Visa’s philanthropic arm to become anchor investor in the Beacon Fund, which invests in underserved, women-led small businesses in South East Asia and aims to grow to US$100m by next year.
The Visa Foundation has made a multi-million dollar equity investment in the Beacon Fund, a gender-lens investing fund for underserved women-led small businesses in South East Asia, the fund announced this week.
The philanthropic arm of the finance services giant last month signed an agreement to be one of the anchor investors in the fund, which aims to grow to US$100m by 2023. The exact amount invested has not been revealed, but Pioneers Post was told it is several million dollars.
The fund’s co-founder and CEO Shuyin Tang said the investment would “bring a global viewpoint” to complement its existing local Asian networks that would “continue pushing the boundaries of gender lens investing”.
The Beacon Fund has raised more than US$20m since its inception in 2020, with support from USAID and Australia's Investing in Women fund, among others.
Rather than changing women-led businesses to fit the system, we seek to change the system
The fund aims to fill a gap for small businesses that cannot find adequate financing because they don’t meet the criteria of most finance products: they may be too big for microfinance, too small for private equity, not meet the high growth potential of venture capital or lack collateral to access traditional bank loans.
“Rather than changing women-led businesses to fit the system, we seek to change the system,” the fund states.
It focuses on Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam but plans to open investments to businesses elsewhere in South East Asia, providing loans, mezzanine investments and guarantee-backed loans ranging between US$500,000 and US$2m.
Najada Kumbuli, head of investments for the Visa Foundation, said: “The fund’s approach at tailoring its financial offerings to better meet the small businesses’ needs coupled with their deep commitment to driving equitable and inclusive economic growth in the communities these small businesses operate was very compelling to us.”
The fund has started making investments, so far in two companies: Hoa Nang, an organic rice company based in Vietnam and MindX Technology School, which brings coding education to children and young adults, also in Vietnam – with more deals in the pipeline.
Top picture: a woman in Hoa Ninh Village, Vietnam. Credit: Chris Gold via Flickr.
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