Investment Profile

Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II LP

Women's World Banking Logo

Page Tools

Women’s World Banking invests in female-focused financial services companies in emerging markets, aimed at advancing gender participation at all levels.
Visit website
A man holding a phone standing next to a woman in a field
A farmer speaks with a representative from Pula, a company that provides crop insurance and bank loans to farmers, in Kitui, Kenya, on February 15, 2023. Photo courtesy of Pula
Investment size:  $5M
Theme Gender Justice
Type Indirect
Geography Global
Date 2020

Theory of Change

Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II invests in emerging market financial services providers that prioritize low-income women clients, expanding gender diversity within their team and management, and using innovative solutions to enhance customer reach and engagement. The fund aims to improve the financial well-being, financial literacy and awareness, self-esteem, and decision-making and bargaining power of women within the household.

Description

Women’s World Banking has an over 40-year history as a nonprofit working on women’s financial inclusion. Women’s World Bank Asset Management (WAM) is a subsidiary of the nonprofit organization and a key pillar of its strategy. WAM $103 million second Fund, Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II, expands the gender-focused investment strategy of WAM’s first fund in innovative financial service providers while demonstrating the business case for gender-lens investing.

The fund uses a blended finance structure and a dedicated grant-funded technical assistance facility to help portfolio companies achieve strategic objectives toward gender inclusion. Each portfolio company also undergoes an in-depth, data-driven gender assessment resulting in customized, strategic gender action plans.

Challenge and Context

Across emerging markets, nearly one billion women lack access to formal financial products and services, representing more than half of the world’s unbanked population. Financial service providers have experienced rapid growth in funding and valuation since 2021, with the global sector nearly doubling to $210 billion. Digital financial services play a central role in financial inclusion in emerging markets and the pandemic only accelerated the uptake of digital solutions offered by established financial institutions and newer fintech players. Tech-driven financial service providers have a unique opportunity to address longstanding market failures that have left large portions of the population, and women in particular, outside of the formal financial system.

Impact

Expand investment into female-focused financial service providers to increase women’s participation in the formal financial system and grow the number of women in operating and management positions, and on boards. 

Expected Outcomes

  • A reduced gender gap in financial inclusion by investing in financial inclusion companies in sectors such as affordable housing finance, tech-enabled smallholder agri-insurance, and innovative lending institutions, and encouraging these companies to reach more women as clients and workforce talent
  • Pioneering gender-lens investment in 12–15 female-focused financial services companies in emerging markets by 2030

Why SEDF?

This investment advances Open Society efforts to further economic equity and social justice.