 Hi everybody, it's really a pleasure to be having this session with all of you So welcome to the space where we're going to be discussing whether investing female entrepreneurs is actually a social issue or an economic opportunity and We truly believe that this is something that We really need to discuss because when we're talking about SDG number five that is all about gender equality Many tend to think that when it comes to investments is just a nice thing to do And what we truly believe is that even though many of these targets, they are related to social justice Today, we really want to highlight that it is actually a good idea and good business to embrace diversity invest in women, let businesses embrace a new way of thinking in general and That's why we brought to you a very diverse set of women who are deeply engaged in the topic and they're going to be sharing their experiences, opinions Really from various like perspectives. We were just like talking. I think we're covering such a wide spectrum of the globe here So we have Kimberly all the way from Australia. So it's 1 a.m. For her Artis in India India is in Africa. I'm here in Berlin Germany and coming from Brazil originally so it is quite a diverse group and Actually, thanks to the BMW foundation and the responsible leaders network that we all know each other and we came together for this panel So we really hope that after this conversation It becomes a bit more clear that really supporting gender equality and balance in business Leadership investments government is really like the clever thing to do to really build a healthier and more successful world And I would say that it's both from Wells and well-being point of view So before we go into introduction introductions a little bit of housekeeping We're gonna have around like 40 minutes of discussion and then open up for 10 15 minutes of Q&A so Be ready and feel free to jump in or use the chat. I have to just see how is it that there's gonna really work out Sometimes I know that it's possible to jump with video and voice. Let's see how this plays out here and The session as I mentioned is supported by the BMW foundation through the responsible leaders network to Which all of us belong and also the gender alliance It's a network of gender activists from the responsible leaders network and other networks That are really like looking for the topic of gender in a different like sectors and dimensions and also Ella impact Which is a global female network both focus on impact investing so Let me see we have now around like 37 people joining us. So that's very exciting and I would like to Go quickly through the four of us. So India is joining us from Africa So she's a gender lens investing expert and she's the investment director at grass and mashall trust Where she's driving the organization's gender lens investing initiative and it's leading the team to create a pen African women's investment Fund super exciting and she's been a key person in East Africa to give women more space in the fund management industry And is the founding chairperson of new faces new voices The Kenya chapter, which is a women finance network We also have RT RT is the co-founder of UNO social business in India. I think that UNO's This misses any further introductions But there she was like catalyzing the creation of the impact investing funds and also the Indian corporate action tank Which was India's first incubator for large companies to do in-house social business innovation And is currently had a future thinking to really accelerate social business creation around the world and Her work focused on building an enabling X system for large corporates to transform into purpose-driven companies So welcome very excited to have you here We also have Kimberly so Kimberly is yeah going through the night to be here with us today or at this evening So she's logging in from Australia and she's the founder of global women's leaders Strategic philanthropy and the chair of the Center for Global Equality at Cambridge So she has a career in banking and financial and financial services She will see a full for retail a business and private banking divisions of Westpac banking corporation and has worked Extensively in the international capital markets with CD group She is a strategic philanthropist, which I find is super interesting approach and she's Coordinating global women leaders and this is a community of women who collectively leverage their professional expertise experience and global connections for maximum humanitarian development impact and As she's also involved with the Center for Global Equality as I mentioned in Cambridge and That is contributing to the UN sustainable development goals at large through an inclusive innovation approach And as for me, you're part of host tonight. I'm Julia. I'm originally from Brazil But I've been living in Berlin for the past three and a half years I'm the founder of Ella impact and co-founder of conscious growth which we are actually like rebranding to Remagine and it's gonna be the first B2B Bank here in Germany or Europe focus on mainstreaming impact here in Europe. I Start my career in banking and I got really into the tag and private equity world before getting to the social impact ecosystem So some highlights We're also like my time working with the unosocial business in Brazil So that's how I got to know RTF at first and also being a partner at Vox capital Which was the first venture capital fund doing impact in Brazil So now off to our panel and our super exciting discussions And to start with I would like to ask you three Why is it actually a good business to invest in women? RT maybe you want to start with that John So The you know the the definition of gender lens investing today it encompasses Various perspectives one is investing in women-led businesses. The second is investing with the lens of including women in value chains And then the thought is including women in investing decisions as well So, you know, you said that you must really needs no introduction and he doesn't because of you know, Grameen Bank Now I think Grameen Bank is one of the earliest examples of gender lens investing that really encompasses all three perspectives And it's also a beautiful example of the business case for investing in women So Grameen Bank was you know it was set up first of all as a female focused lending in business that Invests primarily in women-led businesses and also where the decision-making is in the hands of the female borrowers And the story of Grameen Bank really, you know continues to focus rightly on its poverty alleviating impact the fact that you know It's brought nine million borrowers out of abject poverty It's and you know at it's been replicated around the world and impacted about a hundred million people globally through those Replications, but what isn't talked about so much is how successful Grameen Bank is as a business on traditional business parameters It's the scale of how many customers it serves it serves nine million Customers in Bangladesh. It's disbursed twenty four billion dollars to the world's poorest women And it has a 98% repayment rate, which is you know higher than that of The the risk-free bank the less risky banking sector in a sense So the business case that it demonstrates is to fold one that by investing in women you create economic value Which is evidenced by the number of people that it's brought out of poverty And the second that investing in women as a business is also good business And this is not just a developing country experience. There is a you know, it's a there's a Grameen America as well Which provides microloans to women below the federal poverty line and it's had incredible impact in the 12 years that it's been operating It's disbursed one of almost one and a half billion dollars in loans to about 125,000 women in 15 cities across the US and these women in town have gone on to create about a hundred 150,000 jobs They've achieved higher family incomes if they revitalize their communities and again social impact apart or economic impact apart Grameen America is also Parameters and these women have also repaid their loans with again a 99% repayment rate, so I think this this demonstrates that there is that it's that the The that there is a very strong business case for the social opportunity, which is investing in women There is also, you know the now if you come to the untapped opportunity and you take the example of India Mckinsey research suggests that India could add over 770 billion dollars to its GDP By ensuring equal opportunities for women India currently has one of the lowest female Participation participation rates in the workforce of the we add one million young people The workforce every year and only 13% of those are women and in fact their participation has declined sharply over the last 10 years even at the top of the pyramid We have a mere 14% of women in leadership positions and only 12% of the funded startups in India have a Female co-founder and I'm talking about these numbers is because obviously the flip side of this opportunity of of these problems is is the business opportunity as evidence by coming back, so It's a little bit of perspective from my network Great great. It's very interesting to hear like the also the setting right now in India, right and India I think you can bring also a very interesting perspective from Africa and what's actually like your take on the soul Like why is it good to invest in women? Thanks, Julian arty Genderlands investing really can play a significant role in addressing the challenges women have as consumers Employees entrepreneurs, and this is mainly about a lack of access to finance social biases Inequality in opportunities So we've seen more than 4.6 billion in debt and capital being deployed as a gender lens across the world in the last five years But a lot of activity has remained confined to North America with only six percent of it being deployed In Africa, it must also be noted that Africa is the only continent where women Entrepreneurs when you look at the mastercard index of women entrepreneurs the the only continent where women have chosen to be Entrepreneurs more than their male counterparts and having countries like Ghana and Uganda top other More developed countries. So despite the harsher socioeconomic conditions, but women are still prevailing on a choosing entrepreneurship Most entrepreneurs in Africa really cite the lack of access to finance and access to markets as key impediments to The growth and the lack of finance probably accounts for twice the proportion of business failure amongst women compared with men A lot of it has got to do with the smaller asset ownership that really leads to women's struggle To get loans of the same size as men These are things that really fuel the capital investment gap We've also seen that as much as women are Running businesses Most of your businesses are an average smaller and less productive than male-owned businesses Although there is a case that there there is a difference between Doing B2B or B2C businesses in terms of the type of businesses women entrepreneurs are in We found that women entrepreneurs also lack mentors because they aren't able to see people that are like them to succeed in this field When we did our research, we found about 60 63 percent of women entrepreneurs not having access to a business or industry mentor And more male entrepreneurs really knowing a man who has started and run a business successfully than women do And this is despite the fact that you know evidence really looks at Really the opportunity and the product customization of the female segment really looking at women as consumers Not only controlling consumer spending but really serving an underserved market because they understand the needs And when we do our investing, we are finding really interesting women entrepreneurs I think half of our pool and these 50 percent of the women entrepreneurs Have products and services that cater to the underserved female segment We're talking about issues to do with maternity biodegradable sanitary towels, baby products, advice to moms, wholesale online shopping, early childhood education, skin hair products, hair care All of these really thoughtful solutions that wouldn't necessarily come up if you're dealing with a male entrepreneur So they are problems that need to be solved in this world and can be solved in this world If we're dealing with women entrepreneurs I'd also like to say Um Women tend to hire more women really having between Work with as women while men only have a third Thank you Thank you, and it's super insightful and it's interesting to understand as well that potentially there are like really like differences like across geographies and also like types of businesses so like hearing that potential like in Africa you see sometimes that like Some businesses might be like less efficient because of lack of really like resources and benchmarks, etc There's like some data that indicates like venture back companies in the us and europe in general They have like 35 percent return over investments when compared to men Or even like 12 above like revenues as well So I think it's an important like a piece to really highlight that like women can be really more efficient if they're given like the same kind of Like conditions that men have And kimberley, I think you have like a slight Different approach and angle to this topic. I would like to hear your thoughts on that as well Yes, so my background is actually in structured finance and banking and In that I would describe that role as really a pipeline creator, you know Creating new structures creating deals creating access to finance creating access to markets and when I listen to already in anvia It's You know, it's I'm completely convinced as we all are that it's good business. It makes good sense There are great businesses out there. So why aren't we doing more of this and I hear this over and over again It's you know the access to finance isn't because finance isn't out there It's because we often leave women On their own to try to navigate this this space while they're trying to run their business So we need to make it easier for them to access finance to access mentors access markets and One of the things that people overlook is you need to invest in actually the pipeline builders or the glue or the connective tissue That brings this together. So in a commercial banking background We always had enough resources slack in my team to be Working on new deals coming up with new structures and this sort of you know the the slack in the banking system Paid for that now who pays for the pipeline builders in this system There are there is a gap here for women actually to take the initiative as female philanthropists as female Investors in pipeline creators to help bring these products and these women to a point where they are investable We can't leave them on their own and as women it's our responsibility I think to step in and create structures that do that and I would I would give the example of The center for global quality at Cambridge, which is run by dr. Lore Allen a woman Investing in dr. Lara and her team to it's a drop in the bucket actually the leverage effect of investing in groups like that who Incubate cultivate these ventures female founders doing amazing social work You know groundbreaking vaccine carrier technology that will transform Childhood pneumonia let alone covet Sort of vaccine delivery, but we're not investing in those pipeline builders those Networks that are going to see these women actually supported so that we can invest in them So we need to create the pipeline and the product so that we can help that's a great point Kimberley Because I think that many times when we're talking about investments People think tend to think about like a certain stage of development of a company and here It's so important that we understand that they're like different stages of development And we need different sources of capital for each one of these So like having said that I think is a good segue into like our second like main question of this conversation Which is what are the current perspectives of the different kind of investor profiles on gender lens? so like covering these different stages and maybe I will invert here the order now and talk about like the beginning of the pipeline creation with with kimberley What's your take on that? Well, I think it's just a continuation of what I was just saying The the global women leaders community that I convene Comes from my own personal journey of trying to take what I learned in banking and finance the global connections that I built And somehow give back in the initially the philanthropic space And as my own personal journey has evolved that's turned into Impact investing, you know rising Women entrepreneurship and I realized that the the power of convening other women like me around the world to Think about how they can help, you know, we've had pro bono legal work for Decades. Well, what else can we donate a bit of our time whether for me? I do this full time for others a bit of your time to contribute as many do as a mentor But beyond that, you know, we work on financing structures. We work on different ways to Think about new pipelines and pathways to get capital You know to female entrepreneurs And work with other institutions and draw them together as that connective tissue again Women are pretty good at sort of seeing the possibility of how to bring People together and build community And I think that's a real opportunity here and a catalytic role that female philanthropists and investors in pipelines can actually Kickstart so we can do this faster and at greater scale than we've been able to do today And I think in that point it's very interesting to see also that like women are going to be the largest like inheritors in the coming decades of like capital. So what is it that these Yeah, these people are going to be really like doing with all this capital to really like foster more like gender Equality at the beginning of the pipeline going forward, right? So so and yeah, what's your perspective on the gender lens across, you know, like fund managers family offices banks Yeah, so, um, if I touch on banks, um Basically an emerging economies women are about one fifth less likely than men to have an account With a financial institution And globally they're sort of represent sort of 56 of the financially excluded I do want to say before I jump into banks that there has been A lot of a female participation when it comes to the digital loans But that in itself when we talk about digital lending has its own Has its own limitations because the credit offered is really expensive if you try and extend it beyond the month It really works well for daily traders Um, when we look at just uh, women in banking, it's really funny because Women are celebrated to be very good savers But when it actually comes to the share of the aggregate credit portfolios considered you'll find that They make up only 18 percent of these credit portfolios and when we talk about the loan approval rates They're 20 lower than men loan sizes are 58 smaller. So there is an issue with the banking Industry now this is something that the banking industry Has realized or is beginning to realize And we have started tackling it by really engaging in the composition of the women within That industry itself and when we did our inaugural study, which was the eklips study on gender equality and diversity in the workplace And we had five of the top 10 institutions come from the financial sector And we're seeing that some of these decision making and having women in those strong, should I say line roles not the staff roles I really Promoted the banks be more conscious and more deliberate about bringing women entrepreneurs into that fold Um, when we look at the fund managers industry Um, I think this is an industry that is really needs quite a lot of work But it's coming up with a lot of Innovative things because the the few women that are there are speaking out We're looking at only eight percent of women that are senior investment professionals And why do we care about this? Because these are the capital allocation decisions This is where some of the biases lie. So it's really important in terms of how these teams are constructed And it's it's almost shocking to find that nearly in a study that ic did Nearly 70 percent of senior investment teams are all male And it's been proved time and time again that there is unconscious bias And this is bias that we have been raised when so there's a certain perception in how we deal of you With a woman with children These are the a man with children, you know One question and how we view a single woman and these are things that we want to unlock and how do we want to unlock it? We're really advocating for very pure and specific Dental lens funds We have found that when women are actually brought together and it's very deliberate that you are searching for return At a pre-investment level all across investment process to the end Women come the deal sourcing is a little bit different when you're getting the way you would actually review The before you still get the returns. It's not about the returns I think evidence has shown the gender balance teams are produced higher returns The issue is getting more women invested and also encouraging the follow-on investment So one question and here like connecting the two of you I think we all agree like gender lens is actually needed And how much would you say that both in the like within the philanthropic world and within like fund management and banks do people actually Stipulate like kpi. So really like metrics to follow whether really like the gender approach has been Improving increasing and respected throughout like everything that they have been doing. Do you see these kpi's actually be implemented? Or is it more like a pink washing? I think you're on mute. Kimberly I'm not familiar with what the banks are doing on inside lending. I'm no longer working inside a Large bank, but what I can say is that there are disruptive models where people are taking great things from the philanthropic world and applying them to This funding of female entrepreneurs. So she is a great example of a hybrid model where it's not philanthropy. It's A straight loan sort of a revolving grant where women pool their Sort of catalytic capital together. They choose You know Female adventures to support They also support them through Networks community, etc. It's a fabulous model very scalable It appeals to women who like to participate and learn about what they're investing in or learn what they're giving in And it's a great hybrid model So there's disruption going on in terms of you don't need to rely directly on the banks to Intermediate between women helping women or anyone helping women in this case get started So there's great things in the world of connectivity That we can do to actually move capital more directly to women and support them along the way And yeah, is your sound working again? Can you hear us? You're on mute, so I tell you I'm just having a technical issue. I'll be okay I can't Okay, so let's see how this goes but I think that one of the things that we have been like discussing a lot is like the The intentionality behind like gender lens, right? I think for many people It has become a trend. It's important to say that you consider like gender diversity in your portfolios But like most of the times we don't see kpis. We don't see commitment We just see you know a few lines here and there and some photos that oh, yeah We do have like women in the portfolio or we are like really considering like hiring more women in the team and really like Making them part of management teams, etc. But in reality We are like very far from like the decision-making positions Which also affects another Angle of the conversation and here I would like already to to jump in when it comes to Discussing it's is it only about like the gender lens into what it is that we're investing or is it also like a way of thinking how We do business how we do investments exactly Exactly Sorry, you're breaking So what Bring in an additional perspective to the ones that and yet can be brought in by Yeah, you're back. Are you able to hear me? Yes, I'm back. Okay. Okay Okay, great. So I was saying that I I'd like to I'd like to bring in a different an additional perspective from the ones that andi and kimberley brought in by co-opting the whole Reimagining capitalism discussion into the idea of say The topic that we're discussing today By expanding the scope of gender lens investing into what I'm going to call right now Feminine investing now. What does that mean? I'd argue that The kind of rapacious capitalism we're seeing today the climate exploitation the Inequality that we're seeing today the exploitation the political aggression Even, you know our desire to go and colonize the moon or colonize mars All of this that we're seeing in the world today is you know a result of too much masculinity Too much masculine thinking. Let me put it that way aggression linear thinking focus on growth for the sake of growth alone And one could argue that we've lost touch as a global society with the principles of the feminine And what does that mean? It means the principles of rootedness of circular thinking of sustainability of community and inclusion So to bring the world into balance or really to stop the world from self detonating We need to reconnect in a sense with the feminine And masculine and feminine principles are independent of gender because the feminine does not sit in a female body alone Neither does the masculine sit in a male body alone So while yes, it's important to invest in women invest for women and invest by women We also need to we we can't continue to invest in women who are doing all things in the old ways We need to carve out space to invest in men and women who are thinking about doing business differently Um, and so this is where I'm sort of co-opting these recent calls that we're seeing to reimagine capitalism and I particularly like to talk about this from the perspective of Bringing purpose into large companies and the rise of esg investing really or purpose investing as evidence of the feminine Making its way back into capitalism And if you were to put some numbers behind this, um, the global impact investing market is about 750 billion dollars Of this about five billion dollars is gender lens investing. I hope my statistics are right Um, and yes, we should carve out more of this pie into gender investing and increase the size of the impact investing by in general But another way of creating meaningful impact is to look at the trillions of dollars that are currently invested in traditional financial markets in large companies and co-op that money into feminine investing instead of one swoop by changing the color of this money By changing the way that this money thinks about its purpose So really feminine capitalism in a sense and in addition to the moral argument like going back to the first question We were discussing is there a business case? So I would say that in addition to the moral argument for feminine capitalism There is also a business case of feminine capitalism And here I want to reference some research that we did last year Together with corticus insiad and the schwab foundation where we found that companies that engage and Encourage purpose led business projects. They did better on core business parameters as well Traditional business parameters. They had better employee engagement. They had improved customer perception Leading to a top and bottom line impact. They had improved brand perception They had more innovation their employees had more entrepreneurial skills so feminine capitalism Apart from being one possible solution And I think it's so really needed right now as we're facing this crisis that doesn't allow us to be in person right now at Socap that everything is culminating is really like asking us to really like question the status quo And one of the additional challenges that we see is that whenever we face crisis many times we have Either the opportunity of really stepping to the new and going for really like innovative solutions Or we can fall back into the comfortable and known And really just embrace the old old paradigms And this is something that I have been like raising the question around like since the beginning of covid And actually there is like now data supporting us that we're going backwards When it comes to gender lens. So there's like a late. I think it was one or two weeks ago that pitch book released The data saying that Venture-backed women actually reached their like bottom compared to like the last three years So it's like the least investment into women led businesses since three years ago And mainly because companies portfolio managers and generators like putting money Exactly where money was before just supporting existing portfolios not looking at new opportunities looking at the new Innovation so I would like to invite you And here and I think you can like contribute a bit more Also on what is the impact that covid has had in fundraising for women led businesses across the globe Thank you so much julian. I'm sorry. I had to leave and and go out again um covid has really Taking us back and it's taken a lot of a lot of people back and and it's really different You know the other day I was talking to a woman entrepreneur and she was talking about the impact Of of working from home and she said when she was at home alone She was quite happy to have a sandwich But when with her husband home, they have to cook it's like a full blown and it's like It's her her husband and they've got a daughter and a son And guess who the two people cooking for the husband and the son her and the daughter And she's also doing online learning. I think these are the things that we have to see that that happened with covid very Very interesting things women in business have been notorious For using their savings to grow their business have always sort of used their amount and been very cautious Never borrowing more than they need and we got to a point that when you look at covid and and especially if you're somebody that was relying on Which traffic or future events? We're looking at businesses that don't have more than three months runway They practically can't exist. So, I mean the the the call is really that We had we were making a lot of progress. This was actually the year of the women when we're looking at Beijing 25 We were expecting some of the biggest commitments to come through the women and now governments are Reprioritizing budgets and it was very almost disappointing to see very quickly How even the decisions when those covid response funds were coming Suddenly we were being addressed by mail all we did when we opened and looked at the tv The radio it was suddenly a very dominant sign of main leadership And i'm so glad that you know the press was coming out and Bigging stories of what women are doing and really pushing for that gendered approach So what we have here is that it's become a really Difficult scenario when it comes to fund raising I think uh from the industry as you said rightly said julia It's a wait and see and it's let's protect our portfolio. Let's protect the value that we already have and when people are looking at When people are looking at new investments It's going to be in what they consider The the sexy feels they want to see what's happening on the tech side. They want to see what's happening On the energy side. So if you're the traditional sort of mom and Pop shop that is feeding and really important from a neighborhood community point of view It's not really seen as an investor priority and what we're saying is when we have extraordinary Circumstances, we cannot really look and view investments in the same way I'm really happy that institutions like mastercard and opus. I really think what we call covet rebuild loans So they're really looking at how do we stabilize the businesses before? How do we keep the lights on then from those businesses? We can pick and see which businesses do we actually want to Support with venture investments. That's awesome. What's your take on that kimberley? I think you have also like some interesting inputs on that Yeah, I mean there's a there's a flip side I mean from a personal perspective I would normally have to do a lot of travel to do business to be in places To sort of make these connections and work on these things and now it's a real level art You know, I have five children and a husband and you know, I live in australia So for me getting up at 1 a.m. And participating in a call like this. I can Get it done with a late night and not be gone for two weeks. So there are The flip side of the coin is that in terms of collaborating Accelerating access to networks thinking of new ways of working together It's you know, there are more people probably watching this so cap session from different parts of the world than we would have in person Um, so as women we are balancing these different priorities as our men I don't want to exclude men actually from this conversation. There are some, you know Fabulous men in our in our network that um, you know, it's not exclusive to women actually So we need to find new ways of doing this It has diverted capital for sure at least in the short term I mean, covet is a priority for a lot of catalytic philanthropists for a lot of investors for You know valid reasons, um, but we need to make sure again that what structures are we building underneath? I have to jump in and out my apologies Okay, and yeah What what future do we imagine for ourselves? What um new models of of You know capital going more directly can we stitch up during this time? So let's not waste this opportunity As I think one of the others uh speakers said, you know There is an old model that was built a certain way. Um VC model going and pitching all this sort of thing, you know, let's let's build some pools of capital that can carry Women through this and that can come from women. I mean you're getting zero interest in the bank at least in my country at the moment, so You know putting some money in the hands of a woman-led business to get them through Um, and if at the worst it turns out a donation at the best you've really helped someone So there's let's think about new ways of doing this And I think RT you have some also interesting insights, uh, because you guys were coordinating a covid alliance So what are like some of the specific components that you can share with us? Sure I mean at first I I just like to echo um what gimbely and alia are saying um And maybe just bringing the BOP perspective from india You know women have covid has impacted women disproportionately in india First from an employment perspective 80 percent of women workers in india are employed in the informal sector Um, and you know, we've seen these images of of migrant workers It's been a very hot topic in india We've seen horrible images of you know because of the lockdown migrant workers from cities Travelling back to their villages on on foot. Um, you know, this this is this is the the the large There's very little data on on this entire You know a large proportion of the workforce that we have in india and And you know and there are an 80 percent of like I said the women in india are employed in this workforce um So the current crisis has a very severely impacted their ability to continue working to earn any income and Obviously it's then impacted even more those who are particularly vulnerable. It's just uh, you know single differently abled women or those um, you know that um come from uh From from marginalized sections of of society um You know, um government support has uh, you know, has not been enough And some of it uh is has been in the form of guaranteed work But then again, that is also manual labor Like for example digging wells or building a roads which is unsuited In in some ways for women Um School has been disrupted This is disproportionately again impacted women. We already have a very high dropout rate in india 40 percent of adolescent girls between the age of 15 To 18 dropout of school. This is pre-covid. This is going to soar as families Prioritize the education of boys access to healthcare has been disrupted So there is there is a need to lean into investing into women or into structures that that enable women um And yes, uh, we we have come together with a bunch of impact investors and the world economic forum to launch an alliance to raise money for social businesses And um And of course, uh, you know, it is it has been challenging But we have managed to create um emergency funding for for a lot of the social businesses Yeah, so it is a moment for us to all be having our raiders really on to to not let this, you know, like Moment take us back in time And I think that one of the things that we've all really appreciate and consider as important for like this movement going forward for women Is also the power of networks So we are connected here through a network of the responsible leaders Um, but we also have our own other networks that somehow connect as well And in that I would like to invite you both like india and kimberley to talk a little bit as like About like the work you have been doing with your own networks as well And how you see that they have been also like driving women forward before we go into like some q&a And yeah, you want to go first? You're on mute and yeah um, the network has really changed my life and I feel so privileged to be part of the BMW foundation, which I think of my uh as an international network that really has Like-minded individuals of social impact, but being a woman in finance I've had to really stick with other women within finance have been in senior positions before Where you're sort of the only woman on a table and you find that when you have a network of people in your professional field You feel more confident and you get a lot of peer support And you're able to confide in without feeling judged So I feel from a professional career point of view having a safe space to discuss Even sensitive issues like sexual harassment, which a lot of women face when they're fundraising That can happen within peer networks also the ability to advocate and sponsor for one another. We are very um We are watchers when it comes to manals when we see a manual and we see Places that women could be speaking. We put ourselves out there. I would also like to say that I've been very happy with the entrepreneurial networks. We've also been a part of this is where we do our deal sourcing This is where we build trust You can you can have a fund you can be fully funded You could have 20 million 30 million 50 million dollars Turn a woman network and nobody will will want to be invested in you people have got to know you Highly relational highly trust and what those networks do is that they keep me close to the pouts Of what women women are experiencing both both the good stuff And the bad stuff and that's why I really believe in investing and women it goes beyond Just that it's experiencing them through all of the the particular networks And then it's the network I run which is the women in finance Kenya that really goes beyond investing but also has the bankers and the insurance providers And sometimes to create a solution with a big problem like this You need collaboration between financial services providers and technical assistance partners What what about you Kimberley? The same experience I'll just follow on that from my own perspective when I was a banker there were Not enough women to even have a network So I think it's fantastic that there are such networks now But I also want to say my other experience in the philanthropic world is I moved from having a All philanthropic network to realizing that actually having A network that involved or a community really I'd prefer to call it of women from NGOs banking government People who are actually on the ground doing the work in humanitarian organizations It's actually a much stronger network. We learn from each other. We share different stories. We Find ways to co-design solutions much better than siloed networks. So There are places for of course, you know women in finance. There's a women in social finance networks. That's great There's a great network womenpreneur that works in belgium in the middle east that's doing great things To support social entrepreneurs that are women, but those cross networks I think are actually what we need more of and opportunities like this to sit in conversation with all of you And that's one thing the BMW is Responsible leadership network has done for me is give me the opportunity to meet people from Completely different geographies different industries and we've come up with different ways of supporting each other. So more of the same including men Is is I guess the secret and you know, the more we can do that and invest in actually creating those networks Which is what BMW has done. I encourage other Philanthropists and sort of pipeline funders again that I would call them to To really think about how that can be the first investment you make Because all the other investments will actually Dovetail out of those joined up people working together. Yeah, and I think just like to complement here with Ella impact It's been a lot about like like learning with each other and like cross pollinating different like regions because sometimes you have Different expectations and different experiences with like investors like peers, etc And just seeing okay, what is it that you're doing in the u.s. Or like in america and europe Australia and in africa and we see that we can really expand the innovative approach that we have and just supporting and like Amplifying pipeline for investment amplifying recommendations of investors. So I think networks at the end of the day Or like still a very important secret sauce of success for Entrepreneurs investors and all of us like trying to change the world for a better place And we strongly encourage Yeah, go ahead Kim Yeah, and one one thing I wanted to say as well We've talked a lot about finance today tonight and often even when the finance is there I have a good example from a an entrepreneur in in my network Seth Jordan, which is a social enterprise working with refugee women Doing embroidered high-end embroidered products when I first met robberta. I said what do you need? I'm a banker. She said I'm a banker, but what I need is access to markets I need Network to figure out how to get these products. I need to move these products I need to get them into stores so the more sales we have the more women I can hire and the more this is successful It's not always finance and access to markets is a big one logistics supply chains Networks again, so it's a it's a it's a whole other conversation. But that's a great example of a really Wonderful model, but it the only way it's going to scale is access to markets through networks. Yeah, definitely Awesome, I think it's been such a valuable discussion so far I wanted to allow the people who are there following us I think around like 55 so Good 55 people throughout the whole panel. That's very exciting Please write your questions here on the chat I don't I don't know if there's like an option that you could potentially like pop Into the the screen as well So I think we have like one first question coming from burta. I don't know and yeah, can you hear us again? Are you are you back somehow? I'm unfortunately, I can't really hear you bits and pieces that I can I can manage I can look at the chat Okay, so I think the first question was like targeting you Like about your experience in the space of like banking fund management As a woman of color Yeah, I think it's I think it's um I think it's interesting that the color aspect is is coming up now, you know being in Africa you're you're really fighting the gender aspect and I was leading an investment team of all males when I was 30 so I was fighting ageism as well I really started feeling the the the the color aspect when I when I started dealing with International investors And what I realized is that they're not that many women out there directly fund raising For champions. Um, I was here saying the woman entrepreneur the African woman is bankable your next, you know Your next zucker vergo opera is in Africa Come find them and there were certain people it was a bias About maybe the African continent what Africa itself can deliver and who is giving the message And I think sometimes we have become so used to Only accepting people when they say things when they've been married to your woman who has been married to a politician Or you're from some sort of a royal family. I found it. It was really difficult to get A technical argument across that I was lucky to get the support of the grassy michelle foundation the trust Mrs. Michelle who has that political stature? She said it and then she opened the door for me to continue saying it So I think having very diverse Faces and having different women of color speak to investors around the globe is really important. So people Just sort of take away the unconscious bias about what an investor looks like or who an investor is awesome And there was like a very interesting question here and I think I would like direct that to like rt From rosalie asking us how can women be taken seriously when we champion a compassionate economy? So the whole like feminine Lens of like doing business so How can we be taken seriously? Um So, I mean that that's an interesting question so I Maybe I bring in two angles here one is Who do we want to be taken seriously by? um I think that so often as women we We have we have or let's say if you as women or as let's let's say people that embody the feminine perspective we so often We so often try to fit into or uh sort of We're we're trying to be taken seriously by people whose perspectives are very very different from us And so we sort of almost put that perspective on a pedestal and ours a little bit lower um, and and then we feel incomplete or somehow um We feel that we we need to we feel that somehow that ours is um Not not equally deserving of um Of being Ours is not equally valid in a sense. So I think one is we need to change our perspective of What being taken seriously means? Um, we we need to start taking ourselves seriously and really start believing in what it is That we do I think that's one and then the second is when you are trying to convince people who think very differently I think the first step is is to listen Um, and I and I think um, again, that's that's something that right now the world No, we we just we've forgotten how to listen. Um, and and this is a gender independent thing and then finally, um uh a more banal sort of Point of view would would also be um That if you're trying to convince those who uh, who are still sort of thinking in the old ways There are, you know, some of the arguments that we've been making earlier in the panel around around The business business case being defined in the old way, uh off Of sort of moving into this new way of thinking also Um, so I don't know. I hope I hope that answers the question that he's It's a difficult one I think I can just echo that I believe you can really in India as well, right? So it's just like who is it that we're trying to please and what kind of like Well, I What's the definition of a compassionate economy? I mean, you know, we're all here for humankind, you know The economy that that is here to lift us all up and and have good quality of life I mean, is that compassion or is that humanity or is that it's it's just It is what you know It is what I do. I don't think compassion should be a word that should be Put in any kind of negative light. I think that's I would be proud to be considered You know, I think I should be taking seriously if I'm focusing on a compassionate economy Actually, I donate my entire time to this as a strategic philanthropist. So absolutely Proud to and I think it's all about actually like the impact lenses, right? So if you're talking about like considering other stakeholders that is compassionate like at the core, right? So all of us impact investors should be actually considering ourselves as compassionate investors in a sense, right? That is much more than just like looking at the bottom line and profit at the end of the day right, so This is actually a great question. So we have a few more. I'm just like looking at the time here um I think let me see how to manage that I I think like takuro kimura actually had a good point about how can we really build leadership? And set a movement to actually make sure that we can deploy You know, like 10 trillion dollars in the coming years across different asset classes for the gender lenses investments at large, right? So he says I know that this is a top-down approach, but I believe it to be one way of looking for a solution Someone wants to to give it a go Sorry, can you repeat? So essentially like giving that we will have like around like 10 trillion dollars to deploy Most likely for like G Gli So what is it that's going to be required to actually make sure that we're managing this? appropriately and really having you know this movement go like going forward So he is already suggesting like the answer which is around like leadership, right? So I think it's part of what we were like discussing about like having more women as well In investment teams and part of like decision-making groups that really allow us to like bring this perspective To the table and like it's it's a top-down approach many times, but what are your thoughts there kimberley? Yeah I I think I hear this over and over again. I I participated in putting together a workshop last year Which was had women from global different globalities Working on what their issues were what they needed and over and over again I think there's a question in the chat that says the same thing Is there a list I can get that's vetted for funding and mentoring incubation resources? You know, we don't have it. We have to again. I'm a structured finance banker We have to do the work to put the infrastructure in place, you know, you it's not just going to appear We cannot let these women-led businesses just try to navigate the entire Global world of funding and investment and resources You have to build this and even some of the great initiatives like the the we fi coming out of the world bank even that is a Multilateral to multilateral tricky trickling down that is still not happy, you know, the bottom-up approach or the Intermediate approach, you know, we have the technology, you know, where is google? Where's where's facebook? Where is You know, where are these tech providers and working with us to create the community links to get organized on this? If we don't get organized, we're going to be talking about this in five years and ten years And people are going to be still scratching around. I mean, I'm a former bank treasury employee You know, we had people in treasury for a reason to go out and raise the money for the bank You don't have the mortgage division raising money for the bank You don't have the auto division raising money the treasury raises the money So we need to create the treasury for these women and men to go and be able to access these resources in a seamless manner So they can run their business That's the last thing they need to do is stay up all night trying to figure out where to find an investor You know, let's help bring it to them. Awesome. Yeah, I think being conscious of time here I would like to thank all of you who have been like following our panel RT kimberley and yeah for joining such an amazing Exciting discussion. I think our hearts are really in this topic And we are very happy that this panel was voted and we had the the opportunity of sharing this with like many more people And I think we have a lot of good materials to like inspire others and I hope that these last words also inspire you Ladies and gentlemen who have been like listening to really like go after the structuring of these pillars necessary to drive the gender lens topic forward So, thank you very much and have a lovely day afternoon evening, whatever you are. Thank you Thank you for joining. Thank you Julia for organizing us and thank you Thank you Julia. Thank you and yeah, thank you everybody Goodbye Good night