Despite facing structural and individual barriers to business growth, women in low and middle income countries (LMICs) continue to carve out their own economic opportunities. Many are running businesses, often leveraging new technologies to expand their reach. Women are among the owners of 47% of businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, 44% in East Asia and the Pacific, and 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa. In emerging economies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP), underscoring their vital role in economic development. However, women entrepreneurs face systematic disadvantages in accessing capital, growing business networks, and fully participating in the digital economy.

In recent years, women entrepreneurs have increasingly embraced digital technologies, with social media emerging as a powerful tool for expanding their businesses, building customer relationships, and boosting visibility. Beyond social media, many are adopting e-commerce, AI-driven business tools, and online financial services. Yet significant challenges remain, including insufficient resources, limited technical skills, risks of gender-based harassment, privacy concerns, and digital exclusion. These obstacles restrict women’s ability to fully capitalize on the benefits of technologies that could support their business growth.

 This report provides fresh insights from an online survey of 2,870 women entrepreneurs from 96 LMICs, highlighting the key trends, challenges, and urgent actions required to create a more inclusive, secure, and healthy business environment for women-led enterprises. This year’s survey is an in-depth examination of key business technology issues explored in last year’s report, spotlighting how digital finance and social media are reshaping business for women.

This report serves as a snapshot of the activity of gender lens funds in private markets. It is aimed primarily at fund managers, Limited Partners, ecosystem builders, and researchers who are actively engaged in the field of gender lens investing or who are interested in better understanding the field. While the report captures a broad set of information about 175 gender lens funds, representing the work of 126 fund managers from around the globe, it is important to acknowledge that an even broader context exists. There are segments within the gender finance ecosystem that are not captured because the investors did not report data nor publicise their gender-focused initiatives. Additionally, this report focuses on activity in private markets only. There are also gender lens equity and debt funds, gender bonds, and other  securities that are trading in public markets.

The objective of this report is to showcase the current level of activity within the gender lens investing landscape in private markets; as well as build awareness, promote the value of investing with a gender lens, and provide actionable insights on market size, key investment opportunities, and the roles of various stakeholders. In doing so, it places the gender finance field within the larger context of our times, acknowledging the substantial growth the field has experienced and highlighting the opportunities for further expansion in depth and breadth of impact.

The concept of gender-lens acceleration has taken hold in recent years, with various toolkits outlining how to be more gender inclusive at every step of the acceleration process, from selection to programming and alumni support. However, it is not well understood how effective these strategies have been in producing more equitable outcomes for women. This report aims to fill that information gap by synthesizing the research on accelerating women-led ventures, exploring case studies of two accelerator programs in Asia that have outsized impacts for such ventures, and spotlighting other programs with unique program models or perspectives.

The study aims to explore women entrepreneurs' access to credit from SACCOs in Nepal. It focuses on women entrepreneurs engaged in diverse sectors, including trade and services, manufacturing, and agriculture. The study seeks to highlight the gender-based challenges women face when applying for business loans from financial institutions. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions in the context of women-led micro-enterprises in Nepal: 1) Do small business women have access to adequate finance from SACCOs? 2) Do women face barriers attributed to gender norms when accessing credit from financial institutions? 3) What are the supply side constraints (of SACCOs) in providing credit to small business women? Through exploring these questions, the study aims to contribute valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on gender-lens investment practices and their potential to create a more inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurial environment for small and growing businesses (SGBs) owned by women in Nepal.

In order to influence the UK government and global policymakers to fulfill their commitments to women and girls and women’s economic justice, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and CARE International UK collaborated, with support from the Ares Charitable Foundation, to explore solutions for overcoming inequalities in unpaid care, and share how building caring economies can foster women’s entrepreneurship and economic justice. This joint paper outlines successful interventions to build caring economies in line with the feminist concept of the “5 Rs” of Recognition, Reduction, Redistribution, Representation and Reward for care work. Interventions include increasing care provision; investment in care and social services; focusing on care across the broad spectrum of caring needs – from disability care to elderly care and childcare; redistributing care work at the household level through social norms change; and driving economic transformation that changes laws, structures and economies, with carers, women in all their diversity, and girls leading the way.

"Endeavor Insight partnered with HSBC to examine the challenges that climate tech founders face as they scale their companies, and the opportunities for investors and supporters to help them succeed. This study demonstrates how global connectivity can further drive innovation and highlights what decision makers can do to better support female-led and minority-led companies."

"'Bridging the Divide: Women, Technology and Business Success,' in partnership with Intuit, highlights the key issues facing women entrepreneurs and outlines our calls to action for tackling them. The comprehensive report draws on responses from over 1,100 women across 81 countries. Identifying women’s common challenges and opportunities, the report casts a particular spotlight on the broader influence and potential of technology, such as AI, for women’s businesses, and resulting gendered social and economic outcomes."

"The report delves into micro and small women entrepreneurs’ credit journey and explores demand and supply-side factors. The study shares insights on credit requirements, experiences, challenges, and credit success determinants for individual and collective women-led enterprises. This report also identifies five key personas of female borrowers. It shares the supply-side experiences of bankers and other organizations who directly or indirectly lend to women entrepreneurs. It shares some novel methods and good practices supply-side stakeholders implement to mitigate and distribute credit risk. Ultimately, it provides key recommendations to enhance access to credit for women entrepreneurs."

"La inclusión financiera es fundamental para alcanzar la igualdad de género y fomentar el desarrollo económico sostenible. Al abordar las brechas existentes y brindar oportunidades equitativas, podemos fortalecer la autonomía económica de las mujeres y promover una sociedad más justa y próspera en general. El presente estudio tuvo como finalidad abordar (y profundizar) las barreras que enfrentamos las mujeres en el ámbito financiero y cómo pueden afectar nuestro empoderamiento, crecimiento y autonomía económica en España y América Latina."

"This report is an output of the ANDE Gender Action Lab. Authored by Villgro and LEAD At Krea University, this report publishes insights from a survey of over 800 SMEs on how women entrepreneurs access finance in the country. Combining insights from the desk research, demand-side survey and supply-side key informant interviews, the report suggests recommendations across three verticals: program, process and product, with government initiatives as anchors for scaling up."