Getting more capital and support to underserved entrepreneurs and markets is a key goal of gender finance - and a growth opportunity for investors. This session shared best practice case studies and successful models, and identified the data, tools and analysis needed to deploy more capital where it’s needed most.
Yuri Soares is Chief Impact Officer at IDB Lab, where he is responsible for corporate, where he is in charge of impact and measurement and strategic communications. Dr. Soares previously managed the Lab's strategy unit and its business unit on climate and agriculture, where he developed a portfolio of investments in agtech and natural capital. IDB Lab is the Innovation Lab of the Interamerican Development Bank Group (IDB Group).
Roanhorse Consulting (RCLLC) is an indigenous women-led think tank. Vanessa provides leadership and oversight over the entire portfolio of work as well as leads key strategies focused on ecosystem building, access to capital and community-led economic development activities.
Trained as a lawyer, Chantal feels strongly about social justice. She is a strategic executor and contributes to making our world a better, inclusive and more sustainable place.
Heather is the Women’s Entrepreneurship Product Lead for IFC’s Gender Secretariat. In this role, she is the global technical specialist advising clients, project teams, and partners on how to close gender gaps in entrepreneurship, with the goal of unlocking opportunities for increased profit, growth and innovation for both IFC clients and women entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
Jessica Espinoza is CEO of the 2X Collaborative, a global industry for gender lens investing convening the entire spectrum of capital providers. She is also Chair of the 2X Challenge that has raised more than US$ 11 billion of gender lens investments since its launch at the G7 Summit in 2018. Jessica has a track record in originating, structuring and executing debt, mezzanine and equity deals in emerging and frontier markets with a strong focus on inclusive innovation. The latest innovation she is spearheading with 2X colleagues is 2X Ignite, a bold facility to unlock capital for gender-smart business at scale by backing female-led fund managers.