Investing | Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs

In 2018, at least 56 new SGB-inclusive investment vehicles* launched, with a median target AUM of US $50 million.

Number of Investment Vehicles Launched
Median Target

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector remains a major focus area among SGB investors; in 2018, 36 percent of newly launched vehicles focused on ICT or a tech vertical, reflecting a consistent trend over the past decade. This interest in ICT aligns both private investors and institutional donors for the sector, with the most popular technology-centric vertical among donors being FinTech.[1]

*See Methodology section for definition of SGB-inclusive investment vehicle

Emerging market fundraising and investments in SGBs significantly increased in 2018, reversing recent trends.

Number of Investment Vehicles Launched
Median Target

According to the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), private capital vehicles in emerging markets invested a disclosed US $70 billion in 2018, a 27 percent year over year increase. However, only 0.5 percent of this went towards deals less than $2 million, suggesting that despite the uptick in the launch of SGB-inclusive funds, the actual deployment of capital at this level remains a relatively small proportion of overall private capital investments in emerging markets. Nevertheless, there are positive signs that not only are more, new SGB-inclusive investment vehicles being launched, but the total amount of deals at this size is also beginning to increase, as evidenced by the Latin America Venture Capital Association’s (LAVCA) data on deals under US $1m.

In Latin America, the total number of deals US 1$ million and under grew considerably, the greatest proportion (41 percent) of these being deals less than US $250,000.

US $501k- US $1M
Deals US $250- US $500,000
Deals < US $250,000

Gender Focus

Supporting women as entrepreneurs is consistently listed as the highest priority gender gap ANDE members aim to address.

Of the 56 newly launched SGB-inclusive investment vehicles identified by ANDE, at least 17 percent have an explicit gender-inclusive mandate.* This appears to be a growing trend in the SGB investment sector, representing the highest number of SGB-inclusive vehicles with a gender lens since ANDE began tracking this in 2016.

While gender lens investing continues to be a popular topic in the investment world, gender issues have permeated other aspects of ANDE members’ work as well. In 2019, ANDE hosted its annual Metrics from the Ground Up Conference in Mérida, Mexico with a focus on incorporating a gender lens into impact measurement and management (IMM) strategies. The participant-led discussions and workshops revealed a wide variety of innovative and unique ways to integrate gender into measurement systems and drive improved gender-inclusive strategies.

*for more detail on this, see the Methodology section

Gender Focus

How ANDE member organizations aim to promote gender inclusion

The importance of gender inclusion for the sector is further illustrated by the fact that a large majority of ANDE members (78 percent) are actively engaging in gender inclusive activities, with most of these organizations focused on promoting women’s leadership through their services and increasing capital to women entrepreneurs. However, there remains a gap in terms of formalizing gender support across all activities and investments: while nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of ANDE members factor gender inclusion into their selection criteria for SGBs in some form, only 10 percent actively use a restrictive screen to avoid exposure to SGBs with poor gender diversity records. The intention towards gender inclusion is clearly taking hold in the sector, while work remains to be done to operationalize this intention through strong policies and practices.