Zoscales Partners has a mission aligned to delivering impact, and in particular on delivering opportunity, equity, and access to women. We have progressively increased the sophistication of our gender-based KPIs and improved our monitoring and reporting. This year we are proud to announce that our entire portfolio meets Gender 2x criteria — and that several companies are eligible in multiple categories.
The Gender 2X Challenge is a DFI-founded initiative that seeks to support businesses that provide women in emerging economies with access to leadership opportunities, quality employment, and products and services that enhance their economic participation and inclusion. An organisation needs to meet at least one of the five criteria to qualify as a “2X investment”: www.2xchallenge.org/criteria.
“Zoscales decided to join the Gender 2x Challenge because we firmly believe in the mission to not just accelerate women’s empowerment and equity through our investments, but to be advocates for this within the private equity industry as well. In working with ZP over the last years, we have improved the sophistication of our gender metrics and improved our gender-based KPIs year on year. The next step will be wider collaboration across the industry.”
Building on our work in gender equity, we developed a manual for implementing gender lens investing, and are continuing to build the requisite capacity within our portfolio companies. Across the portfolio, we have achieved a women-positive workforce at 56%, up from 37% in 2019. This is not merely a fringe development, but we believe it will reflect in improved employee engagement and organizational performance. We are taking steps to encouraging investees to collect data on women employees and consumers, to measure the development impact of investing with and in women over time, and to make a business case for investing with and in women.
We believe when women are engaged in enterprises as senior managers, leaders, and executors, those enterprises will improve how they operate, innovate, and deliver for their communities.
The entire portfolio meets Gender 2x criteria — several companies are eligible in multiple categories
100%
of Zoscales Fund I portfolio companies meets the Gender 2X criteria
67%
of Zoscales Fund I portfolio companies have more than 40% women in senior management
67%
of Zoscales Fund I portfolio companies have more than 55% female employees
50%
of portfolio companies have products or services that disproportionately benefit women
33%
of Zoscales Fund I portfolio companies have female board members
Our gender goals
Incorporate gender equality into deal sourcing and diligence process by favouring companies which perform in line with the Gender 2X criteria
Ensure that all portfolio companies include gender equality in their Environmental and Social Management Systems (ESMS)
Monitor 2X indicators for all portfolio companies
For Zoscales Fund II, 50% female ownership of the portfolio
About the Gender 2x Challenge
The “2X Challenge” was launched at the G7 Summit 2018 as a commitment by DFIs to collectively mobilize USD 3 billion in private sector investments that provide women in developing country markets with improved access to leadership opportunities, quality employment, finance, enterprise support and products and services that enhance economic participation and access. The original target was 3x overachieved, with the DFIs investing $6.9 billion and with co-investments taking the total to $11.4 billion. At the G7 Summit 2021, 20 global DFIs committed to a new target of $15 billion for the period 2021-2022. For further information, please visit: https://www.2xchallenge.org/.
About Zoscales Partners
Witnessing the high growth potential of local small- and medium-sized enterprises across East Africa, Zoscales Partners was founded in 2014 to give international investors access to the rapidly growing East African markets that offer a wide range of investment opportunities. With local offices in Ethiopia and Kenya, Zoscales combines its international investment experience with its deep local knowledge and extensive network to deliver sustainable and long-term returns with positive impacts on society. Due to their growth potential and promising exit paths, Zoscales focuses on the consumer goods and healthcare sectors.
Zoscales has undertaken six private equity investments across Ethiopia and Kenya via Zoscales Fund I, a $75m fund launched in 2017 and backed by a mix of commercial investors and development financial institutions. Zoscales Fund II will launch in 2023.