Impact investment firm Good Return has launched its second Impact Fund targeting $10 million from investors to enable marginalised female entrepreneurs across the Asia-Pacific region to succeed, ultimately building stronger, more inclusive economies.
The leading Sydney-based social purpose organisation aims to tackle the barriers many women-led businesses face when trying to access finance.
With 1 billion women worldwide having no access to financial services, the new fund will guarantee and de-risk loans from financial lenders supporting female-led businesses across Asia-Pacific.
Funding will also be used to train financial institution employees to address gender discrimination and adopt inclusive policies and practices.
This initiative is in line with The Australian Government’s goal to tackle regional development issues with innovative financial products, through its International Development Policy and recently announced Indo-Pacific NGO Blended Finance Accelerator.
The Fund also addresses UN Secretary General Antonia Guterres’ recent comments: “We need action to unlock finance so countries can invest in equality and to prioritise those investments. …when women enjoy equal job opportunities, economies grow stronger.”
This second fund follows the success of Good Return’s first fund, launched in 2020, which leveraged a $1 million investment into $5.05 million in loans to more than 600 entrepreneurs across Indonesia and Cambodia.
One of these was Voucheang Loa, a small-scale farmer in rural Cambodia who received an $8,000 loan through Good Return’s first fund to construct two greenhouses for herb cultivation and invest in seeds and materials. The loan meant she could expand her business from just one rice harvest, to three Chinese curly cabbage fields and six cycles of crops each year.
This loan was facilitated through Wing Bank, one of the largest banks in Cambodia and Good Return partner. Wing Bank used the capital as in the first fund to guarantee and de-risk loans worth $77,145 to 13 Cambodian entrepreneurs who did not have collateral assets.
Good Return’s first fund met financial return targets, providing investors with a return on par with cash deposit rates at Australian banks.
The Good Return Impact Investment Fund 2
Good Return is now inviting investors interested in earning stable returns while making a difference with their portfolios to join its second Impact Investment Fund.
The new evergreen $10 million fund will leverage capital provided by Australian wholesale impact investors with a minimum of $20,000 to guarantee and de-risk loans from lenders supporting female-led businesses, initially targeting Fiji, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Good Return’s Head of Asia & Impact Investments, Diana Tjoeng, said the new fund will address the gender bias in the financial sector and its engagement with small businesses.
“Small businesses in the Asia Pacific form the backbone of developing economies and single mothers and other individual women entrepreneurs play a vital role,” she said.
“By empowering women, whether they lead family enterprises or operate independently, to access loans and use capital to grow their businesses, we can make a difference to economies more broadly.
“Good Return’s Impact Investment Fund is the perfect opportunity for socially minded investors to dip their toe into impact investing. Your money technically stays within Australia but has a positive butterfly effect across the region and, while the risk is minimal, the potential for positive change is enormous.”
Peter McMullin AM, a humanitarian, lawyer and the Co-founder and Chair of Good Business Foundation, and an investor in Good Return’s first fund, said backing women business owners has a positive ripple effect.
“Entrepreneurs and SMEs don’t lack talent, only opportunity. When given the right support and environment, the women entrepreneurs I have met in our region have shown how they can grow businesses that are environmentally sustainable, economically resilient and create meaningful employment for their families and local people. This is why my Foundation has and will continue to invest in Good Return’s Impact Investment Fund.”
To find out more, visit https://goodreturn.org.au/impact-investing.