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IIX and the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Launch Blended Finance Solutions to Benefit 2.5 Million Lives in Asia Pacific by 2023

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September 14, 2021 Community, Finance, Impact Investing, Press Release, SDGs, Women Empowerment

SINGAPORE AND CANBERRA [September 15, 2021] – Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced today the launch of three blended finance solutions to boost resilience and drive investment to small and medium-sized businesses and underserved women in the Asia-Pacific. With AUD2.75 million in funding from the Australian Government, IIX will unlock an additional AUD18 million through the catalytic use of the funding.

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EMPOWERING WOMEN-FOCUSED BUSINESSES BY TYING INVESTMENT TO IMPACT ASSESSMENT – InclusiveBusiness.net

July 23, 2021 News, SDGs, Women Empowerment

Impact Investing Exchange (IIX) is a pioneer in impact investing, founded by Professor Durreen Shahnaz. In 2017, it launched its first Women’s Livelihood Bond, focusing on financial inclusion enterprises in Southeast Asia. Since then, the series has expanded to include new sectors in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India. READ MORE

World’s First Listed Gender Lens Impact Investing Security, IIX Women’s Livelihood Bond 1, Matures

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July 6, 2021 Community, Finance, Impact Investing, Press Release, SDGs, Women Empowerment

July 6, 2021 – SINGAPORE – Impact Investment Exchange (IIX)’s Women’s Livelihood BondTM 1 (WLB1), the world’s first gender lens and impact investing instrument to be listed on a stock exchange (the Singapore Exchange), matured on July 6, 2021. With all coupon payments and principal payments made on time, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bond provided investors with an annual return of 5.65% from 2017-2021. The WLB1 is the first issuance of the US$150M Women’s Livelihood Bond Series, a series of innovative debt securities that creates sustainable livelihoods for over 3 million underserved women across the Asia-Pacific and other emerging markets. In addition to its strong financial performance, all social performance targets, including targets for increased financial inclusion and financial resilience, were met or exceeded, demonstrating the sustainability of the bond’s underlying portfolio throughout the pandemic.

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OPINION: To build sustainable ocean economies, start by investing in women – Thomson Reuters Foundation

June 28, 2021 Climate, News, SDGs, Women Empowerment

Some 60 million women work in the fishing industry, making up nearly half that global workforce. But women often do the least recognized and lowest paid jobs – collecting fish on the beach or working side-by-side in processing plants – and have little access to capital to start or grow their own businesses.

They face discrimination, hold few management positions and are underrepresented in decision-making groups about investments for sustainable fisheries. And yet evidence shows that when we invest in women, they are empowered to conserve and manage natural resources like our oceans, which yields better results than when they are excluded. READ MORE

Financing a sustainable ocean economy – Nature

June 8, 2021 News, SDGs, Women Empowerment

The ocean, which regulates climate and supports vital ecosystem services, is crucial to our Earth system and livelihoods. Yet, it is threatened by anthropogenic pressures and climate change. A healthy ocean that supports a sustainable ocean economy requires adequate financing vehicles that generate, invest, align, and account for financial capital to achieve sustained ocean health and governance. However, the current finance gap is large; we identify key barriers to financing a sustainable ocean economy and suggest how to mitigate them, to incentivize the kind of public and private investments needed for top-notch science and management in support of a sustainable ocean economy. READ MORE

5 Questions with Durreen Shahnaz – Morgan Stanley Alumni

June 7, 2021 News, SDGs, Women Empowerment

Former Morgan Stanley analyst Durreen Shahnaz is the founder and CEO of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX). As the first Bangladeshi woman investment banker on Wall Street, Shahnaz has focused her career on giving value to those who are typically invisible to financial markets.  Founded in 2009, IIX is a global organization that is, according to their website1, “dedicated to building a more inclusive world by changing financial systems and innovating solutions for women empowerment, climate action, and community resilience.” In 2017, Shahnaz was the recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award2. In addition to her role as a social entrepreneur, Shahnaz was a professor at the National University of Singapore and also a media executive at Hearst Magazines.  READ MORE

Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) relaunches IIX Impact Institute – a premier, go-to training center for sustainability

April 8, 2021 Education, IIX Institute, News, Press Release

April 14, 2021 – SINGAPORE – IIX has announced the relaunch of IIX Institute, a unique and innovative learning and training program that offers a full suite of online, interactive learning courses that will equip investors, professionals, and enterprises with the knowledge they need to be leaders in sustainable finance and impact investing. For the last 12 years, the IIX Institute has been the premier, go-to training center to equip professionals and practitioners with the knowledge and skills needed to play a catalytic role in the sustainability space. 

This space is growing exponentially with the sustainable investing market reaching $30 trillion, yet the number of trained and qualified professionals who are ready to support this growth is lacking. Between all the acronyms, jargon, and varied approaches floating around, it’s no wonder that businesses, funders, and governments are scratching their heads when it comes to sustainability. 

To help close this gap, IIX Institute launched three online masterclasses last year, bringing together more than 200 students from over 50 countries and featuring seven guest lecturers from the Wharton Business School, Stanford University, Social Value International, DSB Bank, Nuveen, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). 

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IIX 12 Year Anniversary: Building Relief, Recovery, and Resilience

March 25, 2021 IIX Anniversary, News, Women Empowerment

#BUILDINGBACKBETTER THROUGH RECOVERY

As we celebrate IIX’s 12th anniversary, we would like to share how we are building a new era of growth through three pillars: Relief, Recovery, and Resilience.

Businesses must not just survive the pandemic, but recover and have a lifeline to pivot their businesses so they’re able to adapt and thrive in the new norm. In addition to providing catalytic capital, capacity building and tools to adapt are necessary to ensure the capital is put to good use and help SMEs navigate through the challenging environment. To overcome the disadvantages faced by SMEs, it is pertinent for stakeholders to provide handholding support and lend women entrepreneurs a platform to relaunch and access national and international markets. Leveraging insights garnered from working with women entrepreneurs, IIX developed tailored toolkits and platforms across the growth stages of an enterprise that help them rebuild, pivot, and strengthen their business operations for a new business and economic environment.

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IIX 12 Year Anniversary: Building Relief, Recovery, and Resilience

March 22, 2021 IIX Anniversary, News, Women Empowerment

 

#BUILDINGBACKBETTER THROUGH RESILIENCE

As we celebrate IIX’s 12th anniversary, we would like to share how we are building a new era of growth through three pillars: Relief, Recovery, and Resilience.

Catalytic capital allows women entrepreneurs to survive natural shocks such as the on-going pandemic. However, it is important to have a resilient enterprise contributing to the economy’s growth and maximizing its impact on underserved communities, which an emergency capital infusion by itself cannot solve. The final stage of achieving gender equality is creating resilient enterprises by providing capital at timely intervals such that they can scale rapidly.

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IIX 12 Year Anniversary: Building Relief, Recovery, and Resilience

March 22, 2021 IIX Anniversary, News, Women Empowerment

#BUILDINGBACKBETTER THROUGH RELIEF

The pandemic has increased and will continue to increase the stress on the already fragile healthcare, education, and financial infrastructure which has affected the livelihoods of more than 65% of the rural population and over 100 million entrepreneurs just within Asia. Affordable healthcare, inclusive education, and social equality form the backbone of a resilient economy and have the power to catalyze recovery if we step up. 

As we celebrate IIX’s 12th anniversary, we would like to share how we are building a new era of growth through three pillars: Relief, Recovery, and Resilience.

The first step to #BuildingBackBetter is to ensure that SMEs survive the pandemic through immediate relief. From there, we can accelerate recovery through new financial instruments, and build true resilience by bringing women and ethnic minorities to the forefront of post-COVID growth.

Without supporting these SMEs, the world stands to suffer major setbacks in social and economic progress. However, with the right support, we can accelerate inclusive finance to sustain these businesses and enable them to rebuild the economy from the ground up.

In the coming year, IIX is excited to share new initiatives to drive urgently needed capital to SMEs, so that they can become engines of growth. Read on to learn more about IIX’s newly launched Emergency Financing Facility, and the story of one enterprise who, because of access to financing from the IEFF, will be able to help to provide livelihoods to women and farmers in Indonesia.

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