What model Natalia Vodianova did next
Natalia Vodianova tells Helen Chandler-wilde she’s putting her faith in female entrepreneurs
The statistics on the struggles of female entrepreneurs are a depressing read:
90 per cent of funding goes to all-male founder teams in the UK, and, in the US, all-male teams are four times more likely to get investment than if they have even one woman in the team.
But the story is different if you cross paths with Natalia Vodianova, the supermodel.
The 37-year-old is putting to good use the money earned in a twodecades-long fashion career from huge contracts with brands such as Calvin Klein and Guerlain. Now she spends her days managing a portfolio of “impact investments”: businesses that can make the world a better place while still bringing return. The latest was founded by two women.
Vodianova is stepping into a man’s world, given that just 14 per cent of UK business angels are female. This wild under-representation leaves many reporting that women in the pitching room face unconscious – and conscious – bias, leading to female entrepreneurs starting businesses with half as much capital as men. She is looking after her wallet too – women-led start-ups delivered twice as much return as those led by men in a study by management consultant group BCG.
I meet her in Google’s office just behind King’s Cross station, where she is due to talk to a forum of female start-up founders nders about her latest investment. It’s a company called Little Tummy, y, a baby food subscription ption service described ribed as “Deliveroo for or babies” which h was founded by Nadine Hellmann and d Dr Sophie Niedermaier- - Patramani. It produces healthy baby food treated with special technology to o give it a longer shelf life. ife.
Vodianova has admitted in the he past she is “a little military” itary” when it comes to her er children not eating junk nk food, telling Porter r magazine
Passion: Natalia ia Vodianova and Antoine Arnault in 2017 that she got strict with her son when he was 10 and “getting a little chubby”, saying: “Well I tell them they are gorgeous and beautiful and all those good things, but I tell them to watch what they eat, because those habits will stay forever.”
She sees Little Tummy as part of her mission to improve the lives of women burdened with more domestic jobs even when they work full-time. “It’s proven that having one child for a mother is the same pressure as having two and a half jobs”, she says, referring to a 2018 survey, that found stay-at-home mothers had an average working week of 98 hours, with little more than an hour a day to themselves.
Vodianova is the mother of five children, three with former husband Justin Portman, a property heir. Her two youngest children are with her current partner Antoine Arnault, CEO of menswear brand Berluti, which is owned by his father Bernard’s LVMH luxury goods conglomerate.
I ask whether she sh splits the cooking with Arnault.
“Even scrambled scram eggs is an issue for my mym man,” she says with a long sigh, adding add that he does help put the th children to bed. “It’s still a femaledominated domina space, still women are making those decisio decisions of what to feed their baby, b what to buy,” she says. say That’s why she embraces embrac the term “mumpreneur”. “mump
She is firm that her identity a as a mother is a big motivator as to why she has continued to work, even though she sh could retire comfortably comfortab right now. “It’s something they will be much more proud prou of when they grow up,” she adds.
The life of her children is vastly different diff to her own upbringing, upbring in a poor family in Nizhny Nizhn Novgorod, a city 250 miles east of Moscow. She helped her mother, after her father walked out, to raise her younger sister Oksana, who has epilepsy and autism. There were days when she had only a cup of powdered soup to eat. Things changed when, at 17, she was spotted by a model scout. The agency gave her an advance to pay off her mother’s debts and she moved to Paris.
She says the experience informed her desire to do good in the world. She founded a charity, the Naked Heart Foundation, following the Beslan school massacre in 2004, to support children and families in Russia. She then founded Elbi in 2018, an app for charitable giving which incentivises donors with fashion rewards.
Vodianova doesn’t pass for an ordinary investor. Most founders at the Google conference are dressed safely: all navy blue and shoes that don’t rub. She wears a vest under an oversized blazer, tight jeans and dark red crocodile skin mules. She still moves in celebrity circles: shortly after we meet she is photographed on the front row at Paris Fashion Week, in Cannes and at starry charity dinners.
This involvement with fashion can be tricky to align with her ethical principles. The industry’s success is built on people buying more than they need, and replacing it seasonally. Rejecting work with less sustainable brands was not possible in her early career, she says, when there would always be a model to replace her.
“But today I’m much more aware and I am making my choices much more carefully than before because I have different priorities,” she adds.
She says her partner “feels that urgency” to make LVMH a more sustainable operation. In July this year, it announced a partnership with Stella Mccartney, which it said emphasised its commitment to sustainability.
She adds that her partner is passionate about philanthropy because “he understands that they have been very privileged, especially as children, to inherit this great company”.
Vodianova thinks that tech may be the answer. One start-up she has invested in, 3D Look, uses image recognition software to map a consumer’s sizing with just two selfies, allowing them to virtually “try on” clothes.
It also gives producers a clearer understanding of what their client’s bodies are really like, making sure they produce clothes in the right sizes and proportions. This could help brands reduce the controversial practice of burning unsold clothing.
“It’s producing less, more effectively, and the return rate drops by 30 per cent,” she says.
She attributes her tough start in life to her drive to make a better world.
“When I became successful I left literally millions of people behind who were in a similar situation”, she says. “It’s a huge responsibility but I have managed to turn it into something extremely positive and purposeful.”