Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Advancing Gender Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Deetken Impact, a Canadian impact asset manager, and Pro Mujer, a provider of relevant and transformative resources and services for low-income women, manage the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, a gender-lens impact fund to empower women and advance gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
About the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer launched the Ilu Women’s Empowerment fund and collaboratively manage it as a joint venture. The fund is a result of their mutual commitment to supporting women’s empowerment across their business activities and to the implementation of investment management practices that empower women in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Ilu Fund has a 5-year track record of delivering strong returns to investors, with an average annual return since inception of 6% (net of fees).
The target fund size is $35 million, with $28 million already committed. After successfully closing the first fundraising round from catalytic investors, Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer are now completing a final round to raise another $8 million.
Our Investment Strategy
The Ilu Fund’s investment strategy places strong emphasis on women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship. Portfolio investments include financial institutions that provide integrated and thoughtfully designed services for low-income women, including access to healthcare, educational loans, financial services, and technical assistance, as well as gender-smart investments in renewable energy, affordable housing and social enterprise.
Some of our recent milestones
DFC Financing
The United States International Development Finance Corporation (formerly OPIC) committed $10 million of senior debt financing to Ilu Fund in May 2020. This investment will advance DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative, which has catalyzed more than $1 billion in capital to empower women in developing countries around the world.
Private Sector Financing
There are currently over 70 private sector investors in the Ilu Fund’s including foundations, family offices, credit unions and individuals. Deetken Impact places emphasis on bringing women investors into the fund, as women typically make up a small proportion of investors in private market securities. Among the Fund’s individual investors, over 40% are women.
Gender Smart Investment Management
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer are implementing gender smart practices across the Fund’s investment management and governance functions. Through a structured gender data collection process, we aim to identify areas of strength and weakness in a company’s business practices, understand and shape gender-smart business objectives, and evaluate progress over time. This process also informs our investment decisions.
Million Already Committed
Private Sector Investors
%
Investors Are Women
Why We Focus on Latin America and the Caribbean?
Why We Focus on Latin America and the Caribbean?
What Does It Mean to Invest With a Gender Lens?
It means integrating gender-based factors into investment decisions.
We look for businesses that show leadership or commitment to one or more of our four gender lenses.
Gender Smart at Every Step
Screening
Clear leadership or commitment to one or more of our four gender lenses
Due Diligence
Scoring against 35 gender smart criteria aligned with our four lenses
Investment
CEO-level commitment to continuous progress on gender gaps identified in due diligence
Monitoring and Reporting
Measurement and evaluation of gender metrics for reporting to stakeholders
Engagement
Tailored acceleration and engagement to advance gender business practices
Our Impact
The Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund supports the Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, we evaluate our investment opportunities and our portfolio companies based on their contribution to these goals. Our current portfolio of holdings have delivered the following impact in support of the Sustainable Development Goals as of December 31st, 2021.
Goal: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
242,825 MSME clients have received health care services in the past 12 months
Goal: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
383,723 MSME clients have received financial or literacy training in the last 12 months
Goal: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
383,723 MSME clients have received financial or literacy training in the last 12 months
Goal: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- 587,715 women clients (79% of total)
- 3,113 full-time jobs for women (50% of total)
- 41% of individual investors are female
Goal: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
- Clean renewable energy capacity of 196 MW
- Projects will generate 122 GWh per year, enough to power 27,497 households while displacing
64,772 tons of GHGs, equivalent to taking 13,906 cars off the road
Goal: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
- Clean renewable energy capacity of 196 MW
- Projects will generate 122 GWh per year, enough to power 27,497 households while displacing 64,772 tons of GHGs, equivalent to taking
13,906 cars off the road
Goal: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- 740,780 clients
- $2,354 average loan size
- 6,263 full-time jobs
- 24% average interest rate (local currency)
Investment Management Team
José Lamyin
Managing Partner Investments & Strategy
Alexa Blain
Managing Partner Operations & Finance
José Lamyin
Managing Partner Investments & Strategy
Alexa Blain
Managing Partner Operations & Finance
Rachel Murphy
Gender & Sustainability Officer
Chad Parsons
Senior Investment Officer
Betsy Gaborit
Investment Officer
Investment Committee
Magali Lamyin
Managing Director - Deetken Impact
Alexa Blain
Managing Partner - Deetken Impact
Ryan Denholm
Finance Director - Pro Mujer
Paula Giraldo
Chief Investment Officer - Alternative Finance
Carmen Correa
VP & COO - Pro Mujer