Amsterdam, September 30, 2021: Phenix Capital Group has today released its Impact Report: Deep Dive on Gender Lens Funds. There is an increasing number of sophisticated solutions for Gender Lens Investing and the report provides valuable insights into the market. In order to do that, it combined top-down data of funds applying a Gender Lens along with two interviews with industry players.
The report concludes that private equity (venture, growth, buyout) and private debt are the preferred asset classes for investors to have exposure to Gender Lens strategies. Financial inclusion, agriculture, and education are the sectors where investors have allocated the most capital in funds currently fundraising. When it comes to geographical exposure, funds launched in 2021 have been mostly targeting investments in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, followed by Asia and global strategies.
“Impact investing is demonstrating how gender equality can be targeted through investment activity, setting clear objectives at fund level and measuring the outcomes, for example, with standard tools and industry collaboration efforts (e.g. G-SEARCh).
While gender equality is often considered to be a sustainable development goal mostly addressable through responsible operations and conduct – hence, through engagement and policy implementation - impact funds provide investors the opportunity to directly contribute to solutions reducing inequalities, for example, through microfinance strategies in emerging markets or venture capital funds with a Gender Lens”, highlights Chiara Borneman, Senior Associate Impact Investing at Phenix Capital Group.
Recent trends in Gender Lens impact investing
The report provides in-depth breakdowns of recent trends in Gender Lens impact investing, for example, showing that:
- 42 of the Gender Lens impact funds are Minority-Led organisations; and
- 69 funds are Women-Led organisations.
Next to the insights and analytics provided by Phenix Capital's Impact Database, the report also features interviews with Fund Managers that apply a Gender Lens across the investment cycle, complementing the data analysis.
Chi Impact Capital brings a European perspective to Gender Lens integration and Sweef Capital gives an emerging markets perspective, aiming to improve the lives and livelihoods of women and communities in Southeast Asia.
“As a women-led investment firm, we see diversity and gender equality as a lens for opportunity identification and a driver of value in investment and company performance,” said Jennifer Buckley, Managing Director at Sweef Capital.
In the report, Chi Impact Capital and Sweef Capital share insights on the gender-related metrics they use, when selecting and managing investments, and on the way they report to investors on Gender Lens outcomes.
“An essential part of our framework is the conscious company check - we undertake it when selecting investees and it includes gender related questions”, said Dr. Christin ter Braak-Forstinger, CEO and Co-Founder, Chi Impact Capital.
There are currently 233 Gender Lens impact funds from 127 different fund managers tracked on our Impact Database. Out of these, 116 funds from 86 fund managers are currently open for investments.
About Phenix Capital Group
Phenix Capital Group is an impact investment consultant that enables institutional investors to make impact investments. Founded in 2012, the company has been dedicated to building a solid knowledge based for the impact investing industry, educating asset owners, and catalysing institutional capital to impact investing.
Phenix Capital’s Impact Database provides investors with access to and intelligence on the impact fund market opportunities available to them. Three main variables used to construct, monitor and update the dataset: funds considered have an impact proposition; institutional scale; and target market-rate returns. Impact Database now includes detailed overview of more than 1,700+ impact funds.
For more information or interview requests, please feel free to contact our team at info@phenixcapitalgroup.com or call + 31 20 240 27 31.
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