New York, NY, March 30, 2022 – Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration (“WAM”) has introduced the ultimate closing of its second fund, WWB Capital Companions II, L.P. (“WWBCP II” or “the Fund”). Following its first closing of $75 million in March 2020, WWBCP II held a ultimate closing in March 2022, bringing the entire Fund dimension to $103 million. The Fund seeks to assist shut the gender hole in monetary inclusion, whereas demonstrating the enterprise case for gender lens investing by attaining enticing returns for its traders. WWBCP II was named a 2X Problem Pioneer Flagship Fund in July 2021.
Christina Juhasz, Chief Funding Officer of WAM, mentioned, “We’re deeply grateful to our LPs for his or her assist and desperate to proceed our journey as gender lens traders for monetary inclusion. This new fund permits us to be much more intentional in main gender-inclusive development with our portfolio corporations, deepening outreach to financially underserved girls and female-identifying clients and rising employment and management alternatives for them – all of which is according to attaining enticing monetary returns for our LPs.”
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, CEO of Girls’s World Banking famous, “We’re particularly gratified to have been capable of attain the triple-digit fund dimension – which continues to be fairly uncommon within the under-invested gender lens investing house – and we hope to attract further investor curiosity to the various modern gender methods which might be poised for fulfillment.”
WWBCP II expands the gender-focused funding technique of WAM’s first fund with modern options designed to boost its social and monetary returns. These options embrace a blended finance construction, which boosts risk-adjusted returns for personal and institutional traders, and a devoted, grant-funded technical help facility to assist portfolio corporations obtain strategic, gender-inclusive development aims. WWBCP II’s anchor traders, the European Union (“EU”) and the German Federal Ministry for Financial Cooperation and Improvement (“BMZ”) facilitated by the German growth financial institution KfW, supplied important funding for each the primary loss tranche in addition to the technical help facility.
The Fund’s technique is to put money into modern inclusive monetary service suppliers within the rising markets that prioritize attracting and serving a gender numerous buyer base and increasing gender range inside their workforces to attain outperformance in development and monetary return. By means of the technical help facility, the Fund supplies data-driven market and organizational gender evaluation for every of the Fund’s portfolio corporations with a view to establish alternatives to accumulate and higher serve girls and female-identifying clients and to recruit, retain and advance girls and female-identifying expertise of their workforces. These assessments will end in a Gender Motion Plan, to seize gender inclusive strategic development alternatives for every portfolio firm. Gender disaggregated reporting will maintain the Fund and its portfolio corporations accountable to attaining gender inclusion targets.
WWBCP II has closed 5 investments thus far, together with an reasonably priced housing finance firm in India, a tech-enabled, small-hold agri-insurance dealer and advisor in Sub-Saharan Africa, a fintech group lender in Colombia, a peer-to-peer MSME lender in Indonesia, and a deposit-taking microfinance establishment in Uganda. Additional info relating to the portfolio obtainable on the WAM web site.
The Fund’s traders embrace, along with the EU and BMZ, america Improvement Finance Company, the European Funding Financial institution, Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company, German growth financial institution KfW, Soros Financial Improvement Fund, Sasakawa Peace Basis, MEDA, Dreilinden, Ceniarth and USAID, in addition to further affect traders, household workplaces and high-net price people.
European Commissioner for Worldwide Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen mentioned, “Girls’s financial empowerment is important for tackling inequalities in addition to for sustainable growth and development. Empowering girls is a key precedence for the European Union. The EU is proud to work along with Girls’s World Banking, main the best way on girls’s monetary inclusion and gender lens investing.”
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About Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration
Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration, a subsidiary of Girls’s World Banking, invests in modern inclusive finance corporations within the rising markets, guiding them to seize the substantial market share of financially under-served girls and the substantial expertise pool of girls workers and leaders.
About Girls’s World Banking
Girls’s World Banking designs and invests in monetary options, establishments, and coverage environments in rising markets to create larger financial stability and prosperity for ladies, their households, and their communities. With a world attain of 62 companions in 35 international locations serving greater than 138 million girls shoppers, Girls’s World Banking drives affect by way of its scalable, market-driven options; gender lens personal fairness fund; and management and variety applications. To be taught extra go to womensworldbanking.org.
For additional inquiry contact: Christina Juhasz, Chief Funding Officer, cj@womensworldbanking.org, or Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO, ea@womensworldbanking.org
