Over $680M Pledged to Women- Founded Companies since October 2018

11 MARCH 2019, JAKARTA (INDONESIA)- The Billion Dollar Fund for Women (“TBDFWomen”), a global consortium of venture funds tackling the gender funding gap, has surpassed the US$680mn mark, reaching another key milestone since announcing its launch October 2018 at the THK Forum. This achievement highlights the commitment and great work of a range of venture funds from around the world dedicated to Sustainable Development Goal (“SDG”) #5 Gender Equality by funding innovation led by women.

The news was announced at THK’s Blended Finance Forum by partner funds of TBDFWomen, Nadia Fonny representing Gobi Partners and Virginia Tan representing Teja Ventures. Both funds have focused efforts locally in Indonesia, with Gobi Partners having invested $13.5mn into women-founded companies, of which $2.5mn went towards Indonesian WFCs; and two key investments were made by Teja Ventures into Indonesian companies, since the initiative was announced in October 2018.

Shannon Kalayanamitr, Venture Partner of Gobi Partners who leads the charge in driving investment dollars towards women-founded companies within the firm shares the huge opportunity in emerging markets. “There is a $3.9 trillion SDG investment gap in emerging markets, then there is the opportunity through tech startups for the disruption of traditional industries.  Gobi Partners’ has always had the mantra where we serve the underserved, women entrepreneurs as our primary example, has proven to be a not only a good investment choice but also solves fundamental problems in our world at the same time.”

“Being a pioneer in setting up a local office in Jakarta, I have seen how the market grows the business and the community it’s in. Being a venture capitalist for me means dedicating myself to serve these founders with dreams on how the world should be, and in turn, let them grow us,” adds Fonny, Investment Manager of Gobi Partners.

Gobi’s projects are critical to delivering the SDGs tackle issues from innovation infrastructure, workforce development and reduction of inequality. Sale Stock for example, provides access to fast fashion across Indonesia, reducing inequalities in fashion between rural areas and big city like Jakarta through a responsible production process that ensures the quality of the clothes while also creating jobs for the local community. GoWork, on the other hand, is a startup that provides co-working spaces in convenient locations across Jakarta for the local workforce. In addition, they plan to go into the top five secondary cities in Indonesia: Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Bali and Makassar in 2019, thereby providing more workspace to entrepreneurs and local companies in those cities. Both are women-founded companies and making an impact in their respective industries.

Virginia Tan, the founding partner of Teja Ventures, remarked: “Teja Ventures was founded to invest in underserved verticals which impact women positively as end users, consumers and stakeholders in the wider ecosystem. We believe technology is a crucial tool for scaling growth and outreach and see particular opportunities in fintech, edtech, content, online to offline consumption, social e-commerce, etc in Asia –  sectors which are pivotal for achieving the SDGs. Indonesia will be a big focus of our investments. “

Teja Ventures, the first pan-Asian venture capital fund committed to investing with a gender lens launched in September 2018 and had since invested in two technology companies in Indonesia in the fields of fintech and FMCG distribution which will not only have a huge impact on Indonesian lives but are also an example of Indonesian-owned and led technology innovation. Duithape is an Indonesian fintech company that provides mobile enabled financial services for the unbanked and works with big distributors, banks and the government to reach the last mile. Klikdaily is an on-demand e-commerce aggregator platform for small merchants in Indonesia by simplifying the FMCG supply chain between retail brands and warungs.

These companies are critical to delivering the SDGs because their technology is building crucial infrastructure for small merchants and the unbanked, allowing this crucial demographic to increase their incomes, facilitate mobility and have access to financial services.

“We are extremely pleased by the unprecedented progress of our funds in executing locally in Indonesia. It is clear that innovation led by women is not scarce, including in emerging markets – it is our role to find them and fuel them, and we at The Billion Dollar Fund for Women™ could not be more pleased to be supporting these investment efforts,” added Sarah Chen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of TBDFWomen.

“TBDFWomen is a consortium of venture funds pledged to invest more into women-founded companies through 2020, with each venture fund retaining its independence, designating the amount of its pledge, and managing and sourcing its own deal flow to fulfill its pledge. Ours is an effort to encourage increased investments into WFCs by inspiring and strengthening the venture funds that do this important work. Our goal is to attract investments into the venture funds by institutional and private investors looking to gender-diversify their portfolios as they seek improved reutrns,” says Shelly Porges, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of TBDFWomen. “As we like to say, when you invest in women, you’re in good company.”

Interested individuals can learn more about the work and opportunities to engage with TBDFWomen on: www.beyondthebillion.com

The Billion Dollar Fund List of Venture Fund Partners as of March 8th, 2018:

$100+ Million Funds*:

• The Arcview Venture Fund
• Different Funds
• Gobi Partners
• Golden Gate Ventures
• Rethink Impact
• Springboard Growth Capital
• Fusion Fund
• Astia Fund

<$100 Million Funds*:

• Amplify Her
• Backstage Capital
• Blue Startups
• Chloe Capital
• Cycle Capital
• Ecofuel Fund
• Elevate Ventures
• Endeavor Catalyst Fund
• Exponential Creativity Partners
• Flat 6 Labs
• Fund 1517
• Global Ventures
• Golden Seeds Fund
• Green Cow Venture Capital
• The Helm
• Marigold Capital
• Mindshift Capital
• Minerva Capital
• Patamar Capital
• Pique Ventures
• Portfolia
• Quantius
• Reinventure
• SoGal Ventures
• TEJA Ventures
• True Wealth Ventures
• 1843 Capital
• StandUp Ventures

*this refers to size of fund NOT pledge to TBDFWomen

About The Billion Dollar Fund For Women

The Billion Dollar Fund for Women (“TBDFWomen”) is a global consortium of venture funds pledged to increase their investment in women-founded companies. Kicking off with a global offline and online campaign, TBDFWomen seeks to change the paradigm by catalyzing a larger game of funding women who are leading the pack in entrepreneurship.

More information: http://beyondthebillion.org

About THK Forum: Dialogue to delivery

The THK “Jakarta Dialogue” on 11 March will be opened by H.E. Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan and will galvanise leaders from the public and private sector around key sustainability issues for Indonesia. The focus of discussion will be on plastic, technology and innovation, sustainable food and land use, oceans and sustainable fisheries and last but not least blended finance for the SDGs.  The objective of “Jakarta Dialogue” is to ensure discussions and high-level commitments are turned into tangible action and real outcomes.

More information: http://www.thkforum.org/

About Gobi Partners

Gobi Partners is one of the first venture capital firms with a regional presence across China, Hong Kong, and ASEAN with over US$1.1 billion in assets under management (AUM). The firm, headquartered in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, supports entrepreneurs from the early to growth stages and focuses on emerging and underserved markets.

Founded in 2002, Gobi has raised 11 funds to date, invested in over 200 startups, and has grown to nine offices across Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.

For more information, please visit www.gobivc.com

About Teja Ventures

Teja Ventures is the first pan-Asian venture capital fund committed to investing with a gender lens. We believe gender lens investing goes beyond investing into women led or women owned businesses – and also includes the creation of product and services which impact women positively as users, consumers and players in the wider ecosystem. We see gender lens as a way to examine a company’s strategic advantage, risk and return, besides objective investment criteria. We believe there are significant opportunities in the following verticals from a gender lens perspective: financial services, online to offline consumption, content and education and healthcare.

For more information, please visit https://www.tejaventures.com/