Here is the reality: Gender-balanced and diverse businesses outperform their peers.
They experience higher profits, lower turnover, and are better able to access investment.
A Message from Our CEO, Rebecca Fries
Women’s economic empowerment
lags behind
Women's labor force participation still lags men's by ~30% globally.
60% of women work in informal or vulnerable jobs.
One in every 10 women lives in extreme poverty (less than $2.15 a day).
95% of women workers in Sub-Saharan Africa are informally employed in low-productivity, low-income activities.
That is why business models that create opportunities for women need support to grow.
Enterprises are the engine of growth in emerging markets. ~90% of businesses are the primary source of job creation in fast-growing economies, where youth unemployment is high, and women are disproportionately unemployed or informally employed.
Missing middle. Growth-stage green enterprises with real potential to create jobs, income, and market access often fall into the “missing middle” - too big for micro-finance, too "risky" for institutional investors. This financing gap is estimated at $331bn globally.
Viable but invisible. Enterprises that create outsized economic opportunity for women (through jobs, income-generating products, or market access) are especially hard for capital to find and validate. Operating in under-covered sectors without standardized impact data, they often remain hidden from the very investors best positioned to fund them.