The investment from Ceniarth together with an aligned donor-advised fund will boost gender lens investing in Latin America & the Caribbean. Photo courtesy of Ilu Fund investee Acceso Financiero El Salvador.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VANCOUVER, CANADA – JANUARY 28, 2025 – Deetken Impact, a leading Canadian impact asset manager, is pleased to announce the investment of USD 10 million from Ceniarth and an aligned donor-advised fund investor, into the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund. As an impact-first investor focused on funding market-based solutions that benefit underserved communities globally, this funding will support the deployment of gender-smart capital in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), with a particular focus on solutions that address the region’s pressing social and environmental challenges.
The Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, launched in 2016, was the first Gender Lens Investing (GLI) fund dedicated to the LAC region. It is uniquely positioned to deploy catalytic capital to empower women and girls while advancing sustainable economic development and resilience. By strategically aligning its investment practices with both gender equality and climate action, the Ilu Fund is helping to establish long-term leadership roles for women as key actors, beneficiaries, and leaders in solutions to our most urgent global challenges.
“Ceniarth is a deeply experienced investor in emerging markets, and we admire their nimble and impact-first approach to investing in the region. From our first conversation, we saw the opportunity to drive meaningful change for underserved communities by leveraging the Ilu Fund’s proven model. We’re delighted to add Ceniarth as an investor, and plan to quickly invest this new capital in an outstanding set of businesses building economic opportunity and resilience for women and their communities.”
The partnership between Ceniarth and the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund builds on a deep alignment of vision and purpose. Investments are focused on small and medium-sized enterprises across LAC that demonstrate a strong commitment to gender-smart business practices in key sectors, including inclusive finance, renewable energy, and the creation of quality jobs for women.
Central to the Ilu Fund’s strategy is the recognition that addressing gender disparities is essential to tackling broader systemic challenges, such as climate change and economic inequality. This investment will enable the Fund to further invest at the intersection of women’s empowerment and climate resilience in alignment with the recent grant we were awarded, which is supporting this mandate with technical assistance and catalytic capital.
Additionally, our commitment to the latest 2X Challenge ensures investments will advance gender-lens investing in the region. All future investments will be assessed against 2X criteria and reinforcing our collective aim to create a more equitable and sustainable future. Taken together, these efforts exemplify the transformative potential of combining gender-smart and climate-focused investments to drive impactful change in the communities we serve.
“Ceniarth is proud to add the Ilu Fund to our growing portfolio of impact-first microfinance investment vehicles. The Fund blends investing rigor with MFI practitioner insights and technical assistance to meaningfully support investees in pursuing gender-smart practices. While we have long been advocates for gender-focused strategies, we see too many managers taking superficial or contextually inappropriate approaches to the theme. The Ilu Fund truly stands out for their thoughtful, comprehensive solution to gender lens microfinance investing.”
Latin America and the Caribbean have made notable progress in closing the gender gap, achieving the highest gender parity score in the Global South at 74.2% according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024. Despite these gains, significant gender disparities persist – particularly in areas of paid and unpaid labor, wage gaps, participation in the formal workforce, and vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change. The Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund will deploy the funding from Ceniarth to actively address these disparities by financing solutions that create more equitable economic opportunities for diverse populations and improve societal well-being of women, ensuring their active participation in the formal economy and driving strong and sustainable growth across the region.
About Deetken Impact
Deetken Impact is an award-winning Canadian registered impact asset manager delivering strong, stable returns to investors by supporting businesses making meaningful contributions to the SDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Managing US$145 million in assets across five funds, Deetken Impact has been recognized as an Impact Assets 50 Manager since 2020. With a balanced and diverse team of seasoned investment professionals across the Americas, Deetken Impact has invested in 61 companies advancing gender equality, climate action, financial inclusion, and more, as well as pioneering technical assistance programs that maximize positive social, environmental, and gender outcomes. For more information, visit www.deetkenimpact.com.
About Ceniarth
Ceniarth is the single-family office of Diane Isenberg that together with an affiliated, private charitable foundation, funds market-based solutions benefitting underserved, primarily rural, communities. Through a range of investment activity, they provide capital to enable the deployment of products, services, and support that directly impact marginalized populations in ways that lead to long term growth and sustained benefits to communities. To learn more, visit www.ceniarthllc.com
For more information, contact:
Heather van Mil
Communications & Marketing Associate, Deetken Impact
Email: hvanmil@deetkenimpact.com
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