LPs have the power to shape a more equitable VC ecosystem

As stakeholders in the private and public investment landscape become more cognisant of gender inclusivity, limited partners (LPs) have the power to push mere ideas into real action, investors say.

“LPs are holders of capital—they are very powerful. LPs have a lot of control because GPs tend to line up around what they [the LPs] want,” said Eleanor Keppelman, a director at the Australian government’s Investing in Women (IW) initiative.

Speaking on the topic ‘Reimagining VC in SEA: Investing in Women-Led and Gender-Balanced Funds’ at a breakfast session during DealStreetAsia’s Asia PE-VC Summit 2025, Keppelman and other speakers shared their thoughts on the importance of gender-lens investing in Southeast Asia.

Investments in women-led businesses have picked up in the region, but there is still enormous room for growth, the speakers opined.

According to the DealStreetAsia DATA VANTAGE report ‘Women Founders in SE Asia: 2024 Funding Review’, all-women founding teams secured 33 equity funding rounds in 2024, raising a total of $94.5 million—up 51% from the amount raised in the previous year. However, this accounted for only 5.2% of total deal volume and 2.1% of total capital raised for the year.

Keppelman, who previously led investments into funds at the US development finance institution (DFI) Development Finance Corporation, recalled how LPs—especially DFIs—tend to have control over the outcomes of a lot of the funds they invest in.

With this in mind, she and her organisation, Investing in Women, have made it their mission to promote investments into funds that invest with a gender lens, proving there is a commercial case for more gender diversity and moving gender from the niche to the mainstream.

“We are taking a much more systemic approach to building out the landscape for gender-lens investing in the region by working with LPs to build their demand for funds that invest with a gender lens. It’s this work that brings us here today,” she added.

No ridiculous questions

Among Investing in Women’s standout initiatives is its annual Investing in Women LP Award. The Award recognises LPs that are paving the way in advancing gender diversity within Southeast Asia’s venture capital (VC) industry.

This year’s winners are Saison Capital and Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC). The two were recognised for their catalytic role in advancing gender diversity in Southeast Asia’s venture ecosystem, be it through anchoring first-time funds or championing women-led and gender-balanced fund managers.

For Saison Capital, the venture arm of Credit Saison, one of Japan’s largest non-bank financial companies, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its investment in women-led funds is rooted in the belief that women can have an edge over men in certain aspects of fund management.

The firm, which is an LP to several early-stage VC funds in the region but also makes direct investments into startups, says it evaluates fund managers through five key criteria, which include fund size and track record. However, high on the list is local roots and access. This, according to managing partner Visa Kannan, is where women fund managers excel.

Kannan explained that she and her firm have made conscious efforts not to surrender to the widespread tendency of backing only leaders who are men and those who come from top schools, and have found this equitable approach to be rewarding to the firm’s financial returns.

Additionally, the firm makes it a point not to ask female fund managers and founders “ridiculous questions” that many have sadly become accustomed to.

“What are your childbearing plans? What are your marriage plans? Where is life going to go?” Kannan said. “We don’t ask such questions. It is none of our business. We truly believe that a woman is as ambitious as a man, and if men can figure out their personal lives while working, so can women.”

Improved fund performance

For KVIC, the other winner of the Investing in Women LP Award, backing women-led funds can help reduce investment risks. Its Singapore head, Jihun Han, described it as “a driver of long-term performance and new market opportunities”.

This notion echoed in a recent report by the International Finance Corporation, which stated that having gender diverse fund managers can improve fund performance and generate better returns for LPs.

The findings in the report, which were highlighted by Krisila Benson of consulting firm Propelevate at the breakfast session, show there is a positive relationship between gender balance in leadership and improved performance and risk outcomes for PE-VC funds and portfolio companies.

In fact, the report finds through descriptive statistics that for some vintages, gender-balanced funds have higher internal rates of return (net fund IRR) and total value to paid-in (TVPI) multiples than male-dominated funds, though the result is sensitive to the cohort analysed.

For example, for funds aged eight years or older, when a meaningful number of exits are expected, gender-balanced funds show a 62% higher net fund IRR and a 6% increase in TVPI.

While there may be plenty of reasons for this, the report argues that more diverse leadership networks can better support portfolio companies post-investment and enhance risk awareness and governance practices.

What’s most interesting from an LP perspective, however, is that having women as fund managers helps broaden access to underexplored investment opportunities, while also reducing groupthink and cognitive bias in decision-making.

This, ultimately, leads to better deal-sourcing and investment decisions.

“So in short, if you have women as part of your picture, you can see the whole market, to see all of the opportunities that are out there. In other words, you can see with both eyes,” says Benson.