A Fund for Women

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs delivers $1 million-plus for women-led businesses in Asia.

Give NowThrough its new Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs announced in 2020 that it offered grants to eight organizations with support from the US Agency for International Development and the Visa Foundation. The $1.2 million fund targets the finance gap for women-led small and growing businesses in South and Southeast Asia. Each winner is receiving up to $150,000 over one year. The projects span the region.

BoP Innovation Center and One to Watch are increasing investment-ready businesses in Myanmar; MIT’s D-Lab is tackling the investment gap in India; the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and CaterpillHERS are building investment readiness for businesses in Pakistan; SHE Investments is creating a pipeline of investment-ready enterprises in Cambodia; Value for Women is strengthening access to finance and business-development services for enterprises in Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam; Village Capital is testing approaches to mitigating bias in investment selection processes in India; Villgro Philippines is providing businesses with access to capital, capacity, mentorship, and investors; and the Women’s Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship is addressing the gap in seed funding for businesses in Vietnam. The fund is testing and learning how best to get investment capital into the hands of women entrepreneurs and comes at a critical time of need for these emerging markets.