Australia is pleased to be working with Beacon Fund to pilot innovative financing solutions that bridge the funding gap for underserved women-owned or -led small businesses (WSBs) in Vietnam.
Established in 2020, Beacon Fund is a private debt fund dedicated to promoting gender equality in Southeast Asia. It focuses on supporting the “missing middle” of women-owned or -led enterprises which are too small for private equity, too big for microfinance, do not fit the growth profile of venture capital firms and are underserved by banks. By focusing on the “missing middle”, Beacon Fund aims to serve as a blueprint for gender lens investing (GLI) funds to employ innovative investment approaches and funding structures.
With a strong track record of successful investments, Beacon Fund has demonstrated that investing in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) led by women and diverse teams unlocks economic opportunities. As a 2X fund, all of Beacon Fund’s portfolio companies are women-owned and led, with most qualifying across three or more 2X Criteria. Beacon Fund also provides capability building and value-addition support to their investees, including strategic advice, opening doors to additional investors and developing an impact roadmap.
In this photo: Beacon Fund and Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian Government, formalise their collaboration with the signing of the Innovation Window Vietnam Partnership agreement. Standing from left to right: Huong Than, Gender Specialist, Australian Embassy; Thanh Truong, Investment Analyst, Beacon Fund; Ha Doan, Investment Manager, Beacon Fund; Sarah Hooper, Australian Consul-General Sitting from left to right: Shuyin Tang, CEO and Co-founder, Beacon Fund; Hannah Birdsey, CEO, Investing in Women
Investing in Women, an Australian Government initiative, supported research that identified product mismatch and unconscious gender bias related to entrepreneurial capacity among the barriers that hinder WSBs from accessing capital. IW’s Innovation Window targets fund managers who are ready to develop and pilot alternative financing structures that address the needs of WSBs. Working with deep local knowledge of their country contexts and a growing pipeline of investible WSBs within their countries, Innovation Window partners aim to mainstream successful measures and build the business case and know-how for investing in WSBs through collaborating across the investment ecosystem.
With funding from IW’s Innovation Window, Beacon Fund will deploy innovative financing for WSBs, piloting deal structures such as revenue-based financing and impact-linked loans that are tailored to each investee’s capital needs and business profile. Post-investment, Beacon Fund aims to support its portfolio companies to grow and attract more capital.
Since 2016, IW has played a catalytic role in increasing access to capital available to SMEs that disproportionately benefit women in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam through its Gender Lens Investing workstream. Alongside the Innovation Window, IW continues to mainstream demand for gender lens investing through market building partnerships and deploy capital to gender transformative funds through the IW Fund, in partnership with Australian Development Investments.