More investors are pouring their support for globally awarded impact business InvestEd, as it seeks to elevate its mission of empowering under-resourced youth in their journey from education to adulthood.
Invested has secured a P10-million loan facility from inBEST Ventures, a gender lens investing focused impact investing firm, with an aim to boost its capital and further expand its student loan portfolio.
“inBEST Ventures takes a customized and proven approach in maximizing impact and returns for the community. This loan facility was tailor fit to meet our needs and comes with expert advice in evolving our lending operations and risk management. We’re truly excited for this long-term partnership,” InvestEd CEO and Co-founder Carmina Bayombong said.
The loan is a major boost to InvestEd’s goal of serving millions of students in the next five years. Since its establishment, InvestEd has provided loans to thousands of Filipino students from low-income and poor households, InvestEd CEO and Co-Founder Carmina Bayombong said..
In its announcement, inBEST said the partnership would “enable InvestEd to scale further, achieve better traction and establish partnerships with more institutional investors, and funders.”
“Operating in a country where lots of students have difficulty completing a college degree and finding a sustainable job or livelihood, we are happy to contribute to the success of InvestEd,” the impact investment firm added.
‘Promoting gender balance’
Aside from boosting InvestEd’s capital, inBEST, through the loan, also aims to allow the social enterprise to formulate policy and initiate programs that will enrich its commitment to promoting gender balance and responsive business operations.
The loan was made possible by the investment program of the Australian government and Macquarie Group Foundation that aims to help women-led enterprises amid the COVID-19 pandemic. inBEST is among the two local investing partners tapped for the initiative dubbed as “Investing in Women RISE Fund.”
“inBEST is excited to partner with InvestEd to build a successful business case that investing in women-owned and -led businesses are profitable, resilient, and competitive with their male counterparts to help close the financial access gap. Also, this is an opportunity for inBEST to help address a big, yet ultimately solvable problem of access to education in the Philippines,” inBEST said.
As a women-owned and-led impact business, InvestEd is committed to promoting women empowerment in the workplace. At present, the enterprise’s workforce consists of 66% women, while 67% of its students are also female.
Invested envisions a world where every young dreamer has no barriers to success. Its high tech, high touch program provides underresourced youth with capital for education, life skills coaching, and a supportive community. To date, InvestEd has helped thousands of low-income Filipino youth from about 400 schools increase their income and navigate success in a fast changing world. A landmark invention by the company is its Education to Adulthood (E2A) Risk Engine, a proprietary methodology that de-risks a young person’s life. InvestEd has so far raised funds amounting to more than P125 million.
inBEST Ventures is a local Impact Investment Firm focused on Gender Lens Investing (GLI) in the Philippines. The firm provides tailor fit financial solutions, as well as non-financial business development services and technical advice to growing women-owned or -led enterprises to help them manage and address effectively their growing activities and challenges. Founded in Q4 2020, inBEST Ventures aims to be the leading local capital provider for impact investing and GLI in the Philippines.