology companies tackling critical inefficiencies in resource-intensive industries. UV backs founders building scalable solutions at the intersection of operational performance and measurable environmental impact. UV Fund II is based in Copenhagen and invests across Nordic and European markets, with a focus on companies where revenue growth and positive environmental outcomes are structurally the same variable.[ www.unconventional.vc](http://www.unconventional.vc) 

 

**About Almi Invest**

Almi Invest is one of Sweden's most active early-stage venture capital investors, operating through regional funds across the country. Almi Invest supports growth companies with capital and operational expertise. Almi Invest GreenTech focuses specifically on companies developing sustainable technology solutions with the potential to scale across European industrial and environmental markets.[ www.almi.se/almi-invest](http://www.almi.se/almi-invest)

Feminvest Ventures Celebrates Digiclean's EUR 2.5M Seed Round

**Exciting News from Charly Our Portfolio Company: Announcing a Partnership with SPP! 🚀**

We are thrilled to share that our portfolio company has officially partnered with SPP, a significant player in the pension industry. This collaboration aims to tackle the gender pension gap, which often begins long before retirement, shaped by choices related to parental leave, part-time work, and household responsibilities. 

 

### Understanding the Challenge

The gender pension gap is a pressing issue that affects many families. Key factors contributing to this disparity include:

* **Parental Leave**: Women frequently take longer leaves, impacting their career trajectories and pension savings.
* **Part-Time Employment**: Many women work part-time, leading to lower income and reduced pension contributions.
* **Domestic Duties**: Unequal sharing of household responsibilities can limit women's career advancement opportunities.

### The Commitment

With SPP, our portfolio company aims to empower families by:

* **Simplifying Understanding**: Making it easier for families to grasp how their choices influence future pensions.
* **Encouraging Proactive Decisions**: Providing insights that encourage early financial planning for enhanced economic security.
* **Raising Awareness**: Educating families on the long-term effects of everyday decisions on their financial futures.

### A Unique Collaboration

SPP’s impressive reach, with over 800,000 private customers and around 16,000 corporate clients, presents a unique opportunity for our portfolio company. This partnership will enable them to connect with a wide audience and facilitate informed financial decision-making. 

 

### Emphasizing Innovation

This collaboration is particularly exciting as SPP values innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. Our portfolio company’s mission aligns perfectly with SPP's vision, making this partnership a powerful step toward addressing financial inequalities. 

 

### Looking Ahead

This partnership marks a transformative moment for our portfolio company and the families it aims to serve. Together with SPP, we are poised to make a meaningful impact on the future of pensions and promote greater financial equality.

Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this journey together! 

 

[https://charly.se/](https://charly.se/)

Exciting News from Our Portfolio Company Charly: Announcing a Partnership with SPP! 

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Where tennis meets business

The greatest transfer of wealth in history is going to women.

Feminvest Ventures Celebrates Digiclean's EUR 2.5M Seed Round

Exciting News from Our Portfolio Company Charly: Announcing a Partnership with SPP!