We’re thrilled to announce that Sawari Ventures has joined the 2X Global community, a global field-building and membership organization dedicated to unlocking gender-smart capital at scale. Its multi-pronged strategy and activities promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through gender-lens investing in an effort to contribute to greater women’s economic empowerment and gender equality.
“In recent years, we have seen meaningful improvement when it comes to diversity in the startup ecosystem as well as in VCs. We are seeing more women on founding teams, on boards, and in executive management, as well as in investment roles. We are excited to join 2X Global and do our part by supporting female founders and managers and encouraging the creation of more diverse workplaces across our portfolio,” said Jennifer Schöberlein, Partner for ESG & Impact at Sawari Ventures.
2X Global, with its flagship initiative 2X Challenge, was launched by the G7 DFIs in 2018 to address the gender financing gap. From 2018 to 2020, they have raised 11.4bn USD, significantly exceeding their initial target of 3bn USD. From 2021-2022, the 2X Challenge again exceeded an even more ambitious target of 15bn, raising another 16.3bn USD in gender lens investments. 2X Global also works to advance intersectional investment agendas, shift mindsets, and scale the field of gender finance by providing members access to thematic Communities of Practice, educational forums, shared resources, certification and standards, and deal-sharing platforms.
Jessica Espinoza, the CEO of 2X Global, commented, “We’re delighted to welcome Sawari Ventures into our community of members, and we are confident that together, we can amplify our efforts in driving female entrepreneurship on the African continent. As a venture capital firm investing in knowledge and innovation-based industries in Africa, Sawari Ventures brings valuable experience and insight that will help us to accelerate our collective mission to scale the field of gender-smart investing and economically empower women.”
As a signatory to 2X Global, we are committing to diversity at the fund and portfolio level and are looking forward to working with more exceptional founding teams in our upcoming Africa Fund.
“We know that diverse organizations tend to make better decisions, are more resilient in the face of crisis, and can bring about more innovative ideas and solutions,” said Ahmed El Alfi, Chairman and Partner of Sawari Ventures. “It is not surprising to us that as of today, 45% of our portfolio fulfills 2X criteria, and 47% of our team are women. By joining 2X Global, we are simply looking to make this commitment official and be more intentional going forward”.