FAQs

The AWIF is a Pan-African gender-lens initiative of the UN Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) together with its partners: UN Women, the Office of the Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security of the African Union Commission, and the African Women Leadership Network (AWLN).

AWIF falls under the Financing pillar of the AWLN which aims to bridge the estimated $42-billion-dollar funding gap faced by women entrepreneurs. AWIF targets the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and the AU Agenda 2063 on the continent by accelerating the growth and development of women fund managers on the continent through scalable solutions that promote women’s representation and entrepreneurship.

In operationalising the AWIF, the ECA has collaborated with the Standard Bank Group as lead sponsor, MiDA Advisors as key strategic advisor, and RisCura Invest as the appointed investment manager and provider of manager development and support services.

• Standard Bank Group
  Promoter & Fundraiser/Investment Services Advisor.
  The Standard Bank Group is the largest bank on the Continent by asset size, with operations in 20 African countries, over 50,000 employees, more than 1,100 branches and over 9,000 ATMs on the African continent. This enables the Bank to deliver a complete range of services across personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking and wealth management. It sees gender equity not only as a fundamental human right, but also as a business imperative. Standard Bank believes that the economic empowerment of women is essential to raising Africa’s economic output and creating sustainable jobs.
• Riscura
  Investment Manager.
  RisCura is a global leader in emerging and frontier markets. With a diverse client base and strong African roots, it has a well-placed view on investments in Africa. Experienced in establishing and managing technically intricate portfolios, RisCura launched the first multi-managed impact fund in South Africa and continues to demonstrate that investing should drive sustainable returns and connect to the real economy. RisCura believes developing a more inclusive investment industry is essential to investing for a better world – one that is more representative of the demographics of the countries in which it operates. To this end, RisCura has been supporting diverse start-up investment managers for over 20 years through a Manager Development Programme that aims to build diverse capacity in local markets through supporting women-owned and led firms, backing entrepreneurs, and upskilling investment industry expertise within these firms.
• MiDA Advisors
  Strategic Advisor.
  MiDA Advisors (MiDA) is a global advisory firm specializing in facilitating institutional investments and trade in Africa and other emerging markets. MiDA identifies investment opportunities and provides transaction advisory services in partnership with development financial institutions, governments, institutional investors, and research organizations. Originally founded during the 2nd U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit in 2016 under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the team has expanded to a global advisory firm specializing in blended finance solutions and transaction advisory services to mobilize institutional investors into the real economy. In the last four years, MiDA facilitated investment deals targeting Africa and other emerging markets totaling over U.S. $1 billion. MiDA Advisors is headquartered in Washington, DC, USA, with offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya.

• Non-Commercial Investors
  - Looking to support incubation and upskilling of women fund managers
• Commercial investors
  - Looking to invest in African listed or private markets investment
  - Investors who offer patient capitals

In identifying and selecting the AWIF fund managers, the 2X Challenge criteria is applied, modified to best serve the purpose of the Fund. The requirements are as follows:

• Entrepreneurship – 51% women ownership or the business is founded by a woman
• Leadership – 51% women making investment decisions
• Employment – 50% of professional staff is female or the investment manager is developing female asset management talent in a meaningful and intentional manner

The Fund targets investments that have one of the two first criteria but may use the third criteria to evaluate any funds that do not meet the first criteria for possible inclusion. The portfolio construction will consider the best available opportunities available during a particular vintage based on RisCura’s domain research.

The AWIF investment solutions will be a fully diversified women-led African fund of funds. The AWIF investment solutions will invest in investment vehicles managed by

(a) African women portfolio managers or
(b) women-owned African-domiciled asset management firms.

The AWIF investment solutions will be diversified between asset classes, geographically and industry, while targeting investments with resilient investment theses, that are enabled by macroeconomic structural and current conditions.

The AWIF flagship fund is the AWIF Private Markets Fund. The AWIF Private Markets Fund will obtain exposure to a basket of African-based, unlisted assets that provide a blended source of returns. This includes investments in Private Debt, Private Equity and Venture Capital.

The Fund is a closed-ended investment vehicle that aims to maximise capital growth over its lifetime.

While other interventions seek to solve for a single part of the fund manager’s ecosystem, the AWIF aims to “cast a wider net” in tackling hurdles faced by emerging asset managers such as: lack of track record; insufficient exposure to institutional systems and procedure; lack of support networks and resistance to women leadership.

The AWIF leverages off RisCura’s market leading Manager Development Programme (MDP). The programme is underpinned by RisCura’s experience in running a financial services business, experience in advising large institutional investors, expertise in providing services in evaluating and monitoring complex portfolios (including services for hedge fund managers, private equity managers and managers of other unlisted assets) as well as other more standard listed managers and mandates. Through the manager development program, the AWIF creates value and longevity for the fund managers we invest in.