Woman working among leafy crops in a greenhouse

Making women-led climate businesses ready for investment and scale

Mission & VisionWomen Climate Initiative

Woman solar professional standing among solar panels — Women building the climate economy

Vision

A climate economy that works for everyone – where women building green businesses are backed by real markets, real money and real partners.

Mission

Turn overlooked women-led climate resilience enterprises into a lower-risk investment pipeline that capital can trust and finance.

The financing paradox

Capital is not scarce but enterprises that are led, managed and have a majority of women in the value chain receive an insignificant part of it.

Fifty-four million enterprises. A five percent conversion rate. The gap and opportunity in India and SE Asia.

Every stage of the funnel loses enterprises for a structural reason, not a credit one. Hover any band to see where the pipeline breaks.

Stage 1 of 5

Number of women-led MSMEs in SE Asia

54 M

~37.5% of all MSMEs; the largest untapped enterprise base in SE Asia.

Read the full market analysis

Need for a more inclusive future.

Back women-led climate solutions.

The numbers show the scale — and the gap.

$2 trillion

Globally, more than $2 trillion flowed into climate finance.

$4 trillion

Emerging markets need $4 trillion by 2030 to meet climate goals.

$1.9 trillion

The majority goes into mitigation and energy transition.

3% ($64 billion)

Women receive only 3% — $64 billion — of climate adaptation business finance.

Women lead

Climate-smart farming, decentralised water systems, and resilient food systems.

10% / 7%

Only 10% of global climate-tech investment and 7% of emerging-market VC funding goes to women-led businesses.

Invest in women. Invest in a resilient tomorrow.

The WCI model

WCI builds the missing infrastructure.

Five connected systems turn overlooked enterprises into visible, credible, and investable climate businesses.

Market

WCI improves market access for women entrepreneurs through strengthening supply chain, distribution and corporate partnerships.

Shared services

WCI gives enterprises the tools, standards, digital systems, and brand credibility they need to grow.

Enterprise readiness

WCI Accelerator moves enterprises from Discover to Scale, building stronger business models, operations, governance, and investment readiness.

Data and standards

WCI makes climate, gender, business, and impact performance visible, consistent, and trusted.

Capital pipeline

WCI aggregates enterprises into stronger clusters and portfolios that investors can assess, trust, and finance.

WCI North Star

2030 ambition.

A repeatable market-building model for women-led climate enterprises across sectors and markets.

$ 500 Million

Capital mobilized for women-led climate enterprises

750+

Enterprises enabled to become stronger, investment-ready businesses

250,000

Women reached across climate enterprise value chains

20,000

Green jobs created or upgraded with a strong focus on women’s economic participation

5–7

Pipelines built across climate sectors, demonstrating sector-level repeatability

The WCI approach

Three tiers of infrastructure, operated as one system.

Each tier removes a specific blocker. Together they convert a fragmented enterprise base into a pipeline institutions can price.

Tier 2

Accelerator Layer

Using the Green Enterprise Readiness Benchmark as a laddered approach to identify critical gaps in enterprises, plugging them through milestone-based funding.

Creating an investible pipeline through a sectoral approach
Cluster → Identify → Develop → Design → Deploy → Scale

Market direction

Success means WCI is investing where the market is going.

Core

Follow the capital

Clean energy, energy access, energy efficiency and other climate markets where significant investment is already taking place.

Success means: WCI identifies the women-led enterprises operating within these growing markets and helps them capture a greater share of the value chain.

Growth

Move capital into the gap

Climate-smart agriculture, water, clean cooking, resilient food systems and adaptation where need is high but private capital remains more difficult to access.

Success means: WCI demonstrates that fragmented women-led enterprises in these markets can be aggregated, strengthened and financed.

Emerging

Create tomorrow’s market

Creating climate-resilience and nature-related enterprise opportunities.

Success means: WCI builds early evidence, enterprise models and investment intelligence that can eventually attract larger pools of capital.

Repeatable sector model

Success means creating a repeatable sectoral model.

Pressure test in one sector like clean energy

Identify women-led distributors and installers

Cluster them

Provide shared technology, finance, insurance and market access

Standardise data

Build portfolio

Attract climate and impact investors

Then Apply the model to Climate Smart Agriculture, Food Systems, Water and other sectors

Leadership & governance

Institution builders advancing systems change.

WCI brings together leaders across gender equality, climate resilience, enterprise, finance, policy, and technology.

Founders

Leadership grounded in institution building and systems change.

WCI's founders bring decades of experience advancing gender equality, building organizations and creating the partnerships required for lasting climate action.