Celebrating Women Entrepreneurs at Impact Happy Hours
With over 75 attendees and a star-studded line-up of speakers, Impact Happy Hours: Women’s Month was an event that hit all the right sweet spots. When we began preparing for the first Impact Happy Hours of the year, we knew it was going to set the tone for 2021. We wanted positive, we wanted inspirational, we wanted exciting. In short we wanted the moon, and then some…
So at 5 PM as the waiting room was abuzz with attendees, the team took a deep breath, Love Gregorie Perez, Director - xchange, took the stage to open the event, and it was curtains up!
Our keynote speaker, Hardika Shah, Founder and CEO — Kinara Capital, set the ball rolling by sharing insights into her own journey as a woman entrepreneur. Hardika pressed on the fact that gender bias is prevalent and pervasive and the only way to navigate it is to persistently persevere and ‘own the room’. Hardika’s message to women entrepreneurs at the event was inspiring and hopeful as she reiterated that the gender financing gap is being actively addressed by investors across the globe and the tide is shifting in our direction.
Rosalyn Mesina, Country Programme Manager — WeEmpowerAsia at UN Women Philippines, in her fireside chat with Priya Thachadi, Co-founder & CEO — Villgro Philippines, highlighted the gender financing gap and the work that she and her team at WeEmpowerAsia are doing to address it in the Philippines.
It was then time for the BIG launch!
The WE Rise Community was unveiled and took centre stage at Impact Happy Hours. WE Rise Community, a collaboration between Villgro Philippines and UN Women WeEmpowerAsia, is designed and curated especially for women entrepreneurs to connect with an ecosystem of support (investors, financial institutions, technical assistance providers), access learning opportunities, and a community of peers. It is dedicated to connecting women entrepreneurs directly to resources they need to succeed with a singular focus on access to finance.
Interested in joining the community? Click here!
When Nathalie Molina Niño, who is a serial tech entrepreneur, a gender and climate focused investor (at O³), and the author of Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs, joined us for a fireside chat, the excitement was difficult to contain. Nathalie spoke passionately about the gaps in the system that prevent women entrepreneurs from accessing capital and strongly suggested alternatives to VC or equity investments. Her take on debt, and the ways in which ‘good debt’ can actually work wonders for small businesses resonated with all of us. Nathalie charged us up with a strong message on ‘the collective power of sisterhood’ — the need to band together, ask the tough questions, and get things done the way they ought to be done.
We ended the evening with a message from Abi Mapúa, Country Director — Ashoka Philippines. Abi emphasised the power of women entrepreneurs and touched on key takeaways from the event. This was followed by a quick round of speed networking for the attendees where we all let our hair loose, sipped on our drinks, and generally caught up with each other. Most of our friends left us with their business cards on a jamboard for the evening so that we can keep in touch and hopefully forge alliances and collaborations in the future.
Impact Happy Hours is a collaborative event organised throughout the year by Villgro Philippines in partnership with Ashoka Philippines and xchange, and we look forward to welcoming you to our next.
Until then, cheers! 🥂
