36 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility 37 Resilient Futures Fund
Editorial and thought leadership
40 Member Spotlights
Designing Financial Products to Help Women Entrepreneurs
Level Up in Southern Africa
Advancing opportunities for women in Nigeria’s health sector
Building the Evidence Base for the Impact of the 2X Criteria
Embedding Gender Across Investment Strategy and Practice
Supporting funds from GLI theory to practice
Unlocking First-Time Credit for Women Through Fintech
Beyond Returns: Reducing Food Loss and Increasing Agency with GLI
Putting Women-Led Community Engagement at the Center of Climate Action in Colombia
Message from our CEO
Jessica Espinoza CEO, 2X Global
In a global environment marked by uncertainty and growing challenges, our commitment has remained clear and unwavering: to transform financial systems so they better serve women, strengthen economies and expand opportunity for all.
This conviction guided every step of our work in 2025 - all of which I’m pleased to share with you in this, our 2025 Annual Report.
Our Report covers the accomplishments and milestones achieved throughout the year and documents the steady progress and foundational work undertaken along the way.
As you read through this publication, I trust you will recognise the common, unbreakable thread running throughout our work in 2025 - and that is commitment.
Together with our members and partners, we advanced initiatives in 2025 that not only address persistent barriers but also actively reshape the investment landscape.
Among the year’s most significant milestones:
Deploying catalytic capital through the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility a catalytic vehicle which provides flexible loan capital to help firsttime, women-led fund managers build a track record, accelerate their path to first close, and unlock even more capital for gendersmart, impact-driven investments.
Bringing the Resilient Futures Fund to market an important step in expanding access to capital for women-led climate resilience solutions. The Fund demonstrates how targeted financial support can accelerate innovation on the ground while strengthening women’s leadership in addressing global challenges.
Our collaboration with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange to coauthor a landmark study contributing new insights and evidence to strengthen market understanding, transparency and accountability in advancing financial equality. This research represents a critical contribution to the growing body of knowledge shaping investment practice worldwide.
These achievements reflect our broader commitment to building the infrastructure that enables capital to flow more effectively toward women. Throughout 2025, we deepened our efforts in research, market engagement and field-building, ensuring that investors are equipped with the tools, evidence and confidence to act.
The engine driving this progress is our membershipa community of organisations and leaders united by a shared ambition to close the gender gap in finance and expand economic opportunity.
As I reflect on the past year, I remain inspired by what we are building together. The progress outlined in this report is not only a measure of institutional growth, but a testament to what is possible when commitment, community and capital converge.
the common, unbreakable thread running throughout our work in 2025 and that is commitment.
Dr Kshama Fernandes Board Chair, 2X Global
Message from our Chair
It is my pleasure to write to you for the first time as Chair of the Board of Directors of 2X Global, and to introduce our 2025 Annual Report, which showcases our endeavours, accomplishments and impact over the past year.
I do so with deep respect for the extraordinary foundation laid by our inaugural Chair, Suhkvir Basran, over the previous three years. Under her leadership, together with our Inaugural and then Governing Board, 2X Global has become a powerful, credible and unifying force advancing investment in women.
Today, we build on that legacy with renewed energy and a clear sense of purpose - one that has never been more important.
At a time when global headwinds challenged equity, inclusiveness and impact-driven finance, 2X Global forged forward in 2025 rather than stepping back. We chose to double down on strengthening the field through our convening, capacity building, research, capital mobilisation and allocation initiatives as well as our advocacy, so that we can close the gender gap in finance and further progress towards equality.
In 2025, we:
• Deepened our community building efforts, engaging hundreds of members and the wider field through inperson and online convenings and capacity building. These ranged from our virtual GLI Deep Dives, which brought together nearly 400 participants for intensive peer learning, to our 2X Ignite events, which connected over 300 senior women in investment in the world’s financial capitals, to our 2X Global Summit, held in the heart of the world’s most populous continent;
• Made measurable progress on our signature capital mobilisation initiative, the 2X Challenge, qualifying scores of gender lens investments across nearly 40 countries and;
• Co-published and partnered on critical research to help advance the field, demonstrating the opportunity and growth in gender bonds as well as the power of the 2X Criteria in driving high quality gender outcomes in investment.
build capacity advance standards shift markets
In all of this, we have been guided by our strategic pillars: with the goal of unlocking more capital for many, many more women.
These efforts have been both supported and mutually reinforced by our members, with our efforts sharpening and improving their investment practices and scope and their efforts shaping and deepening our collective knowledge base.
Throughout 2025, 2X Global continued to demonstrate leadership, with our team and board members contributing to high-level dialogues and engaging strategic partners, to ensure that women’s economic empowerment remains central to policy, actions and conversations about growth, resilience and shared prosperity.
This spirit of determination is what I know will come through clearly as you read through this Report and explore the work which we undertook in 2025.
And it is this spirit of determination which we are taking with us throughout 2026 and into the future as we strive to build a world where capital truly works for women and hence for us all.
We strive to build a world where capital truly works for women and hence for us all.
Theory of Change
2X Global is transforming the financial system to enable and drive positive outcomes for women, girls, and marginalised groups.
2X Global works with the entire investment ecosystem to shift mindsets and markets around the opportunity in gender lens investing, including:
building investor capacity advancing standards shifting markets through knowledge, partnerships, and tools that deepen investor commitment.
that broaden industry engagement in gender finance to track mobilised, financial performance, and gender impact.
to drive investor commitments at scale, unlock capital, and shape financial innovation.
THEN
2X Global, together with its members, will contribute to creating a financial system that is equitable, inclusive, and values women and girls and the planet.
For capital providers, it means:
Women, girls, and marginalised groups will have:
capital is continually invested in intentionally driving gender-smart outcomes,
gender-smart analysis (including risk and materiality) is normalised as part of the investment life cycle, and
gender parity, diversity, and inclusivity are achieved in investment organisations and the broader financial system.
access to and control over productive resources and skills development, information, decent work, and career advancement and opportunity,
equity in every aspect, as business owners and entrepreneurs, leaders and workers,
financial and non-financial support needed to succeed, including benefits and services that enable them to fulfil their potential,
financial independence and control over their assets,
a voice, agency, dignity, and meaningful participation in financial decision-making at all levels in the household, businesses, and financial and international institutions, and
recognition and rewards for the value of their contributions.
Building Investor Capacity
Highlights included:
Brought together 228 leaders and stakeholders from 127 organisations across 43 countries for the 2025 2X Global Summit. Hosted in Manila, the Philippines, this was our first Summit in Asia. Participants reported a 92% satisfaction score, with 95% commending the speakers, 83% forming three or more new connections, and 70% reporting increased GLI knowledge.
Hosted curated capacity building for 372 members during our GLI Deep Dives, our new member-exclusive series of virtual miniconferences on gender lens investing.
Delivered training on the 2X Criteria to 410 individuals across seven public and member-exclusive training sessions in 2025.
Facilitated learning for 1536 people through our 2X Ignite Digital Academy, designed to support emerging, women-led fund managers.
Created spaces for collaboration and connection across the gender finance ecosystem through the 15 2X Investor Meet-Ups we hosted in 2025, held in key global financial hubs including Johannesburg, Lagos, London, Luxembourg, Mexico City and Singapore.
Highlights
92 satisfacti on score
410 indi vi duals trained on the 2X Criteria
1536 people reached through the 2X Ignite Digital Academy organisati ons 127 countri es 43 %
15 Investor Meet‑Ups
Advance and Align Standards
Highlights included:
Expanded the reach of 2X Certification, with eight organisations successfully completing independent verification and becoming officially 2X Certified, demonstrating continued market demand for credible, independently verified standards for gender-smart investment.
Strengthened the integrity and usability of the 2X Criteria through an updated Reference Guide, introducing new guidance on the application of the Criteria to complex investment structures and improving consistency and transparency for market participants.
Advanced the next generation of certification products by developing and piloting a dedicated 2X Certification methodology for Financial Institutions, laying the groundwork for broader adoption across institutional investors and financial intermediaries.
Completed the framework for 2X Certification for Gender Bonds, creating the foundation for applying robust, market-recognised gender standards to thematic bond issuances and supporting the continued growth of gender-responsive capital markets.
Shift and Shape Markets
Qualified 70 investments under the 2X Challenge, representing US$1.4 billion deployed across 38 countries.
Started capital deployment under the 2X Ignite Africa
Warehousing Facility, our catalytic market-building investment facility to provide warehouse capital to first-time, women-led fund managers in Africa. Approved investment for and on-boarded our first investee.
Brought the Resilient Futures Fund (RFF) to market, an initiative to bring catalytic capital to climate solutions led by, involving or benefiting women.
Under the 2X Challenge:
70 US$1.4
investments billi on deployed
Together with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, launched a gender-bonds study analysing five years’ worth of data on 576 sustainable bonds which allocate all or part of their proceeds to projects contributing to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
38 countri es
Impact Partners
Our partners’ support has been a constant guiding star, enabling us to build investor capacity, advance deeper standards of gender finance, and shift markets through research and thought leadership, all in service of transforming financial systems and unlocking gender-smart capital at scale.
We are appreciative of our generous funding partners, who include:
At 2X Global, 2025 was a year which showed that the appetite for, and determination to invest in and support women’s economic empowerment, remained strong.
Amidst the rapidly shifting geopolitical environment and headwinds facing efforts at furthering gender equity, diversity and inclusion, 2X Global still saw tailwinds as our global community got to work, sharpening their skills and building community to advance gender lens investing.
Interest and participation in 2X Global’s capacitybuilding offerings and convenings were encouragingly high in 2025 - both amongst members accessing exclusive, in-depth training and convenings and tellingly, amidst non-members, with continued high interest in free public training and our ecosystem-open events.
The numbers tell the tale.
Nearly 400 members took part in our new GLI Deep Dives, members-only virtual mini-conferences on gender-lens investing, spanning three events in 2025, covering digital and financial inclusion, climate finance, and innovation strategies.
Overall,
journeyed to the world’s most populous continent for our flagship member convening, the 2X Global Summit, co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines.
We hosted 15 2X Investor Meet-Ups in 2025,
bringing the wider investment ecosystem together at these in-person events held across key financial hubs such as Johannesburg, Singapore, London, Lagos, and Mexico City.
2025 was a year of reaffirmation one in which the 2X Global community continued to show and prove their conviction that investing in women is still a high-value, sustainable and resilient investment strategy.
Capacity Building GLI Deep Dives
In 2025, we introduced GLI Deep Dives, a new capacity building initiative which meets and supports members at differing stages of their gender-smart investing journey. To this end, our GLI Deep Dives offered two tailored tracks at each event:
Knowledge,
covering core concepts and actionable tools featuring practical case studies and market opportunity signals.
Designed in response to member feedback calling for more hands-on application, these are quarterly virtual mini-conferences around our communities of practice.
During the year,
372 members Opportunities,
participated across three events:
March 19 and 20
June 3 and 4
December 9 and 10
Inclusive Futures which explored digital and financial inclusion
Resilience Multiplier highlighting the role of women in strengthening climate outcomes
Investment Playbook which showcased financial innovation strategies advancing inclusive growth.
Other member training and capacity building
2X Criteria Training
Hundreds of gender-smart investors worldwide participated in the seven 2X Criteria training sessions our team delivered in 2025, which were open to 2X Global members, their investees, and the broader ecosystem.
410 individuals trained
The sessions generated strong interest and participation, with 410 individuals trained across development finance institutions and multilateral development banks, asset managers, financial institutions, service providers, companies, and foundations and philanthropies.
2X Ignite Community of Practice
The specialised 2X Ignite Community of Practice continued in 2025, offering curated training and a confidential space for the emerging women-led fund managers who are the focus of the 2X Ignite programme.
Our team delivered four CoP sessions and two masterclasses — each designed as a testing ground for new ideas and shared learning. Participants engaged directly with LPs such as Sarona Capital and Swedfund, while gaining practical insights from experienced GPs, including Zin Bekkali (2X Ignite Warehousing Facility IC Member and Founder of Silk Invest) on navigating the pathway to first close. Between 20 to 55 participants took part in each session.
Alongside this hands-on capacity building, we also scaled our self-guided learning platform, the 2X Ignite Digital Academy, with
1,542
1,536 enrolments
active learners engaged in self-paced, modular training programmes in 2025.
Convening 2X Global Summit
The 2X Global Summit is the preeminent convening for our member and partner organisations that invest in and support women’s economic empowerment worldwide. Held annually in different countries, it brings leaders, experts and advocates for gender finance together in person to build deeper connections, network, collaborate and accelerate action to close the gender financing gap.
228
127
43
participants organisations countries
The 2X Global Summit 2025 co-hosted with the Asian Development Bank, had 228 participants from 127 organisations across 43 countries, reinforcing the Summit’s role as a key agenda‑setting platform for the gender‑smart investing field. in Manila, Philipines
Under the 2025 theme
Women Driving Resilience
the programme advanced system-level conversations on how insurance can act as a lever for resilience, how AI governance must be shaped as a gender-equity issue, and how nature-based solutions can serve as long-term economic drivers for women.
The 2X Global Summit continued to strengthen the infrastructure of the gender-smart investment market by convening the institutions, investors and practitioners driving its growth. Across 24 sessions, participants exchanged practical solutions, built new partnerships and identified opportunities to accelerate the mobilisation of gender-smart capital.
The Summit also reinforced the value of the 2X Global network as a trusted community of practice. Postevent feedback showed that participants not only valued the experience (92% overall satisfaction) but also left with stronger professional networks (83% formed three or more new connections) and greater capability to apply gender lens investing approaches (70% reported increased knowledge).
Satisfaction score
Commended the speakers Reported increased
2X Investor Meet-ups and field events
Throughout 2025, 2X Global strengthened its role as a trusted convener of the gender finance ecosystem, creating opportunities for investors, financial institutions and partners to exchange insights, develop strategic relationships and identify pathways for collaboration.
Our 15 2X Investor Meet-Ups, held across major financial centres including Johannesburg, Singapore, London, Lagos and Mexico City, fostered high-trust dialogue that strengthened connections across the community and reinforced a shared commitment to advancing gendersmart investment. These gatherings helped deepen relationships between market actors, surface emerging opportunities and build momentum for further collaboration.
Beyond our own convenings, 2X Global continued to shape global conversations on gender finance, participating in more than 30 leading industry forums, including the EIB Forum, Skoll World Forum, AVCA Annual Conference, SuperReturn Asia, SuperReturn Africa and the GIIN Impact Forum.
These engagements expanded the visibility and credibility of gendersmart investing within mainstream investment discussions, helping to position gender as a core investment consideration. Collectively these efforts strengthened awareness of the business case for gender-smart investment, expanded partnership opportunities, and reinforced growing momentum to integrate gender into global capital markets.
Other member engagement
Over 30 +100 58%
2X Investor Meet-Ups industry events monthly active users on 2X Connect activity rate 15
Amidst in-person and virtual convenings, we strengthened member connection through a revitalised 2X Connect, our central digital platform and knowledge hub, designed to keep members engaged between live events and strengthen peer-to-peer connections. The platform now supports more than 100 monthly active users, with an activity rate of 58%, and has become the primary space for crowdsourcing solutions, sharing insights, and accessing member-only resources, event recordings, and the latest GLI research.
Partner Perspective
The Asian Development Bank
Established in 1966, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) remains committed to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment in Asia and the Pacific and across its 69 member countries.
As part of the Midterm Review of Strategy 2030, ADB reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, highlighting it as a central priority within the resilience and empowerment strategic focus area. Through its support for gender lens investing, ADB mobilises private capital toward women-led and women-benefiting businesses—helping close the global $1.4 to $1.7 trillion credit gap and strengthen economic resilience.
These efforts are yielding tangible results: 42.3 million female-owned small businesses and 54 financial institutions across 11 countries are currently supported through ADB’s active private sector portfolio.
Solving Complex Challenges with 2X Global and Partners
We are collectively confronting a persistent challenge: despite decades of progress, women remain significantly underrepresented in decision-making spaces, in the capital flows that drive innovation and infrastructure, and in the systems that shape how we anticipate and respond to the crises defining our era. This exclusion is not only unjust— it undermines efficiency, innovation, and development.
ADB is partnering with over 20 private equity funds, with the number steadily increasing, across Asia and the Pacific to advance gender lens investing strategies.
Our partnership with 2X Global is key to helping shift the investment paradigm by integrating gender analysis into fund origination, portfolio management, and impact measurement.
Looking Ahead
As we work with our clients each day, we are encouraged by how far the market has progressed. Clients are building capacity, refining approaches and recognising the value of gender lens investing. Our focus now is to continue to work in partnership to consolidate these gains, scale what works and translate momentum into sustained impact and value creation.
2025 was a year of momentum for 2X Global’s work under our Advancing and Aligning Standards pillar, one in which we advanced our initiatives setting and deepening standards for how investors and companies support women’s economic empowerment.
Having accomplished the milestone of officially launching 2X Certification in late 2024, we took it further in 2025, and eight new Entities went through the independent verification process to become officially 2X Certified.
Building on this traction and sustained market interest in 2X Certification as a signal for global investors of verifiable, high quality gender lens investing, 2X Certification expanded its scope, developing new methodologies to expand the initiative.
This included developing a methodology for 2X Certification for Financial Institutions and advancing a 2X Certification methodology for bonds.
Similarly, we built on the previous year’s progress with the 2X Criteria - our framework originally created to underpin the 2X Challenge and which has since become the global framework for defining gender-smart investment.
Following the advances of 2024, which saw us launch the most extensive update of the 2X Criteria in five years, we built on this progress in 2025 with targeted updates to the 2X Criteria Reference Guide to strengthen and expand guidance.
This included requested guidance on how complex investment structures (guarantees, risk-sharing facilities, bonds, real estate platforms) can be aligned with the 2X Criteria.
The 2X Criteria… which has since become the global framework for defining gender-smart investment.
2X Criteria
It has now become the global framework for defining gender smart investment and thousands of investors and companies worldwide use it today.
The 2X Criteria is our framework, originally created in 2018, for assessing and structuring investments under the 2X Challenge. It has now become the global framework for defining gendersmart investment and thousands of investors and companies worldwide use it today.
In 2025, we updated the 2X Criteria Reference Guide to strengthen and expand the guidance, including new guidelines on how complex investment structures (guarantees, risk-sharing facilities, bonds, real estate platforms) can align with the 2X Criteria.
These updates incorporated feedback from users of the Reference Guide and reflect 2X Global’s ongoing commitment to refining and strengthening the framework based on practical experience and stakeholder feedback, thereby reinforcing the impact of gender lens investing globally.
In 2025, the 2X Criteria Reference Guide was downloaded by 1,600 individuals from 1,200 organisations, reflecting continued strong interest and appetite across the ecosystem for enhancing standards of gender lens investing. During the year, the Guide was downloaded by representatives from DFIs/MDBs, corporate investors, financial institutions, foundations, philanthropic organisations, fund managers, pension funds, and other stakeholders.
In 2025
the 2X Criteria Reference Guide was downloaded by individuals organisations
1600 1200 from
2X Certification
is a pivotal tool for advancing gender equality in the investment industry.
First launched in late 2024, 2X Certification is an independent certification standard with third-party verification that is a pivotal tool for advancing gender equality in the investment industry. 2X Certification independently certifies the quality and ambition of gender performance at Good, Advanced and Best-in-Class levels, across defined dimensions based on the 2X Criteria - entrepreneurship/ownership, leadership, employment, supply chain, products and services, and portfolio - and themes.
It aims to provide a clear, credible framework for assessing and recognising companies’ and funds’ efforts to promote gender-smart practices.
2X Certification experienced strong momentum throughout 2025, with eight entities becoming officially 2X Certified, reflecting increasing adoption among funds and companies looking to close the ‘verification gap’ in gender lens investing.
Throughout the year, we focused on expanding the scope of 2X Certification in order to reach new parts of the investment ecosystem. To that end, we developed a new methodology for Financial Institutions and successfully completed early testing with selected partners. We also advanced work on developing 2X Certification for bonds, finalising the framework and positioning the initiative to scale across capital markets in 2026.
Partner Perspective
FinDev Canada
Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment have been part of our central priorities for FinDev Canada since our launch in 2018.
This commitment is reflected in our 2019 Gender Equality Strategy, which sets out a comprehensive approach to advancing women’s entrepreneurship, leadership, quality employment, and access to services.
We are proud to apply a gender lens approach to 100% of our investments. We consider this approach a key enabler of our objective to achieve a more stable and prosperous future for all, while delivering measurable development impact and financial returns. Indeed, research shows that a more gender-equal private sector is linked to improved business performance and economic growth, presenting a valuable opportunity for investors.
Our approach combines direct and indirect investments aligned with the 2X Criteria, targeted technical assistance, and market-level initiatives that address structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment.
FinDev Canada & 2X Global: A
Long-Standing Partnership
FinDev Canada’s partnership with 2X Global is based on a shared commitment to deploy capital for women’s economic empowerment at scale.
FinDev Canada is one of the founding members of the 2X Challenge, 2X Global’s flagship initiative, which has catalysed over USD 33.6 billion since 2018 to advance measurable changes and financing directed to women’s empowerment.
In 2026, FinDev Canada launched a technical assistance project, designed in close collaboration with 2X Global and BII, designed to accelerate the pace, volume, and quality of GLI by enhancing the applicability and strategic value of the 2X Challenge.
The project is expected to deliver long-term benefits by strengthening the infrastructure and value proposition for GLI.
FinDev Canada’s Contributions to the GLI Ecosystem
Beyond our engagement with 2X Global, FinDev Canada has been an active contributor to the gender lens investing (GLI) ecosystem.
In 2025, we commissioned our first independent impact evaluation to assess gender equality outcomes across our portfolio investments and reflect on seven years of GLI.
The evaluation confirmed that incorporating a GLI approach yields a lasting impact on women’s economic empowerment and highlights practical levers for investors to drive transformative change across portfolios.
We also support the market through initiatives such as our Gender Lens Investing Fund Manager Training, which equips fund managers and investment professionals to expand their capabilities on Gender Lens Investing using the 2X Criteria as the guiding framework.
Looking ahead
We recognise that gender equality and women’s economic empowerment are key to creating global, impactful, and lasting change. Moreover, investors can gain from genderlens strategies, as a more gender-equal private sector is associated with better business performance and economic growth.
FinDev Canada remains committed to addressing urgent development needs by working with the private sector to advance gender equality and accelerate progress.
Our partnership with 2X Global is a critical investment in the long-term infrastructure of the GLI ecosystem. By strengthening tools, evidence, and shared standards, this initiative is expected to deliver long-term impact in the field of GLI.
Looking ahead, we hope the partnership continues to drive broader adoption of credible GLI approaches and to provide insights that help investors translate gender commitments into measurable impact for women and girls across markets.
A key part of 2X Global’s work and mission is to truly transform financial systems, creating more space for women-owned, women-led, and women-benefiting businesses to access capital, connections, and opportunities.
Under our Shifting and Shaping Markets pillar, 2X Global engages the finance ecosystem from multiple entry points, with programmes that mobilise capital, enhance the capacity of women capital allocators, and deliver catalytic capital to those driving women’s economic empowerment.
In 2025, 2X Global’s longest-standing market shaping initiatives, the 2X Challenge and 2X Ignite, made measurable progress and broke new ground, respectively. Meanwhile, our newest initiative, the Resilient Futures Fund (RFF), was introduced to the market, bringing catalytic capital to climate solutions led by, involving or benefiting women.
In its first full year, the third edition of the 2X Challenge continued to make progress, with 70 qualified 2X Challenge investments deployed across 38 countries.
After reaching a first close anchored by KfW in late 2024, the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility was officially launched in 2025 and started capital deployment. The Facility is a catalytic initiative which provides flexible loan capital to help first-time, women-led fund managers build a track record and unlock more capital. By year-end, the Facility had provided warehousing capital to its first fund manager, with several additional fund managers and underlying investment deals in the due diligence pipeline.
In the latter part of 2025, we introduced the RFF, which is managed by 2X Global and supported by Amazon, Reckitt, the Skoll Foundation, the UPS Foundation, and the Visa Foundation with grant capital.
In addition to these endeavours, 2X Global shifted the market throughout the year, with our team members writing thought leadership pieces, speaking in high level fora and publishing research. One key piece of research produced in 2025 was a study which 2X Global published together with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, entitled ‘Empowering Change: The Rise and Role of Gender-focused Bonds’, which provided insights into trends, opportunities and growth, distilled from an exploration of nearly 600 gender bonds across five years.
The 2X Challenge is 2X Global’s flagship initiative, a collective capital commitment that has invested and mobilised over US$34 billion for the benefit of women since its launch at the G7 Summit in 2018.
June 2025 marked one year since the launch of the third edition of the 2X Challenge which runs from 2024-2027. In its first full year, the 2X Challenge made continued progress. Seventy (70) investments, representing US$1.4 billion across 38 countries, were qualified under the 2X Criteria, which were strengthened and made deeper following extensive updates in early 2024.
In addition to deal qualification, the 2X Challenge drove deeper institutional change by embedding gender considerations into investment processes and requiring 2X ESG (environmental, social and governance) and governance and accountability practices. This has enhanced the value proposition for investees by clarifying the business case for gender smart practices.
Interest from private sector investors in the 2X Challenge has remained strong, with sustained engagement and a growing pipeline of potential participants. One new fund joined in 2025, and as of year-end, conversations were underway with several other prospects as investors assess timing and internal alignment.
2X Ignite is a market-building initiative from 2X Global to accelerate womenled fund managers with gender-smart investment strategies by providing capacity building, mobilising investment and facilitating LP networking opportunities.
2025 was a defining year in our mission to scale women-led fund management as we started capital deployment under the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility, an innovative investment facility designed to accelerate early-stage fund managers, and proudly onboarded our first investee: wCap.
Throughout the year, we also focused on bringing together senior women investors across private equity and venture capital to forge new alliances and spark innovation in gendersmart investing. conversations were underway with several other prospects as investors assess timing and internal alignment.
Through our Convene events, held in partnership with PEWIN, and our 2X Ignite GP/ LP Dinners, we convened over 300 women in investment from Lagos to Manila, Cape Town to Sydney, creating dynamic spaces for connection, collaboration, and opportunity creation and advancing a powerful ecosystem of women shaping the future of finance. The 2X Ignite Community of Practice (CoP) continued to serve as a learning hub, connecting emerging managers with LPs and other, more established GPs to co-create solutions and share the realities of achieving first-close success.
2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility
Following a US$26 million first close, anchored by KfW, the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility began capital deployment, a major step toward demonstrating new mechanisms to unlock capital for women-led and climate-resilient investment strategies.
With Moremi Capital as investment advisor and Innpact as GP advisor, the Facility provided warehousing to its first fund, wCap, a Zambia-based, female-led team that provides tailored private credit to SMEs, driving sustainable and climate-positive growth across Southern Africa.
Each fund manager selected for warehousing will also receive bespoke technical assistance across core areas, including fund structuring and operations, impact measurement and management, and integration of climate, sustainability, and gender-lens capabilities.
Backed by a US$500,000 technical assistance (TA) commitment from KfW, we completed a request for proposals. We selected nine technical partners, with inaugural TA engagements set to launch in the first half of 2026.
Towards the end of 2025, we secured a US$270,000 commitment from the Small Foundation, which will support monitoring and evaluation of between five to seven women-led fund managers, extracting realtime insights from the Facility’s early deployment. These insights will inform the design of next-generation investment vehicles within our community and beyond.
Resilient Futures Fund
In 2025, 2X Global significantly advanced its work deploying catalytic capital to womenled and women-benefiting climate initiatives when the Resilient Futures Fund (RFF) was introduced to the market.
Managed by 2X Global and supported by Amazon, Reckitt, the Skoll Foundation, the UPS Foundation, and the Visa Foundation, RFF focuses on unlocking finance for climate resilience solutions led by, involving or benefiting women and girls.
During the year, RFF disbursed US$2.3 million to grantees across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, strengthening investment readiness, deepening gender and climate integration, and mobilising follow-on capital into climate solutions. These efforts not only supported 178 women-owned and women-led MSMEs but also helped mobilise US$ 5.6 million in additional capital through RFF grantee intermediaries and investment vehicles.
RFF successfully awarded and concluded grants with ATG Samata, wCap, and M-Kyala Ventures, and awarded new grants to Sahara Impact Ventures, WEAV Capital, and WIC Gestion Capital.
Throughout 2025, RFF demonstrated that catalytic grants are most powerful when treated not as isolated transactions but as structured experiments in how gender-smart capital can move differently.
Across West Africa, Mongolia, MENA, Latin America, and pan-African innovation ecosystems, RFF partners demonstrated that small, flexible funding paired with tailored technical assistance can redesign lending frameworks, prepare new fund managers for institutional capital, and move early-stage, women-led climate solutions toward investability. RFF grants were used to de-risk innovative approaches, support first-loss or blended finance structures, and unlock private and institutional co-investment in otherwise overlooked sectors.
One example was a Green Loan Risk Sharing Facility, launched with RFF grantee the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association, which helped to unlock lending to women-led MSMEs through a partial credit guarantee.
Towards the end of 2025, RFF laid the groundwork to award and welcome new grantees in 2026, reviewing applications for a Latin America cohort focused on nature-based solutions, climate technology, renewable energy, and coastal resilience and issuing a call for MENA and Asia-Pacific focused fund managers and network organisations.
Editorial and thought leadership
2025 was a year in which 2X Global was active in our field-building work, advancing critical thought leadership and research that expanded the horizons of how gender lens investing is understood.
Our executive leadership team, board directors and team members ensured 2X Global’s voice and expert insights were seen and heard, publishing research, articles and blogs and participating in conferences, webinars and podcasts.
2X Global actively contributed to the global climate finance policy discussions, advancing the case for integrating gender responsiveness into climate finance. In March, we submitted an official input paper to the UNFCCC for the Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG), focused on the new Gender Action Plan (GAP). The LWPG is tasked with providing a clear roadmap and developing the new Gender Action Plan (GAP) to be agreed upon and adopted by Parties at COP. Our input paper proposed concrete incentives to standardise and mainstream gender-impact metrics in climate finance, such as the 2X Criteria, and to build robust accountability frameworks to mobilise private capital at scale for gender-responsive climate finance. The new GAP received a 10-year extension at COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, underscoring the private sector’s crucial role in advancing the new GAP through the LWPG.
In September, we launched a gender bonds study co-authored with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) entitled Empowering Change: The Rise and Role of Gender-Focused Bonds”. This study analysed data on 576 sustainable bonds that allocate all or part of their proceeds to financing projects or set clear objectives that contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It provided key insights into overall trends and showed clear momentum over the past five years, with gender bond issuances more than doubling. In November, a new study, supported by 2X Global, was published by Kore Global, looking back at the two previous editions of the 2X Challenge, and reviewing independent evaluations from four of our DFI members - British International Investment, Proparco, FinDev Canada and FMO.
2X Global’s team worked to build the knowledge base and advance the business and social impact case for investing in women.
This report laid out the power and potential of the 2X Criteria, showing that across the 81 investments assessed, every top-performing investment with regard to gender outcomes was 2X-qualified, typically under multiple 2X Criteria.
In addition to supporting and publishing knowledge products, 2X Global representatives also participated in more than 30 key industry events around the globe, including the Skoll World Forum, SOCAP, the AVCA Annual Conference, Super Return, and the GIIN Impact Forum. Serving as speakers, panel moderators, or workshop facilitators, 2X Global’s team worked to build the knowledge base and advance the business and social impact case for investing in women.
These efforts were complemented throughout the year with robust thought leadership from amongst our membership, published in blogs and case studies on our website. These editorial products shared best practices and lessons learned. They surfaced new, actionable data on everything from removing barriers to women’s leadership in the blue economy in Kenya to tailoring gender inclusive financial products and services better to advance women’s entrepreneurship in Ecuador and Tajikistan.
Designing Financial Products to Help Women Entrepreneurs Level Up in Southern Africa
Member: FINCA
Type of actor: Financial Services Provider
Investment type: Debt and Equity
Operates in:
Sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia regions
Sectors: Microfinance and impact investing
About
FINCA advances women’s economic empowerment by designing and delivering financial solutions rooted in its customers’ lived realities. Through microfinance operations and early-stage impact investing, the organisation expands access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs, with a strong focus on women, who face the steepest barriers to credit. Using in-house research, humancentred design, and data-driven innovation, FINCA continually adapts its products and services to ensure they respond to how women work, earn, and manage money.
Background
FINCA operates microfinance institutions and community-based banks in 13 countries across Africa and Eurasia, serving smallholder farmers, microentrepreneurs, and women living on the economic margins. Many of these customers are women who operate small, cash-flow-dependent businesses in rural areas far from branches, where traditional loan renewals often involve several trips, collateral checks, and long travel that cuts into income and can pose safety concerns. These demands make it difficult to maintain steady access to the capital they need to absorb shocks and keep their businesses running.
Approach
Drawing on insights from customer feedback, FINCA redesigned its loan renewal customer journey for repeat borrowers with strong repayment histories. In 2024, the organisation’s innovation lab launched its Level Up pilot in Zambia, introducing a faster, cheaper, collateral-free loan renewal journey that rewards reliable borrowers with a streamlined experience, eliminating the need to repeat the full underwriting process.
Using FINCA’s in-house behavioural scoring instrument, eligible customers are pre-approved and make only one branch visit, significantly reducing time and travel burdens, and an early-repayment cashback incentive further lowers the effective cost of borrowing, helping customers — especially women — to reinvest in their enterprises.
Because the barriers Level Up addresses disproportionately affect women customers, the benefits — faster access to funds, fewer travel demands, and reduced costs — accrue disproportionately to women as well. First piloted in Malawi and Zambia with plans to scale to all FINCA subsidiaries, Level Up advances gender equity by creating an easier journey for women who have consistently proven to be among FINCA’s most reliable and loyal customers.
Impact
Level Up has demonstrated strong gender reach, with women representing 54% of participating borrowers in Zambia and 37% in Malawi. Turnaround times fell from three days to under one, allowing women to restock inventory quickly and maintain steady cash flow. Processing fees were eliminated and branch visits reduced from three to one, cutting customers’ renewal costs by more than 15%.
Customer feedback collected through FINCA’s AI-powered voice-based sentiment analysis platform shows that borrowers overwhelmingly value the speed, convenience, and lower effective pricing of Level Up, underscoring how closely the pilot aligns with customer pain points.
Stronger portfolio performance compared to traditional repeat loans further reinforces the business case for gender-smart design.
What’s Next?
Lessons from the pilot, particularly the importance of validating manual processes before digitisation and clearly communicating incentive structures, are now informing FINCA’s scaling of Level Up to Uganda and additional markets.
Advancing opportunities for women in Nigeria’s health sector
Member: Verod Capital Management
Type of actor: Private equity investor
Investment type: Equity
Operates in: Nigeria
Sectors: Healthcare
About
Verod embeds gender smart investment practices across its investments and operations, and it also supports broader ecosystem initiatives to advance gender equity. For example, it recently partnered with the Impact Investors Foundation to provide gender smart and inclusive capital capacity training. Verod’s commitment to gender equity is evidenced by its Fund III receiving 2X Certification at the ‘Best-in-Class’ level – the first private equity fund in the world to obtain this official certification. Reaching the milestone was the culmination of a two-year collaborative effort by Verod, in partnership with consultancy SAGANA, to integrate gender-smart practices into its operations.
Background
Nigeria’s healthcare and retail sectors employ large numbers of women, yet persistent gender gaps remain in career progression, leadership representation and access to structured professional development. Verod and its partner company, Medplus – a female-founded business and Nigeria’s largest retail pharmacy chain – are actively addressing this challenge.
Approach
When Verod invested in Medplus in 2022, there was no structured approach to women’s career development. In response, Verod partnered with Medplus to design and roll out a gender action plan: gender-sensitivity training for staff, managerial development programmes, transparent progression pathways, and gender-equitable recruitment and performance management practices. The actions taken by Verod included formalising gender-related policies, including a Sexual Harassment Policy and an Anti-Discrimination Policy.
Training focused on unconscious bias and gender-based violence and harassment, while safe working conditions, especially at field locations, were supported through accessible grievance reporting and redress mechanisms. customers.
Impact
Verod’s investment in Medplus underscores how gender smart approaches can deliver both impact and growth. Following this gender-focused intervention, in 2024, 83% of promoted employees were women, and training budgets increased by 15%. Staff now have greater clarity about promotion criteria, and managers have new tools to foster inclusive workplaces.
Along with this impact has come measurable growth as the company expanded from 67 locations before Verod’s investment to 146 currently and remains on a growth trajectory.
Building the Evidence Base for the Impact of the 2X Criteria
Member: Kore Global
Type of actor: Impact Advisory Firm
Investment type:
Provider of gender and inclusion-focused advisory support to investors and investees across sectors.
Operates in: Emerging markets
Sectors:
Financial services, agriculture, green energy, health, and the care economy.
About
Kore Global advances gender-lens investing by generating rigorous evidence, strengthening measurement systems, and supporting investors to translate gender commitments into measurable outcomes for women and girls. Through evaluations, portfolio analyses, and advisory support, Kore Global works with DFIs, investors, fund managers, and portfolio companies to embed gendersmart practices across investment lifecycles. Their approach emphasises practical learning, accountability, and field-building to improve both impact and investment performance.
Background
While the rapid growth of gender-lens investing has mobilised significant capital, DFIs have lacked robust portfolio-level evidence on whether these investments actually translate into tangible outcomes for women. This evidence gap limited investors’ ability to refine strategies, prioritise high-impact deals, and maximise development returns. With the 2X Challenge emerging as a global framework for gender-smart investing, there was a critical need to test the assumption that 2X qualification leads to stronger gender results. Kore Global was well positioned to address this challenge, given its expertise in gender and inclusion focused evaluation, measurement systems, and private sector engagement.
Approach
Kore Global partnered with British International Investment, Proparco, FinDev Canada, and FMO to produce the first cross-DFI synthesis examining whether gender-lens investments deliver meaningful outcomes for women. Drawing on four independent evaluations conducted between 2023 and 2025 (three of which were undertaken by Kore Global), the synthesis consolidated evidence from 81 investments across sectors and geographies.
Kore Global developed an evidence-based Theory of Change and applied a mixed-method approach to assess how investments aligned with the 2X Criteria translated into outcomes for women as employees, leaders, consumers, and entrepreneurs. This work aligned with Kore Global’s mission to strengthen accountability and advance practical learning within gender-lens investing. The gender lens focused on moving beyond qualification thresholds to examine the conditions under which investments generate sustained impact.
By analysing performance drivers such as leadership diversity, gender intentionality, and the use of technical assistance, the synthesis identified actionable pathways for improving results. The synthesis was structured to support both institutional decision-making and broader field-building by generating credible, outcome-level evidence for investors, and results were shared at the 2025 2X Summit in Manila.
Impact
The synthesis provided strong validation of the 2X framework as an effective screening tool, while demonstrating that qualification alone does not guarantee results — intentional follow-through is critical. Investments with gender-diverse leadership consistently achieved stronger outcomes, highlighting leadership as a powerful driver of organisational change. Findings also showed that gender intentionality matters more than sector or geography, with high-performing investments sharing common enabling factors, including leadership commitment, dedicated resources, and robust gender data. The work delivered actionable recommendations that have helped DFIs strengthen due diligence, embed gender targets, and apply post-investment levers such as technical assistance more strategically.
Importantly, the synthesis contributes some of the first portfolio-level evidence supporting the business case for gender-smart investing. A key lesson is that treating the 2X Criteria as a starting point rather than an endpoint enables investors to move from commitment to measurable impact.
Embedding Gender Across Investment Strategy and Practice
Member: Symbiotics Asset Management
Type of actor: Fund Manager
Investment type: Intermediated financing
Operates in:
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sectors:
MSME, low and middle income households
About
Symbiotics Asset Management has developed and is implementing a gender strategy for one of its funds under management, the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa SA (REGMIFA). REGMIFA, a blended finance fund, channels impact-oriented capital to partner lending institutions, operating in Sub-Saharan African countries, serving micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as well as low- and middle-income households (LMIHs).
Background
Gender inequality remains a significant challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where women continue to face barriers to formal finance and economic participation. These challenges are compounded by heightened vulnerability to climate change and conflict. According to the Global Findex Database (2025), women in the region experience a persistent gender gap in formal borrowing (5%) and even wider gaps in account ownership and digital financial access (12%). Addressing these disparities is important for fostering inclusive and sustainable economic development, thus REGMIFA embeds gender lens investing principles across its operations to contribute to bridging these gaps.
With 16 years of regional experience, REGMIFA works closely with local partner institutions to reach underserved segments. REGMIFA achieves its mission by working with Symbiotics, as the Fund’s Investment Manager, who brings local expertise and manages technical assistance programs aimed at supporting impactful capital deployment. In addition, the Fund’s strong governance and aligned commitment with gender positive practices ensure that women’s economic empowerment remains integral to its mission and decision-making.
Approach
REGMIFA launched a comprehensive and multidimensional gender strategy which embeds a gender lens at both the strategic and operational levels, ensuring impact across the Fund and portfolio.
Data collection and tracking is a critical pillar of the strategy. REGMIFA sets annual gender targets aligned with the 2X Criteria and collects robust, gender-disaggregated data which is then used to guide decision-making and transparently track progress on gender equity.
This exercise was strengthened when Symbiotics developed a new ESG assessment tool which integrated gender considerations and which is used for collecting information and assessing partner institutions’ performances.
This led to assessments with more in-depth examination of partner institutions’ practices to promote diversity and inclusion, such as equal working conditions, non-discrimination policies, internal grievance mechanisms, and the use of gender-disaggregated data. This data-driven approach also guides REGMIFA in setting impact targets which identify investments contributing to gender equality.
Integrating gender data into the investment process has also helped in identifying partner institutions which needed capacity building to advance gender equality.
To deepen its impact, REGMIFA launched the Women’s Empowerment Technical Assistance Program in 2025 to support partner institutions on two key themes: fostering gender-inclusive workplaces and delivering greater impact for women clients and enterprises. This support is delivered through accessible formats such as virtual training and coaching, expanding outreach across the region and removing barriers to capacity building.
At the governance level, gender intentionality is also reinforced, with women represented on REGMIFA’s board, investment committee, and portfolio management teams.
Impact
In 2025, REGMIFA reached over 118,000 women borrowers through partner institutions - a 47% increase over the previous year and disbursed USD 22 million in loans to partner institutions targeting SDG 5.1 ‘Gender Equality’ which was double the prior year’s amount.
According to the latest impact survey, which sampled end-borrowers from ten partner institutions, 71% of women reported greater financial decision-making power, and two-thirds noted increased confidence as a result of receiving loans from REGMIFA’s partner institutions. The Fund achieved these outcomes while making strong progress toward key targets, including supporting smaller partner institutions, expanding rural outreach, and consistently delivering returns to investors. The Fund grew its portfolio by disbursing a record volume of loans, reducing credit risk, and launching diverse technical assistance programs such as those focused on women’s empowerment, demonstrating that gender-smart investing can reinforce both financial performance and broader impact objectives.
Supporting funds from GLI theory to practice
Member: TetraTech, Value for Women
Type of actor:
Technical assistance provider facility
Investment type: TA Support for Dutch Good Growth Fund
Operates in:
Emerging markets across DGGF’s portfolio
Sectors:
Sector-agnostic. Most prominent sectorswholesale retail & trade, agriculture, forestry and fishing, manufacturing, human health and social work, financial and insurance activities, transportation & storage.
About
The Dutch Good Growth Fund’s (DGGF) Gender Lens Investing Technical Assistance Program strengthens the capacity of emerging market SME finance providers and their portfolio to adopt and implement gender lens investing.
The programme, which is implemented by Tetra Tech and Value for Women aims to increase capital flows to women-led and gender-inclusive businesses within the DGGF portfolio.
The programme aligns with global standards including the 2X Criteria and supports DGGF’s commitment, set with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to allocate at least 28% of its funding to women-led enterprises by 2029. DGGF is managed by Triple Jump and PwC, which have invested since 2014 to expand SME finance across emerging markets.
Background
In many emerging markets, women-led and minority-led SMEs drive innovation and job creation but face significant barriers to attaining growth-stage financing, often falling into the “missing middle.”
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that women-owned enterprises in emerging markets face a $19 trillion credit shortfall, while women-led startups receive only a fraction of global private equity and venture capital.
Even where interest in gender lens investing is rising, many finance providers and SMEs are still early in translating GLI commitments into consistent, measurable investment practices and workplace policies. This disconnect prevents markets from fully capitalising on the transformative economic potential of gender inclusion.
DGGF’s GLI Technical Assistance Program works directly with a portfolio of financial providers, including fund managers, and can pair capital allocation goals with practical technical assistance to institutionalise GLI, strengthen 2X Criteria alignment, and improve portfolio company outcomes.
Approach
The programme combines community learning, through awareness sessions, peer learning, and in-person bootcamps, with tailored technical assistance and coaching for selected finance providers to integrate gender-inclusive policies and practices into operations and portfolio engagement. Phase 1 delivered an initiative to strengthen adoption and integration of GLI for 15 fund managers in DGGF’s portfolio and 39 of their SMEs over a two year period. These fund managers received specialised technical assistance including:
Bootcamps in Amsterdam and Nairobi, followed by six months of tailored technical assistance support; Practical tools and roadmaps—including templates, diagnostics, and guidance—to integrate gender inclusive practices into fund operations and portfolio management and ensure fund managers align with the 2X Criteria and integrate practices to align with another criterion post technical assistance. Portfolio-level engagement strategies to support investee SMEs in embedding gender-inclusive business practices that unlock more economic opportunities for women in the company and value chain.
The programme design intentionally links fund manager change to downstream portfolio company change, utilising organisation development services that convert gender insights into longer-term operational improvements in hiring, promotion, and workplace equity.
Impact
Reported outcomes include:
44 fund managers and financial institutions trained in GLI principles, including 20 fund managers who attended in-person bootcamps in Amsterdam and Nairobi, and 15 received tailored technical assistance.
More than $50 million in assets under management held by Ugandan and Peruvian funds now managed with GLI principles.
4 funds embedding 2X aligned gender strategies, with up to 80% of the firms they support meeting 2X Criteria.
More formalised GLI practices, leadership diversification, workplace inclusivity, and enhanced capacity— with 85% of participants reporting increased GLI awareness after technical assistance.
39 portfolio companies received support to adopt gender-forward business strategies.
Insights from the programme include that integration is most effective when technical assistance aligns with fund milestones and that funds face internal capacity constraints. This makes adaptive, contextspecific technical assistance models and peer learning particularly valuable. The programme strengthens the evidence base by demonstrating how structured, sustained technical assistance can transition funds from GLI theory to practice, institutionalise policies and data use, and accelerate portfolio-level change that investors increasingly link with resilience and performance.
Unlocking First-Time Credit for Women Through Fintech
Member: Community Investment Management (CIM)
Type of actor: Private credit investment manager
Investment type: Strategic debt financing
Operates in: North America and select emerging markets
Sectors: Fintech and technology enabled financial services
About
CIM provides strategic private credit financing to demonstrate and scale responsible innovation in lending for underserved households and businesses in the United States, Canada, and emerging markets that have limited access to affordable, transparent, and borrower-centric financing. Although women’s access to financial accounts has increased in recent years, access to credit remains stubbornly out of reach for many women, creating barriers for them to start a business or manage an emergency.
Background
Many communities around the world still struggle to access the financing they need to manage daily expenses and to thrive. According to the World Bank, globally, 1.4 billion people lack bank accounts and the IFC reports that 70% of small and medium enterprises lack access to adequate financing.
In some cases households and businesses remain underserved because of their location in countries and geographies with underdeveloped financial sectors. For example, in some emerging markets, access to bank accounts remains out of reach for up to half the adult population. In other instances, these communities have remained unserved by traditional banks because they are considered expensive and difficult to serve due to remoteness, low affordability, lack of collateral, and other barriers. Without access to credit, these households and businesses often resort to extractive, predatory lenders and find themselves in conditions of debt stress and debt spirals.
In Mexico, despite the widespread availability of smartphones, having a phone has not solved the problem of access to financial services. Nearly 40% of those without a bank account in Mexico have a mobile phone, but just 22% of the adult population realised a mobile phone or online payment. This problem of access to finance is especially challenging for the 67% of micro, small and medium who work informally and is even more acute for women entrepreneurs; only between 8 to 11% of women entrepreneurs manage to obtain financing.
Approach
CIM funds innovative fintech models that can reach these underserved communities, supporting products that enable users to access affordable credit, manage cashflow, and grow their income. These products deliver tangible benefits such as allowing users to improve their credit scores, decreasing their cost of credit, avoiding costly late fees, building their livelihoods, and laying the foundation for long-term financial health. Products in these solution areas are critical enablers of financial health for underserved communities like low-income households and small businesses
In 2025, Mexican fintech Aviva joined the CIM portfolio. Aviva serves the 66% of Mexicans with limited access to credit through a unique “phygital” model that blends the trust and intuition of face-to-face interaction with the efficiency and reliability of fintech. The solution is simple to use: a customer enters an Aviva storefront in a small/medium town in Mexico where an attendant helps her engage with an AI-powered bot. The bot walks her through a series of questions about her business and her finances. The flow is more like a conversation than a loan application and, in nearly all cases, she gets an answer immediately.
In this context, Aviva has crafted a solution that works for excluded women microentrepreneurs. These women operate in cash, may not keep formal records, and do not feel comfortable embarking on a purely-digital lending relationship.
Impact
By offering the comfort and ease of an in-person, conversational engagement, Aviva’s fintech meets women at their level of digital and operational sophistication. Today, 62% of Aviva users are women and 97% of them operate small businesses, largely street carts or kiosks. Most Aviva users have never had a bank account (66% lack a basic bank account) and 70% had never downloaded a fintech app. For nearly all users, Aviva is their first formal credit, marking the beginning of a transformative financial journey.
Beyond Returns: Reducing Food Loss and Increasing Agency with GLI
Member: Global Innovation Fund
Type of actor: Investment fund
Investment type: debt and equity
Operates in: low and middle income countries
Sectors: sector agnostic About
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) finds, funds, and de-risks impactful innovations that transform the lives of people living in low-and-middle income countries.
Gender equality is both an investment theme and a strategic goal at GIF. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by prevailing issues in the developing world, such as climate change, global health crises, food insecurity, and forced migration.
As such, GIF applies a gender lens across all its work and aims to maximise gender equality impact across its portfolio. They do this by analysing the gender dynamics and opportunities of all their innovations, through the application of their Gender Marker to all new deals as part of the investment process.
Background
India is one of the largest growers of fruit and vegetables globally. However, extensive food loss across the value chain undermines economic growth, not only at the macro level but also for poor smallholder farmers who supply most of the fruit and vegetable market. Smallholder farmers lack the capital and opportunity to move into value addition activities, as well as the investment required in forward market linkages.
S4S tackles these problems of supply chain inefficiency and food loss in India through its technological innovation and a dedicated team with the necessary background to implement technical solutions and build a female-powered supply chain. S4S puts impact at the core of its operations, achieving gender and climate transformative results by providing women with productive jobs and financial services. This strong foundation and clear impact focus has enabled S4S to gather aligned funding and the right type of investors.
GIF is an equity investor in S4S, having invested $2.2million over two rounds in 2023 and 2025. GIF is well positioned to fund solutions to the issues which S4S is addressing as its funding model provides the specific support required for transformative, long-term change.
This includes (i) patient longer-term capital, (ii) multiple levels of support, offering follow-on funding alongside non-financial aid like knowledge sharing and networking and (iii) an explicit impact focus, ensuring gender equality is a strategic goal and gender impact is maximised.
Approach
Central to GIF’s decision to invest in S4S was the company’s transformative gender and climate impact. S4S provides farmers with a consistently higher income by using innovative dryers to increase the value of their crops, reduce wastage and provide them with reliable markets to sell their produce.
Critically, S4S has a female-powered supply chain where women are provided more productive and dignified jobs as well as access to financial services, both of which increase their agency in household decision-making.
GIF’s investment supports S4S in achieving meaningful gender outcomes in the following ways:
• GIF aligns its investment objectives with gender outcomes and tracks against gender KPIs as part of its commitment to applying a gender lens to all work,
• The equity investment provides GIF with a stronger voice to promote a gender agenda at the Board level, and;
• The equity investment allows GIF to open its networks and introduce S4S to gender-aligned partners, further supporting S4S’s female-powered supply chain and increasing women’s agency.
Impact
Over the course of GIF’s investment, the number of female entrepreneurs in the S4S network has grown from 2,500 to over 4,500 - an 80% increase. This growth is driving more inclusive livelihoods and increasing women’s agency, while significantly reducing post-harvest food waste.
GIF’s investment demonstrates the impact that ventures can have in influencing their supply chains as well as the considerable, long lasting benefits of applying a gender lens across all their operations.
What’s next?
Building on the example of S4S and its track record of investing in inclusive economic opportunities, GIF has developed a dedicated technical assistance facility as part of its permanent, blended finance vehicle - GIF Growth. This aims to provide support to our portfolio to minimise risks, improve ESG practices and maximise gender impact across the value chain.
Putting Women-Led Community Engagement at the Center of Climate Action in Colombia
Member: Deetken Impact/Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Type of actor: Impact Asset Manager
Investment type: Debt
Operates in: Latin America and the Caribbean
Sectors: Financial Inclusion, Clean Energy, Affordable Housing, Sustainable Agriculture, and other impact sectors About
Managed by Deetken Impact, the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund (Ilu Fund) is the first Gender Lens Investment (GLI) vehicle dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). As an evergreen fund, it delivers consistent financial returns while advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To date, the Fund has impacted over 700,000 individuals across the region through strategic investments in financial inclusion, clean energy, affordable housing, and sustainable agriculture.
The Ilu Fund leads by example: women comprise two-thirds of management, 80% of the investment committee, and 67% of the total staff. This internal diversity fuels an investment strategy that prioritises gender-smart companies. Backed by 100% private sector capital from over 80 investors, the Fund has built a proven track record of delivering strong, risk-adjusted returns while advancing gender equality with every dollar invested.
Through the Resilient Futures Fund (RFF) managed by 2X Global, the Ilu Fund is deploying a meaningful pool of capital towards climate-resilient and inclusive sustainable development in LAC through a combination of catalytic capital and technical assistance.
Background
With the support of the RFF, Deetken Impact’s Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund completed a 2X qualified investment in Dispower, a Colombian company that operates off-grid solar systems in remote communities in Colombia’s non-interconnected zones.
These zones represent 52% of the country’s area and are home to approximately 1.9 million people, of which two-thirds are still without electricity access today. These communities present often inhibitive market barriers including a complete lack of infrastructure to enable access and connectivity, as well as cultural dynamics that often distance indigenous and rural subsistence farming communities from the rest of the country.
Dispower’s solutions bring clean energy to off-grid households, schools, and infrastructure services through a public-private initiative led by the government to electrify rural Colombia. By covering the initial investment and installation of the systems and subsidising a part of the monthly cost to endclients, this programme enables private sector companies such as Dispower to effectively serve the most vulnerable communities.
With de-risking support from their RFF grant, the Ilu Fund invested in Dispower at a critical juncture in its journey. Against the background of the company already having successfully launched operations in more than 1000 off-grid communities, the investment enabled the company to continue growing operations while the government set up the payment system covering the majority of revenues, and simultaneously refine its business model in preparation for scale.
Approach
Dispower’s approach integrates the local community into every aspect of the company’s operations. The company recognises that the positive acceptance and engagement of the communities themselves is fundamental to the company’s success and the achievement of social and environmental impacts.
For example in, La Guajira, a coastal state that is home to the Wayuu peoples, Colombia’s largest indigenous population rich in resilient ancestral tradition, Dispower’s engagement is guided by the recognition that Wayuu societies are largely matriarchal. Against that background, Dispower identifies, engages, and empowers women leaders that have the respect of their communities, from the outset of a new operation.
With the trust of the community leaders, Dispower promotes local employment through hiring, training, and empowering technicians, as well as Social Managers. The Social Manager, a respected member of the community who speaks local indigenous dialects, acts as a bridge between Dispower and the clients. Their responsibilities include understanding the needs and dynamics of each community, facilitating communication, addressing concerns, and training the community in key areas such as proper use of the solar power system and financial management.
Impact
As of the end of 2025, Dispower was serving over 1100 rural communities, encompassing 13,500 households and representing more than 42,000 individuals now accessing off-grid, clean energy. Within the communities, over 150 schools and more than 120 local organisations were also being served with off-grid energy solutions.
