BUSINESS

What is the Business Pillar?

This pillar promotes social impact investment with a gender perspective, i.e., in sustainable businesses and initiatives that incorporate gender equality policies or are designed to promote women’s leadership, consolidating their active participation or developing solutions to their needs.

Fundación WWB Colombia makes social impact investments in accordance with the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which set high standards for risk management and the generation of long-term sustainable returns for all beneficiaries of the Foundation’s initiatives.

In our role as a social impact investor, we strive to contribute to social change while also diversifying the Foundation’s income to continue to implement initiatives that promote the closing of gaps for women through three mechanisms:

  • Implementing initiatives that help to close gaps for women.
  • Investing in projects that promote gender equality within organizations.
  • Strengthening businesses that offer products or services that address women’s needs or that stimulate women’s participation in some part of the value chain.

Social impact investment

These include both non-reimbursable resources and patient capital resources provided to growth-stage ventures or social impact investment funds. We make gender-responsive social impact investments through funds and bonds such as:

  • The WWB Network’s Limited Capital Partners Fund designed to contribute to financial inclusion with a gender perspective in seven countries around the world. We have been part of this fund since 2014.
  • ALEG ACUMEN Fund, a fund that invests in companies with high social impact and high growth potential in Colombia and Peru, to which we have belonged since 2018.
  • Social Impact Bonds (BIS) of the Inter-American Development Bank – IDB, Corona Foundation, Swiss Cooperation, and the Mayor’s Office of Santiago de Cali (2019) whose objective is to support employability processes in Cali for people aged 18 to 40, through various phases of training and support prior to employment.

Social impact investment

Strategic investments

These investments made in mature companies are intended to provide both social benefits and financial returns, allowing Fundación WWB Colombia to diversify its sources of income and contribute to the institution’s long-term sustainability.

 

The Foundation’s most important strategic and social impact investment is currently Banco W, created in 2011, through which it contributes to financial inclusion throughout the country. Currently, the bank has more than 286,000 customers, more than 146 branches throughout the country, and has created 2,162 direct jobs.

 

MicroRate, a rating agency specialized in assessing the social component of microfinance institutions, has given Banco W a four-star rating (out of five) and a stable outlook.

 

Standard & Poor’s risk rating for Banco W is AA for long-term obligations and BRC 1+ for short-term obligations.

Strategic investments