Investing in Gender Equality

The supply chain is an important space for gender lens investing, where there is opportunity to reduce gender-based violence and unfair working conditions. In this interview, we meet Lim Ponny who runs a fish feeding enterprise in Cambodia, and has used her access to finance to help employ and educate women in her community. 

Ponny tells us about her life growing up in Cambodia, passing her final exams despite having to work to support her family. After getting married, she wanted to use her knowledge of fish farming to start a business but could not access finance through traditional banks. With the help of Chamroeun Microfinance, and international development agencies Good Return and Palladium, Ponny was able to take a loan and build an ethical business within a supply chain focussed on supporting the rights of women working within it.  

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From running a business with her mother in the 3rd grade, Jakarta-based entrepreneur Laras Widyaputri has founded her own ecommerce social enterprise committed to workplace equity. Laras is driven to support more home-based businesses just like her mother’s and grandmother’s.  

Laras tells us about her business Ecodoe, an e-procurement platform that gives micro-SMEs in Indonesia access to microfinance and markets. She tells us how her experience helping her grandmother to sell things from her home garage drove her to support women who are participating in the shared economy or ‘gotong royong’ economy of Indonesia. When she connected with BIDUK, a gender lens investor, she was able to build on her dream to fuel the women-led SME economy in Indonesia.  

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For too long, investment has been considered a man’s world. Now a growing number of investment platforms are tailored to women and led by women. We speak to Afifa Urfani from Indonesian fintech CROWDE on how she has worked to create such a space to build investments in local female agripreneurs, such as chili farmer Dede Nuryani.

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This episode we look at how gender lens investing can boost products and services aimed at women, and tackle the ‘pink tax’ that so often adds to the price of women’s products. We meet Farouk Merali who runs start-up mClinica, and provides education and patient care solutions to the women-led pharmacy industry across Southeast Asia.

Visit the podcast website: https://scalingfrontierinnovation.org/podcast/

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Did you know only 6% of venture capital goes to women-led companies? In this episode, we unpack the bias – conscious and unconscious – clouding the judgement of investors when it comes to supporting companies focussed on or led by women. 

We talk to Dr Sara Saeed Khurram who runs Sehat Kahani, a social enterprise in Pakistan that connects female doctors to patients in low-income communities using a telemedicine smartphone application. We hear about the inspiration for Sara’s work, her collaboration with IIX and determined drive to access funding (while being pregnant) and the language and techniques required to work within a male-dominated investment world.

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Visit the podcast website: https://scalingfrontierinnovation.org/podcast/

Follow Frontier Brokers Network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontier-brokers-network/

When people think of gender lens investing, they often think of ensuring women are in leadership positions. We explore this vital part of the gender equality puzzle in this episode. 

We meet Dr Mindy Gill and Sam Dharmapala, a wife and husband team running a social enterprise called Regenesis BPO in the Philippines, backed by the Brightlight consortium.  The enterprise offers business services in marketing and photography, and the workforce is made up primarily of survivors of sex trafficking, violence and trauma. The couple talk about their personal experiences that led them to work in this field, and how they not only aim to provide employment for survivors, but to expose them to a positive working environment where women can thrive in leadership roles. 

Visit the podcast website: https://scalingfrontierinnovation.org/podcast/

Follow Frontier Brokers Network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontier-brokers-network/

In this six-part series, we meet entrepreneurs from Asia-Pacific, each with a fascinating story to tell about the impact that gender lens investing has on their businesses. As we learn firsthand how these inspiring entrepreneurs have overcome gender barriers, gender lens expert Dr Jodi York gives practical advice on how you can contribute to gender equality in your life, work and investments.

Make sure you subscribe to this podcast to hear lots of amazing stories from inspiring entrepreneurs.  The first episode will be out on Thursday, the fourth of November.

Visit the podcast website: https://scalingfrontierinnovation.org/podcast/

Follow Frontier Brokers Network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontier-brokers-network/