Patamar Capital, local ecosystem leaders break down myths about gender-lens investing

Discussion on innovative financing to unlock capital for women-led and women-focused enterprises hosted by Biniyog Briddhi, a program supported by the Swiss Embassy in Bangladesh

Biniyog Briddhi (B-Briddhi) plays a prominent role in the Bangladesh ecosystem in creating an enabling environment for impact investing. Recently, in collaboration with Bangladesh Angels and Bangladesh Women Investors Network (BWIN), along with implementation partners Lightcastle and Roots of Impact, B-Briddhi hosted an interactive panel discussion on how innovative financing can unlock capital for women-led and women-focused enterprises, followed by a networking session for ecosystem stakeholders.

The opening remarks were provided by Corinne Henchoz Pignani, Deputy Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh, followed by a keynote presentation on gender lens investing by Shuyin Tang, Partner at Patamar Capital, Southeast Asia’s leading impact venture capital firm. A panel discussion moderated by Maxime Cheng with BWIN board members Anita Ghazi Rahman (Founder & Partner at The Legal Circle) and Sharawwat Islam (Managing Director at Truvalu Enterprises Ltd.), and Ridma Khan (Director at Bangladesh Women and Chamber of Commerce & Industry) as panelists also took place.

Check out the recording from the session below:

It’s not enough to simply count the number of female entrepreneurs you’ve invested in or the number of women in your portfolio companies. This is of course helpful to know. However, it doesn’t provide much information about the actual impact on women or how your investment process might have some unconscious bias built into it. - Shuyin Tang, Partner at Patamar Capital

In light of “gender-washing” when we are looking into GLI it is important to know not just who is supposedly the Managing Director on paper but also who is the de facto person managing the business. - Ridma Khan, Director at Bangladesh Women and Chamber of Commerce & Industry

In Bangladesh, women entrepreneurship loans in banks are only focused on women-led enterprises. I think it’s important to broaden the lens here by incorporating GLI so that even women-focused businesses, whether it is through serving women as customers or having a majority women workforce, that may be creating positive impact can have improved access to finance. - Sharawwat Islam, Managing Director at Truvalu Enterprises Ltd.

Innovative financing doesn’t have to be just through cash; it can be in-kind as well, such as through capacity building programs for social enterprises. - Anita Ghazi Rahman, Founder & Partner at The Legal Circle

Biniyog Briddhi is a multi-year public-private partnership programme, supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and implemented by Roots of Impact and LightCastle Partners. The programme strives to improve the financial, social, and environmental performance of impact enterprises by helping them to master investment readiness and impact management and get ready to access innovative finance to scale. Learn more about Biniyog Briddhi: https://www.sie-b.org/

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