Investing in Women<\/a> initiative.<\/p>\nThe Australian Embassy\u2019s Deputy Head of Mission, Dr. Moya Collett, led the launch of the financing program in Makati City on December 5, 2024.\u00a0 \u201cAustralia is committed to supporting gender equality, and we are investing in women\u2019s economic empowerment to help achieve this,\u201d said Dr Collett.\u00a0 \u201cAustralia is pleased to support local partnerships that develop innovative solutions such as SheSecure by ARQ because evidence shows that incorporating a gender lens into an investment strategy improves financial performance and impact outcomes for investors.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bridging critical gaps for women entrepreneurs by offering “unfair advantages”<\/b><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u201cSheSecure was developed to tackle two critical gaps faced by larger women-led and women-owned small businesses in the Philippines,\u201d said Abigail Tan, ARQ SME BDC Managing Partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lack of appropriate capital is a major obstacle for growth. By offering tailored financing paired with strategic support, SheSecure aims to help bridge this gap for women entrepreneurs ready to scale,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
The SheSecure launch program was also a venue for women founders such as Maita Madlambayan (HausTalk), Ann Cuisia (Traxion), Abetina Valenzuela-Mader (EQUILIFE), and Monette Iturralde-Hamlin (TeamAsia) to converge and tackle the importance of capital access for women entrepreneurs, as well as share insights from their respective entrepreneurial journeys.<\/p>\n
Valenzuela-Mader, a two-time founder in the healthcare industry, having built EQUILIFE and co-founded Kindred Health, spoke of leveraging \u201cunfair advantages\u201d to get ahead in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have different unfair advantages. [My family] was mine, and SheSecure is another unfair advantage. So don\u2019t be hesitant to explore how you can get ahead with certain available funds or partnerships. If it\u2019s available to you, then search it out. If it\u2019s not your family, it\u2019s things like [SheSecure], which were not available before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the \u2018double bottomline\u2019\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
With a strong commitment to the “double bottomline” approach, SheSecure is designed to drive financial profitability and social responsibility by fostering gender equality in business.<\/p>\n
“By providing incentives linked to measurable progress in gender performance, SheSecure empowers companies to mainstream gender equality\u2014ensuring opportunities and leadership roles are accessible to everyone, regardless of gender,\u201d said Tan.<\/p>\n
Speaking as a Male CEO Ally of the SheSecure launch event, PayMongo CEO Jojo Malolos spoke of the power of creating more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work cultures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we create a space for diversity, when we champion women and value their perspectives, amazing things happen. But let’s not sugar coat it. Women and entrepreneurs face challenges that their male counterparts don’t. So we need to be more than just cheering from the sidelines and actively breaking down the barriers that hold women back. It’s not charity \u2014 it’s strategy. And when women succeed, businesses flourish, and we’ve proven that communities thrive and economies grow stronger,\u201d Malolos pointed out.<\/p>\n
Creating a \u2018win-win\u2019 network for women-led businesses and for society<\/b><\/p>\n
While SheSecure has specific criteria, ARQ SME BDC is committed to connecting applicants to suitable sources of capital, even if they don’t fully meet the program’s qualifications. This initiative aligns with the broader vision of creating \u201cgender-smart enterprises\u201d that deliver strong financial returns alongside positive social impact.<\/p>\n
“Our goal with SheSecure is to nurture progressive growth-oriented businesses that seek to further adopt and improve their gender-inclusive practices while being the \u201cunfair advantage\u201d as the SME captures visible opportunities” Tan added. “By prioritizing both profit and social progress, we create a win-win for businesses, their customers, and society as a whole.”<\/p>\n
To learn more about SheSecure, visit https:\/\/www.arqcapital.com\/shesecure<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANILA, PHILIPPINES \u2014 An innovative funding program backed by the Australian government was recently launched, encouraging further improvement in gender equity business practices while giving women-led and women-owned businesses in the Philippines scalable access to growth capital. Called SheSecure, the funding program is an investment product that applies a \u201cgender lens\u201d in support of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10896,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10895,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10894\/revisions\/10895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiajournaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}