For Deetken Impact, advancing gender equity isn’t a side initiative – it’s a core commitment we choose with intention every single day. Change doesn’t come about by accident; it is mobilized, measured, and fiercely championed. We believe that elevating women’s economic power is one of the most catalytic investments any society can make, and as we look ahead, 2025 marks not a conclusion, but the beginning of an even more ambitious chapter.
As one of the first private investors to join the latest edition of the 2X Challenge (2024-2027), we are proud to be contributing to its ambitious goal of mobilizing USD$20 billion. With private capital playing a vital role for the first time ever, this new phase marks an important shift: closing the gender gap will require not only public leadership, but the sustained engagement of committed private investors. We are honored to work alongside other leading investors who share this vision.
As our inaugural year of participating in the 2X Challenge has passed, we celebrate the progress achieved through vehicles like the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, where we continue to champion equitable access to capital, and create pathways for women to thrive across sectors. This year offered powerful proof of that momentum.
In 2025, our team qualified ten investments accounting for more than three-quarters of recent investments by the Ilu Fund. Together these companies are serving over 150,000 women clients with access to inclusive products and services, providing quality employment to over 1,100 women employees. These companies are driving gender equity where it’s needed most, including powering households, schools, and businesses in rural areas through off-grid solar systems and microgrids that improve quality of life and expand economic opportunities for women and girls. Behind them are entrepreneurs who are reimagining what women-led growth can look like; frontline teams expanding opportunity in underserved communities, and clients who are building businesses, strengthening households, and shaping more resilient local economies. Their leadership is the engine of this work, and our reason for doing it.
There is no better demonstration of our long-standing commitment to advancing gender equity across Latin America and the Caribbean than achieving this milestone. As a proud member of the 2X Global community, we celebrate the progress made, and recognize how much more remains to be done to scale gender-smart investment strategies that deliver measurable impact, strong financial performance, reduced risk, and meaningful change. We look forward to building on this progress in the year ahead.
