"This report is an output of the ANDE Gender Action Lab. Authored by Villgro and LEAD At Krea University, this report publishes insights from a survey of over 800 SMEs on how women entrepreneurs access finance in the country. Combining insights from the desk research, demand-side survey and supply-side key informant interviews, the report suggests recommendations across three verticals: program, process and product, with government initiatives as anchors for scaling up."

"This report studies the opportunities and challenges in investing in India’s creative manufacturing and handmade (CMH) sector and the role of catalytic capital in supporting the same. This first-of-its-kind mapping finds that craft-led MSMEs operating in the CMH sector and broadly across the nation’s cultural economy face development and growth challenges that affect their ability to scale and grow. A primary challenge is the financing gap faced by MSMEs in the sector. We make the case for why these enterprises need the right financing, at the right time, in the right place, and offering the right conditions. Catalytic capital offers an untapped opportunity to build an entirely new ecosystem of financing that can catalyse and nurture new markets while driving much needed social change."

"The whitepaper discusses the problem of gender inequity in funding outcomes for women-founded startups, both globally and in India. The research aimed to understand the gender gaps in funding outcomes among investors and identify opportunities for improvement. The study utilized data from the Tracxn database, global benchmarks, and interviews with stakeholders in the investment ecosystem. Key findings include the concentration of funding in a few sectors and cities, the growth of women-founded companies in recent years, and the lack of gender diversity in investment teams. The report also highlights case studies of organizations that practice gender-smart funding and offers recommendations for fostering gender lens investment in India. It emphasizes the need for data tracking, a change in investment processes, and the promotion of gender diversity in firms to improve funding outcomes for women entrepreneurs. The report suggests a targeted approach with a dedicated team and industry-wide engagement to create a sustainable and robust platform for gender lens investment in India."

"Access to capital is crucial for fostering entrepreneurship, fueling business growth, and enhancing productivity. Unfortunately, femaleentrepreneurs in developing countries face significant challenges securing formal financial support and making lower profits than maleentrepreneurs. While the evidence on the gendered investment gap is well documented, scant evidence-based studies investigatewhether the disparity arises from investor bias. Authors Shibiru Ayalew, Shanthi Manian, and Ketki Sheth implemented a large-scale field experiment in a high-stakes natural context to identify whether loan officers exhibit discriminatory behavior in capital allocation decisions for businesses inEthiopia. The experimental study showed no evidence that financial providers discriminate against women-owned businesses in reviewing loan applications."

"Female founders raise less capital from investors than male founders, even if their ventures are similar or identical. However, providing systematic evaluation frameworks could encourage investors to assess all candidates equally, thus reducing gender disparities. In this vein, the authors – Amisha Miller and Saurabh Lall – investigated whether changing systematic evaluation practices could close the gender gap in investment decisions. The authors designed and implemented a two-stage experiment in collaboration with Village Capital across different developing regions across Africa, South Asia (India), the Middle East, and Latin America to reduce gender disparities in investment decisions. The experimental findings confirm that using a systematic evaluation framework – prompting investors to consider both risks and growth, as well as progress – reduces or even reverses gender disparities in investment decisions. This study provides strong causal evidence for an intervention that can be implemented right out the gate at a low cost: providing a systematic evaluation framework to investors."

"Este relatório examina o cenário do investimento de impacto na América Latina e no Caribe para 2020 e 2021, com base em uma amostra de investidores de impacto ativos na região, destacando tendências, principais desafios e oportunidades, e apresentando mergulhos profundos na atividade em três dos países da região: Brasil, Colômbia e México, além de uma análise sobre a Guatemala. Entre suas conclusões, o estudo mostra que os investidores de impacto estão buscando cada vez mais retornos ajustados à taxa de mercado, se mantendo flexíveis de acordo com as necessidades específicas de países e setores. Além disso, revela que os investidores de impacto ainda dependem fortemente de ferramentas próprias de medição de impacto, no entanto, um número crescente deles utiliza metodologias existentes para atender aos requisitos de medição de impacto. Acesso a capital, educação e treinamento e o ambiente regulatório local são identificados como os desafios mais comuns a serem superados para liberar todo o potencial do ecossistema empreendedor da região por meio do investimento de impacto."