Pro Mujer and Acrux Partners Join Forces to Develop the Next generation of Gender Lens Investment opportunities and vehicles in Latin America

New York, Buenos Aires, London – June 7, 2021

Pro Mujer a mission-driven social enterprise focused on empowering women in Latin America, announced today that it is partnering with Acrux Partners, an impact investment advisory firm specialized in the development of financing solutions equitable development, to jointly develop the next generation of Gender Lens Investment opportunities and vehicles in Latin America. 

As part of the partnership and leveraging on each organization’s experience and networks, Pro Mujer and Acrux, will create a suite of next generation blended finance instruments and initiatives that aggregate capital at scale, aimed to generating a catalytic effect on how the private sector becomes a key driving force in developing solutions to the root causes that prolong the persistent gender inequality gap in Latin America.  

“We are excited by this partnership with Acrux Partners, which will leverage the strengths of our respective organizations to deliver new and innovative solutions, in order to provide access to capital, to historically underserved entrepreneurs.  Maria Laura brings a wealth of experience and acumen to our partnership and we are thrilled to have her on board,” says Maria Cavalcanti, CEO of Pro Mujer.

Joining forces will contribute to revert the stagnating rate at which the region reduces its gender gap, which at present would take 59 years to close (WEF 2020).  The initiative will seek to unlock the potential in institutional and private investors, financial intermediaries, SMEs, and government programs in Latin America to: 

• Increase women opportunities to access education, health and financial services
• Increasing female labour force participation broadly and in selected value chains 
• Increasing the number of women in leadership positions and dynamic entrepreneurship
• Closing gaps in wage and remuneration
• Building parity in emerging high-demand skills and jobs

Pro Mujer and Acrux Partners have been working together on multiple fronts, and are looking forward to advancing their relationship even further with this initiative. 

“We are thrilled  to announce this landmark partnership with one of the leading gender investment firms in the world; and together pave the way so that we see the change we want to see in terms of gender parity during our life time”, said Maria Laura Tinelli, Director and Co-Founder of Acrux Partners. 

About Pro Mujer – For over 30 years, Pro Mujer has empowered women through an all-inclusive mix of services, enabling them to better provide for their families and play a critical role in the economic development of Latin America. Pro Mujer is a preeminent purpose-driven social enterprise and an industry leader in financial inclusion, impact investing, entrepreneurship, workforce reskilling, and healthcare with a women-centered approach in its innovative programs.  

Across its platforms and programs, Pro Mujer engages the most disadvantaged people, whose access to healthcare, education and financial services is often the most tenuous. Its programs and policies address the multiple interlocking systems of inequities women face at both macro and socio-structural levels, recognizing that a woman’s level of empowerment will vary, sometimes enormously, according to other criteria such as class or caste, ethnicity, relative wealth, age, education and family position among others. Pro Mujer leads thought leadership in gender lens investing in Latin America and plays an important role as an aggregator of blended capital focused on catalytic investment through innovative investment vehicles and financial products.  Pro Mujer’s work is closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), delivering tangible results in eight SDGs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, and 16. For more information, visit http://www.promujer.org or follow on Twitter @promujer

About Acrux Partners  – Founded in 2015 Acrux is an impact investment advisory firm focused in Latin America, with unparalleled experience in the development and structuring of financing vehicles to align capital to the solution of social and environmental issues such as the creation of the first Impact Investment Fund for the Southern Cone together with the IDB-MIF, the structuring and management of Argentina’s first Social Impact Bond; the development of a wholesaler impact investment fund for the Government of San Juan (Argentina); the development of sustainable bond framework for the National Development Bank of Bolivia; and together with Pro Mujer and UN Women development of an innovative financing vehicle to reduce gender gap in access to finance. Since 2019 we have deepened our work on the SME and SGB sector with a special focus on gender equality and expanded our work with outcome Payment Contracts in Latam. For more information please visit: www.acruxpartners.com or follow us in Linkedin.