Lessons learned from IFC’s Invest2Equal Program
Across the world, private equity and venture capital fund managers are reaping business benefits by investing in gender equality—both within their own teams and across their portfolios. Despite strong and growing evidence that gender diversity correlates with higher returns, lower risks, and greater impact, serious gender gaps remain. In emerging markets, women hold only 11% of senior investment positions in private equity and venture capital firms, while just 13% of female entrepreneurs receive equity investment capital.
Spurred on by these challenges and opportunities, IFC created Invest2Equal in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). This program brought together 16 IFC portfolio fund managers operating in emerging markets to make specific, measurable, and time-bound commitments to advance gender equality within their firms and to apply a gender focus to their investment processes.
The fund managers profiled in this publication not only enhanced gender diversity within their own teams, but also championed equality across their investment practices. We hope their insights and learnings from the Invest2Equal program inspire other fund managers and industry stakeholders to develop their own gender equality and diversity strategies, thereby enhancing financial returns, reducing risks, and amplifying development impact.
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