The Purse Podcast

Jessica Espinoza is Vice President at DEG, the German Development Finance Institution (KfW Group) and the Chair of the 2X Challenge, a global initiative that has mobilised over $4.5 billion of gender lens investments since its launch at the G7 Summit in 2018. 

Jessica has extensive experience sourcing, structuring and executing debt, mezzanine and equity deals in emerging markets with a strong focus on social impact. She serves on the Board of Directors of AlphaMundi Foundation and of the Mexican financial institution Mega as well as on the Advisory Board of several private equity funds. 

She is the Founder of the edtech venture Xoco, empowering adolescent girls in the Global South to leapfrog to digital jobs of the future. As a mentor for Endeavor, she supports high impact companies as they scale up. 

Jessica is a PhD candidate at University of Siegen, researching the transformative potential of gender lens investing. 

Prior to joining DEG, Jessica was a Member of the Management Board at ProCredit Bank Nicaragua and part of the Group Funding team at ProCredit Holding. She managed the Africa Regional Office of MicroFinance Transparency in Ghana and led a flagship program to promote responsible finance across Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

We cover the following in our conversation:

• Gender lens investing and why is more capital flowing into this area?
• Why should we invest in women & women entrepreneurs?
• What is the 2X Challenge is and why is your work important?
• What tools do you make available to make it easier for organisations to invest through a gender lens?
• What is the investment criteria?
• How do you measure the gender impact of investments?
• How can investors including VCs and angel investors apply this approach to the startup ecosystem?
• What are your views on how 'impact conscious' investors are becoming or need to become in order to address some of the world's biggest problems or challenges?
• How are women the driving force behind impact investing?
• What are the key takeaways for folks who want to start investing through a gender lens?