GreenStreet is our monthly newsletter dedicated to climate impact investments in Asia Pacific.
In this special issue, we speak to investors about the role of women in climate action and investing. And, despite ongoing efforts to highlight the imbalance, data around funding for women-led startups indicate that little has changed.
Gender bias
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change, according to the United Nations and World Health Organisation.
This is especially the case in non-urban areas where extreme weather events stop or affect women and girls from carrying out tasks outside of the home, such as chores and farming.
The consequences of this include adverse effects on health and food security. Women are being further disadvantaged economically, as girls are forced to drop out of school and women are left to tend to farmland without resources or authority. They risk encountering violence, as their obligations take them further away from the safety of their home. The whole community’s resilience is at stake, particularly to the continuing impact of climate change.
More women must be included in the decision-making and innovation for solutions to climate change. What does this mean in the context of the investment community?
A new report by PwC found that very little has changed in seven years for female founders in the climate tech industry. The consultancy found that in the first nine months of 2024, sole female founders secured just over 5% of total deals and just over 1% of total funding.
Notably, the deals involving female founders tend to be focused on climate adaptation, which PwC notes “highlight[s] their commitment to developing solutions that address the impact of climate change”. These are startups creating products and services that include climate insurance and urban cooling.
In SE Asia, fundraising continues to be a formidable challenge for female entrepreneurs across sectors. All-women-founded startups made up just 5.2% of the deal volume in the region in 2024. Their share in deal value came in even lower at a mere 2.1%, as DealStreetAsia’s DATA VANTAGE latest report shows.
To be sure, there are investors committed to supporting the development of climate-resilient communities with strong female representation. For partners at Triple P Capital, for example, it is an opportunity set. The fund focuses on financial inclusion and climate adaptation and counts in its portfolio insurers that provide smallholder farmers in Vietnam and Cambodia with drought protection coverage.
As Partner Ke Qi Zhang and Investment Director Surbhi Khandelwal explain, about half of the insurers’ clients are women farmers. And, catering to this demographic has proven to be good business in terms of stability and lower cost of business. For instance, the women tend to be loyal customers and prompt in their renewals, which cuts the costs for the businesses related to new account acquisitions.
For Caroline Wee, Investment Partner at Circulate Capital, the focus should be on fundamentals—businesses that are resilient and ethically run by management with integrity, regardless of sector.
Investments are tailored to investors’ requirements, regardless of gender. “I don’t go out looking for women-led businesses. We look for good businesses and invest in a good management team, with experience, resilience, ethics, and integrity.” Wee adds: “There is no concession, whether on returns or talent.”
That said, having women as part of a balanced management team helps achieve results, both in terms of investment and retaining talent, she says. This is particularly so in a complex market like SE Asia, where relationship-building is important.
Still, there are limitations to women being in front-facing leadership roles. “You have to be a superwoman, multitasking at the office and home.” In her experience, women have been leading from “behind the scenes” at successful businesses. “But I’m optimistic that we will see more women leaders coming to the front.”
Still, it is not that there are not enough women in climate tech to invest in, says one LP. “How you define climate action investing drives what you see,” Linda Mok of Sarona Asset Management says.
She explains how the LP helps fund managers hire beyond pure climate tech skills. These include talent from similar backgrounds such as women engineers, and skilled professionals in HR, accounting, and operations. Sarona has also worked with the industry association GPCA to publish a directory of women in private equity in senior management roles.
Even as gender lens investing provides further diversification for returns as investors incorporate it in their climate thesis, there are challenges owing to a lack of data transparency in emerging markets.
Gender and climate commitments require data, verification and incentivising those who are contributing to the effort. Isolated indicators will not work. It is a systematic process of assessing how these enterprises are performing versus benchmarks of other companies at different layers such as sector, community, and country levels.
Measuring impact can help enterprises unlock access to capital, markets, consumers, and corporate value chains; as well as to help investors make wise investment decisions. But, measurement is not just reporting numbers, but the experience and beneficial transformation that takes place in the communities.
And, gender equality cannot be a secondary outcome of investments. As Richa Kothari, Senior Vice President at Impact Investment Exchange notes at a recent event: “There are industries that cannot function without half of the population. It’s not just about impact, but really about ensuring the continual survival and success of the economy.”
Going green without the greenback
The recent backlash against ESG and DEI seen in the US should not impact investors who have strong convictions on standards.
Indeed, Asia is stepping up in diversity and environment financing, and attitudes among managers in the region have changed, insiders say. Within the region, impact experts see Indonesia and Vietnam as representing clear opportunities for climate and gender lens investing.
“When I first started working with Asian managers and asking about ESG standards, it was a monumental task. The funds were either too small and they were really struggling with finding the right resources, or they were large and backed by large LPs and so didn’t see the need for it,” says Sarona’s Mok. “But today, that mindset has shifted. Everybody has some level of ESG standards in place. I cannot imagine a GP saying otherwise or questioning the need for it.”
In any case, changing policies or politics, which are only to be expected, should not affect investors – GPs and LPs alike – with solid fundamentals, regardless of industry.
Mok adds: “Perhaps some funds or programmes have to be repositioned for certain considerations, but the trend can only go towards more awareness and better policies. Enough interested parties are willing to invest in managers with best practices, and we can only move forward.”
Eventually, as Circulate Capital’s Wee says: “Whether your fund is focused on climate action, or is a mainstream fund, climate change will affect your business. If you don’t address it, it will create a heightened risk for your portfolio or your company.”
Climate deals tracker
DealStreetAsia tracked four climate tech deals in SE Asia in February, of which three were Singapore-based startups. Ampotech, which provides energy efficiency solutions for buildings, raised an undisclosed sum from Clime Capital’s SE Asia Clean Energy Fund II.
Waste management and recycling startup Noovoleum bagged $3 million in seed funding from Rigel Capital, while hydrogen power company HYDGEN raised $2 million in a round led by Luxembourg-based Cloudberry Pioneer Investments. And, Vietnamese solar panel firm SmartSolar secured $1.85-million in a seed round from Picus Capital, 2degrees and Iterative.
