Subject: To optimism and bravery

Celebrating 2024 and looking ahead to 2025

Dear Friend,


Welcome to our last newsletter edition for 2024! Together, we have been on a meaningful journey over the past 12 months, sharing and exploring the news, events, research and work shaping the landscape for gender lens investing.


Now as we look ahead to 2025, we are moved to reflect on the bravery of optimism. We consider ourselves perpetual, if pragmatic optimists, for the very nature of our work calls us to be thus.


The pursuit and advancement of gender lens investing calls on us to believe not in the world as it is but what it can be - a world that is better, fairer, safer and more prosperous for all. That belief pushes us to be brave and bold as we attempt to make this vision of the  world as it should be, a reality.


It calls on us to create opportunities where they don’t exist, to draw together like-minded partners from different fields and to continue to try to shift attitudes in order to shape markets.


In partnership with our community of members and partners as well as with stakeholders and allies in the wider field, this is what we’ve dedicated our efforts to in 2024.

2X Criteria

In January, we launched the updated 2X Criteria, our widely used industry standard for gender lens investment, which have underpinned the 2X Challenge from the start, strengthening it by incorporating learnings from five years’ worth of 2X Challenge investments. The revised Criteria go deeper and are more nuanced, including codifying the 2X Basic ESG and Governance and Accountability, requiring companies to meet or commit to two 2X Criteria in order to be 2X-aligned, and introducing context-specific thresholds based on country and sector of focus.

Building the field through research

In April, together with Sagana and supported by the Visa Foundation, we published the Project Catalyst study, measuring the size and scope of gender lens investment funds in private markets.


The study detailed findings from a sector-wide survey of more than 100 investors and fund managers working in private equity, venture capital, and private debt worldwide and is a critical tool to be used in making and proving the business case for GLI. This initiative continues the work of the late GLI expert and industry pioneer Suzanne Biegel.

 

2X Challenge

The third edition of the 2X Challenge was launched in June at the G7 Summit in Italy. With a target of US$20 billion in gender lens investments, the 2X Challenge 2024-2027 is the biggest and most ambitious edition to date. The new 2X Challenge also marked a significant milestone, welcoming the first private sector investors commitments. Towards the end of the year, two of the 2X Challenge participating investors - DWM and the European Investment Bank respectively announced the first qualifying investments - to a bank in Ecuador and clean energy company in Kenya, totaling US$16.1 million.

2X Ignite

In 2024, we concluded the first Asia-Pacific cohort of the 2X Ignite GP Sprint, our six-month acceleration programme to boost the fundraising journey of the next generation of women-led and gender-diverse fund managers with gender-smart investing strategies. Shortly thereafter, we launched and welcomed the second Africa cohort.


Altogether, twenty gender-smart fund managers received hands-on and practical support, network building opportunities, and strategic guidance for their respective investment vehicles.


We also gained significant momentum on the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility, which will allow women-led gender- smart fund managers across the continent to build the track record and catalyse capital for a first close.  

2X Certification

After a two-year process of co-creation, industry input and pilot testing, we launched 2X Certification at the 2X Global Summit 2024. 2X Certification provides a clear, credible framework for assessing and recognising the efforts of entities advancing gender equality in investment, finance and business.


Five funds and companies - Aavance, Beyond Capital Ventures’s latest fund, S4S Technologies and Verod’s latest fund - which participated in the pilot phase of the programme, became the first ever 2X Certified entities.

 

Climate and Gender Equity Fund

Our work managing the Climate Gender Equity Fund (CGEF) continued apace, with seven grantees announced over the course of 2024, bringing the total awarded thus far under CGEF to US$4.5 million across two funding rounds.


CGEF is a public-private partnership led by USAID in partnership with Amazon, Reckitt, Skoll Foundation, The UPS Foundation, and Visa Foundation that seeks to increase access to climate finance for gender-responsive, women-led, and women-benefiting organisations. 2X Global is the grants management partner for CGEF, responsible for grant-making and managing CGEF’s portfolio of grants.


Grantees announced this year spanned three continents, with awards in 2024 going to women-led and women-owned fund managers working in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The 2024 CGEF grantees are: ATG Samata, wCap, Altree Capital, AWE Funds, Deetken Impact, The Rallying Cry and Villgro Philippines.


Climate & Gender

2X Global contributed to the global climate finance policy discussions at COP 29 in Baku, being invited to submit an official input paper to the UNFCCC NCQG process, which outlined policy proposals and made the business case for integrating gender responsiveness into the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) decisions.

Membership and Community Building 

We continued to build our community in 2024, with 40 new organisations becoming members of 2X Global including Leapfrog Investments, DAI and KPMG and bringing on new funding partners such as Muirfield Foundation and Skoll Foundation. 


We deepened connection with and between our members, supporters and partners through our increasingly in-demand Investor Meet-ups. Davos, Cape Town, Sydney, Paris, Oxford, New York City and Amsterdam were just some of the locations where we brought our gender finance community together in 2024.


Together with MEDA, we hosted the 2X Global Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the first time our flagship convening was held on the African continent and it brought together 250 members and strategic partners from across the gender finance ecosystem for the three-day convening, which this year honed in on the power of innovation and technology to advance women’s economic empowerment.

Knowing what we’ve accomplished together, fuels our optimism as we look to the year ahead. 


Whether you’ve only just signed up for our mailing list this month or you have been a subscriber for years now, we are grateful to you for taking this journey with us by opening, reading, clicking and recommending.


Our wish for you - our readers, and for us all, is for a restful and fulfilling end to your 2024 and that your 2025 is filled with optimism and powered by bravery.


See you in January!


Keep reading for a selection of the latest GLI news and insights.


In Community,

2X Global team

News from the field

Mainstreaming gender lens investing. It’s a $4.2 trillion question - how can we bridge the SDG financing gap? The scale of the need and innovative solutions to unlock private capital, are outlined in this input paper from GSG Impact, for the United Nation’s 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). 2X Global was among the 50 organisations spanning 45 countries which contributed to the paper. Six new investors including the Walton Foundation, Small Foundation and Blue Haven have joined the MacArthur Foundation in the Catalytic Capital Consortium to extend the C3 grantmaking initiative to increase social and environmental investments that advance the sustainable development goals. New gender bonds on the market - the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) just issued two Gender bonds with approximately $200 million in funds to be allocated to new and ongoing commitments to gender equality. Our CEO Jessica Espinoza is featured in the latest edition of Super Return's emerging managers eMagazine to talk about gender equality and investment performance in emerging markets!

Gender and Climate Investing. Spain has rolled out a new climate leave policy for workers affected by climate-related events such as October's devastating flash floods. A new report from the OECD outlines ways in which policymakers and financial sector stakeholders can strengthen the evidence base and align finance more effectively with climate goals. There's still time to join CleanTech Hub's SheSustains Cohort 2 aimed at supporting women-led ventures in scaling up their impact-driven business focused on clean energy solutions. The SheSustains programme is made possible by support from the Climate Gender Equity Fund (CGEF).

Leadership, Culture and Policy. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwaha, a stalwart of Namibia’s SWAPO, has been elected Namibia's first female president. Along with Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan she is one of two current women heads of state on the African continent. Per Bloomberg, Demet Mutlu, who built Trendyol into Turkey’s biggest e-commerce platform has set up a family office to manage her fortune - joining a growing group of HNW wielding influence in family offices.

Resilience (GBV, Financial Inclusion, Security). Did you know that 96 countries still lack laws preventing gender discrimination in access to credit? Check out this data visualisation piece from the Gates Foundation outlining the realities and impact of the lack of access to finance for women. Goldman Sachs and IFC are partnering with African banks to empower women entrepreneurs across the continent. This collaboration aims to unlock financial resources and opportunities, enabling women-led businesses to thrive and drive economic growth. New guidance from UNEP for banks on how to advance gender equity and empower women. 2X Global was pleased to contribute as a reviewer for this new guidance. Melinda French Gates' Pivotal Ventures has launched Action for Women’s Health, a $250 million global open call that will fund organisations around the world that are improving women’s mental and physical health.

Care Economy. The Tokyo metropolitan government is set to introduce a four-day work week as part of a raft of policies aimed at reversing the country’s declining population. What should we do to protect those who provide caregiving? The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted an insightful recent roundtable ‘Defending the Caregivers: The Care Economy and Gender-Based Violence’ on this topic. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) is sounding the alarm bell about the severe strain being put on Lebanon’s care economy by the ongoing war. New data from the department of Labour in the United States has shown that many families were spending as much on child care costs as on rent, during the peak of recent inflation in 2022.

Data and Tools. With just five years before the 2030 deadline for the SDGs, not a single indicator under SDG5 has been fully achieved. Phenix Capital's new report on gender lens investing looks at how GLI can accelerate progress on the SDGs.

Welcoming new members


We are pleased to welcome Climate Policy Initiative, Alitheia Capital, Admaius Capital, Cygnum Capital, Leapfrog Investments, KPMG LLP, Creador Sdn Bhd and Goodwell Investments as new members this quarter.

 

Community Calendar

16 January, 2025

Explore the PE-VC ecosystem in Southeast Asia at the Indonesia PE-VC Summit 2025 hosted by DealStreetAsia. Register here.

20-24 January, 2025

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, known as ‘Davos’ brings together a cross-section of leaders from business, government, non-profits and more. Learn more.

20-22 January, 2025

Women’s Private Equity Summit APAC brings together women leaders in private equity to explore regional investment insights and foster collaboration Singapore.

21-22 January 2025

AFIFORUM 2025 will convene financial institutions and their investors from across Asia’s financial industry and sustainable development community, in Bangkok, Thailand.

22 January 2025

2X Global is co-hosting our first 2X Investor Meet-up in Johannesburg with Adenia Partners. Secure your spot and register here.

February 2025

Convergence XXI is a month-long online event in February 2025, where field builders discuss and reimagine gender lens investing through inclusive, participant-driven conversations. Learn more.

 

Thank you to our partners and supporters

 
List of 2X Global's supporters and partners in 2024

2X Global Limited, 55 Ludgate Hill, EC4M 7JW, London, United Kingdom

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