InfoPoint conference: Channeling investment capital to promote women’s financial inclusion

WAM makes direct equity or quasi-equity investments in high performing, Women-focused, inclusive financial service providers in global emerging markets. Their aim is to promote a focus on Women as customers, as talent and as leaders to ensure portfolio companies would bring financial security, independence and prosperity to Women. Their strategy aims to drive higher returns on investment while helping to close the gender gap in financial inclusion. 

As of year-end 2024, through its two funds under management, WAM has deployed approximately $115M in equity investments in 22 inclusive financial services providers. These companies serve over 10 million Women customers and support over 14,000 jobs for Women. 

DG INTPA and BMZ serve as anchor investors in WAM Fund II providing catalytic investment capital and grants to the technical assistance facility. 

The session will feature:

• Pula, a tech-enabled, agri-insurance broker and advisor operating in Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, and expanding to South and Southeast Asia and South America. Pula develops and manages area yield index-based crop insurance products for small-holder farmers in partnership with insurance companies, governments, aid organizations, lenders, and agri-input retailers. Pula sees itself at the center of an ecosystem that helps small-holder farmers manage their risks while using the power of data and insights to help farmers unlock higher productivity over time.
• Tienda Pago, mobile-based digital platform that provides short-term (seven-day) inventory loans to merchants in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods retail sector, with an average loan size of approximately USD 390. The company launched in 2014 and began operations in Peru in 2016, followed by Mexico in 2017. It sources clients via partnerships with wholesale distributors, performs a centralized credit assessment on their merchant base, and pre-approves clients for loans specific to inventory purchases with the wholesaler. Once clients are on-boarded, Tienda Pago utilizes its internal credit scoring methodology to assess repayment capacity for ongoing credit lines.
• Amartha, operates primarily as an off-balance sheet lender funded by peer-to-peer (P2P) and institutional capital and offers financial products to over 1 million Women entrepreneurs in rural Indonesia. The company connects low-income borrowers to P2P lenders through a digital marketplace platform. Given Indonesia’s scattered island geography and its standing as the fourth most populous country in world, this model is an effective way to channel capital from dense urban clusters to highly dispersed rural areas.

Speakers

• Paz Velasco Velazquez, Acting Head of Unit, INTPA E2
• Liv Ehlert, KFW
• Christina Juhasz, Managing Partner, Women’s World Banking Asset Management
• Rose Goslinga, Co-Founder & President, Pula 
• Dan Cohen, CEO & Founder, Tienda Pago
• Aria Widyanto, President Director & CRSO, Amartha

Language: English

Q&A session languages: English 

Registration

Register for online participation to the Webex meeting (Webex link will be communicated upon registration)

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