Meet The Founder

Julie Brangstrup

Julie Brangstrup is a Danish entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in marketing, events, and entertainment. Her career began at Morgan Stanley in 1998, and just two years later, she co-launched Vitaviva.com, an online Danish health supplements company. From 2001 to 2010, she co-founded and played a pivotal role in the Gumball 3000 Group, where she oversaw five companies under the group, achieving a valuation of £120 million GBP by 2006.

In 2012, Julie founded CASH & ROCKET, a groundbreaking community platform that unites women from diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and professions, all with the shared goal of raising funds for global charities with a focus on education. To date, CASH & ROCKET has raised $5.3 million, supporting numerous impactful charities worldwide.

Continuing her passion for connecting visionary minds, Julie launched THE RAY GROUP in 2023, an exclusive, invitation-only international community. The Ray Group brings together a select group of adventurous individualists, mavericks, and thought leaders, fostering connections and collaborations among like-minded individuals who share a curiosity about the world and a commitment to shared values.

Julie’s dedication to strong family values is reflected in her thoughtful and meticulous organisation of these special group adventures. Driven by a genuine care for bringing together interesting and engaged individuals, Julie has harnessed her greatest talent—curating and nurturing communities of remarkable people.

As a mother of a big family my children are the center of my world. I’m there in the morning to take them to school, and I’m there in the evening to tuck them up in bed. I’ve stood freezing on the sidelines of countless rugby matches, and sat in the audience at endless dance recitals. I taught my children how to ride a bike, how to swim; I help them with homework. I know my story as a full-time parent and a busy working mum is no different to the stories of thousands of other women out there.

But is this security, love and encouragement that I am able to offer my children on a daily basis, something that perhaps we take for granted as a society? What if I didn’t have the resources or the finances to give my children the medical, educational and emotional support they need? It was this thought, that inspired me to create CASH & ROCKET. What if I could bring together 80 powerful, influential, inspirational women together to drive a four-day tour, raising money and awareness for three incredible charities. I wanted to revolutionise the landscape of how women talk about the social and economic problems facing mothers and children on a worldwide scale.

The CASH & ROCKET Tour unites women of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities and professions, but for four days we stand together as one voice. It is a well-known fact that we can achieve more together, than we can alone. This is the CASH & ROCKET manifesto: to emancipate women, allowing them to come together as a catalyst for good, through a unique lifestyle experience. It is my belief that women are an incredibly powerful force for change; this trip is about adventure, friendship, unification, love, and solidarity, in turn these positive emotions are what empower us to do more and be more.

The women who join me each year are mothers, but they are also businesswomen, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, models, designers, and journalists. The reason I wanted to involve such powerful female figures and international luxury lifestyle brands was partly because they have a unique access to a public stage. By taking advantage of personal and professional networks, we bring a bigger message to a wider audience.

I want to give 80 women the chance to see the impact they can make in four days with 40 red cars, and their own powerful voices. We are not simply anonymous donators who have found a convenient means of self-gratification. We are women empowering other women, mothers supporting other mothers. Once we raise the money, our long journey is only just beginning. Our work is to provide education, safety, opportunities and to make sure that the women and children get the chance they deserve. I plan to see through this until the very end. Since I founded CASH & ROCKET, I have been back to visit the projects each year, to meet the children, to witness first hand what women can achieve when they get together for a common goal. This – for me – is the most important, and indeed most rewarding aspect of the CASH & ROCKET concept.

I want to create a better life for families who do not have the means or the sustainability to achieve their dreams alone. We are helping young girls and boys in the Limpopo Province of South Africa to achieve a full education, from primary school through to university, so that they may grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow’s South Africa. We have given cash transfers and built ‘forever homes’ for families in Ghana so that they can care for their children, as well as give young people a safe, sustainable, supportive environment in which they can grow up.

In Sierra Leone we have invested in new schools, agricultural programs, adult literacy lessons and microloans for women. By investing in the community, we are investing in and transforming the landscape of opportunities. Possibilities open to many thousands of women and children. In the UK we have supported young women who have been through terror and slavery by helping them with education, housing and future jobs.

These projects are not quick fixes, they are long-term solutions to real social problems, the effects of which will be felt for generations to come. I believe that adventure is a hugely underestimated catalyst. When people are passionate, they become productive; when people are inspired they become innovative. What we are doing is unique. We are uniting NGOs in Africa, UK and US with luxury international brands and powerful women in order to reinvent the way people initiate change; it will accelerate if you’ll open your heart, open your mind, and join in.