Investment Platform Aimed at Women, Ellevest Launches in Austin

Ellevest's co-founder Sallie Krawcheck, created the investment platform to "close the gender investing gap and redefine investing for women with a practical, goals-based approach," according to a news release. Krawcheck has nearly 30 years of experience leading financial services companies on Wall Street as a former CEO of Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Citi Private Bank.

The platform lets women invest in different goals and then track their progress.

"Women live longer than men, are paid less than men and take more career breaks than our male counterparts, meaning investing is crucial to women's financial health," Krawcheck said in a news release. "These differences have largely been ignored by Wall Street—but that ends today."

The Ellevest platform lets a woman enter her personal details like age, education and income and her financial goals to create an investment portfolio tailored to meet those goals. It doesn't require a minimum balance and it charges a flat rate of 0.5 percent per year of managed assets.

"The gender investing gap can cost some women more in the long term than the gender pay gap, but no one is talking about it yet," Krawcheck said. "Our aim is to educate women about this issue and give them the tools they need to take control of their finances through investing; and, in doing so, to give them the opportunity to reach their goals—whether that means buying a house, traveling the world, retiring on her own terms or all of the above."