Good Return, the Australian social purpose organisation, has launched its second Impact Investment Fund, targeting A$10 million to help overcome the structural obstacles that women-led firms in the Asia-Pacific area encounter when trying to obtain financing.

The new fund expands on the success of Good Return’s first fund in 2020, which converted a A$1 million investment into A$5.05 million in loans for over 600 business owners in Cambodia and Indonesia, 90% of whom were women. One of them, Voucheang Loa, a herb farmer from Cambodia, used a A$8,000 loan to build greenhouses and greatly expand her farming business. Wing Bank, a significant fund partner, helped to facilitate the funding.

With a minimum investment of A$20,000, Good Return’s newest evergreen fund is looking for funding from wholesale impact investors in Australia. Financial institutions that promote women-led enterprises in nations including Fiji, Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea will be able to offer loan guarantees and de-risk lending.

The program is in line with the Indo-Pacific NGO Blended Finance Accelerator and the Australian Government’s International Development Policy. It also answers the appeal of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to open up funding that puts equality first.

Peter McMullin, co-founder and chair of the Good Business Foundation and an investor in the first fund, stated, “Entrepreneurs and SMEs don’t lack talent, only opportunity… This is why my Foundation has and will continue to invest in Good Return’s Impact Investment Fund.”

The fund offers grant-supported training to reduce gender discrimination in financial institutions in addition to funding. Nearly 3,000 workers in the banking sector received gender-inclusive training from the inaugural fund.

Case Study

A loan from Wing Bank, supported by Good Return’s Impact Investment Fund, has helped 42-year-old Voucheang Loa, a small-scale farmer in rural Cambodia, improve her family’s standard of living. Financial institutions view women like Voucheang as risky assets despite their commercial competence, especially since they lack collateral. With the help of Good Return’s guarantee, Wing Bank was able to accept Voucheang as a client and assess her ability to repay the loan based on her years of company experience and ability to generate income.

With the help of a AU$8,000 loan, Voucheang was able to invest in seeds and supplies and build two greenhouses for growing herbs. This allowed her to grow her company from a single rice harvest each year to three Chinese curly cabbage fields and six crop cycles in a single year. With her greenhouses shielding seedlings from progressively more unpredictable weather patterns, it has also made sure she is creating a more robust company.

Voucheang shared “the initial funding provided by Wing Bank and with Good Return’s support has changed the tide for our family. We’ve been able to shore up our business so it is sustainable and profitable and we have a much brighter future as a result.”