AVPN with support from Investing in Women and in partnership with AmCham and AusCham in Vietnam look forward to the second installment of Gender-Lens Investing in Practice with a focus on showcasing women entrepreneurs.
AVPN, a pan-Asian network for social investors, with support from Investing in Women, an Australian government programme, has launched a series of events around Southeast Asia that will highlight the importance of gender lens investing for building resilience in the region following the COVID-19 Pandemic.
On 7 April, more than 130 people gathered for a hybrid event to set the scene on gender-lens investing and how it drives value for investors in Vietnam.
In the second installment, the event will focus on how it looks in practice.
What is an investment showcase?
You will hear from both high potential women-led enterprises and their investors to share their journey, their vision for the future and their learnings from engaging with each other.
The audience will get invaluable information on how they connected, what were the opportunities and challenges in fundraising and the dynamics of both sides.
This is a great opportunity to hear and to learn about the relationship between investor and investee and how gender has colored those experiences.
We look forward to having you attend our second installment of Gender-Lens Investing in Practice: Investment Showcase in Vietnam.
| SPEAKERS |
| INVESTMENT SHOWCASE 1: | |
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Sang Phang
Director, SEAF Vietnam Sang Pham is a Vietnamese investment professional with 15+ years of hands-on experience focused on investment management, portfolio monitoring, and business development. Sang currently manages pipeline development, executes investments, and monitors portfolio companies in Vietnam for SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund. Additionally, he assists with executing investments in the Philippines and Indonesia for the Fund. Since joining SEAF in 2009, Sang has sourced, recognized, evaluated, and executed over 20 growth capital investments for the firm.Prior to joining SEAF, Sang served as an analyst at Vietnam Partners, a US-based boutique investment bank that exclusively served the Vietnamese market providing corporate finance advisory services. Prior to shifting his career to the financial and investment fields, Sang worked for three years in corporate sales at Saigon Postel Corporation, a HCMC-based telecoms company.Sang is a CFA charter holder, and in addition, holds university degrees in foreign trade economics and English.
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Thao Pham
Founder & CEO, Organica Organica, based in Ho Chi Minh City, is a leading retailer and wholesaler of organic & natural foods and beverages in Vietnam.The business began in 2013 when its founder, Ms. Pham Phuong Thao, a health- conscious young mother, acted on her conviction that everyone has the right to access clean, safe and healthy food.Recognizing the inadequacies of Vietnam’s conventional food system, Ms. Thao and her like- minded associates focused on building a prototype organic farm as a role model within the Vietnam farming community.
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| INVESTMENT SHOWCASE 2: | |
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Yen Do
Senior Investment Associate, Patamar Capital & Beacon Fund Based in Vietnam, Yen leads Beacon Fund’s, a sister fund of Patamar Capital, investments in the Vietnam market focused on impact investing and gender lens investing into businesses serving for low- to middle-income populationBeacon Fund’s mission is to better serve the needs of female entrepreneurs in South East Asia.Yen has almost 5 years of experience in impact investing, and has run end-to-end deals from origination to portfolio management. She worked closely with Patamar’s Partners in leading one of the first gender lens investing funds in South East Asia and in building the fund’s impact measurement and gender lens strategies.
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Ms. Phuong Anh Dang has eight years of executive experiences in the private sector and actively contributes to women empowerment efforts. She is currently the COO of the Family Concierge Service Platform JupViec.vn.
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| INVESTMENT SHOWCASE 3: | |
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Bicky Nguyen
Co-Founder, CricketOne CricketOne is the leading supplier globally in cricket ingredients in food and beverage industry. Their products are sold to 15 different countries across 3 continents.Nguyen’s passion is to turn cricket based product to daily diet to tackle climate change and promote the sustainable culture. Before the journey with CricketOne, she also founded another tech startup that implemented IoTs in agriculture to make it more predictable, increasing yield while optimizing the use the natural resources like soil and water.Being in start-up scene trying to introduce innovative approach toward conventional matters for the past 7 years, she believe that small change makes big change, and change is not a switch button hence it needs a whole system to play a role relatively together to avoid negative consequences occurred while trying to do good.
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Marina Tran-Vu
Founder & CEO, EQUO EQUO is a sustainable brand providing 100% plastic-free, biodegradable, compostable solutions for everyday single-use plastic items.First line of products are drinking straws made from grass, rice, coconut, sugarcane and coffee. Additional categories will include utensils, dishware and stationary.EQUO was recently awarded the SME100 Fast Moving Companies in Vietnam award, featured as an Amazon Launchpad featured Women-Owned Business, named one of Vegpreneur’s 25 Vegan Companies You Need to Know, the first Vietnam-based company to be admitted in to the Techstars Program, and have recently filmed for Shark Tank Vietnam.
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| Additional speakers to date: | |
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Julianne Cowley
Australian Consul-General, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Ms Cowley is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and was most recently Assistant Secretary, Health Policy Branch. She has previously served as Assistant Secretary, Staff and Welfare Development Branch, DFAT; Assistant Director General, People Policy and Planning Branch AusAID; Assistant Director General Security Branch, AusAID; and Departmental Liaison Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.Ms Cowley holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern Queensland; a Bachelor of Communication and a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Canberra.
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Dr. Julia Newton-Howes
CEO, Investing in Women As CEO of Investing in Women, Julia is responsible for the successful delivery of all aspects of the program. Julia joined Investing in Women in November 2016 after spending 9 years as CEO of CARE Australia, one of Australia’s largest humanitarian and development organisations.Over her career in international development, Julia has held various senior positions including Assistant Director General in AusAID and Advisor at the Board of the World Bank.
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Rebecca Fries
CEO and Founder, Value for Women As CEO and Founder of Value for Women, Rebecca has spearheaded the growth of the organization into a globally-recognized leader in gender-inclusive business practice. With over 20 years of global expertise, Rebecca leads Value for Women in its efforts to design innovation for gender inclusion with investors, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), banks, financial institutions, development organizations and corporate foundations. Under Rebecca’s leadership, the Value for Women team works globally in a collaborative, multidisciplinary manner, applying practical, hands-on approaches to solve business and investment challenges with a gender and inclusion lens. This involves delivery of advisory services, and the design of research, training and communications. Rebecca has also authored and led sector-changing research on the intersection of gender, investment, entrepreneurship and economic development across sectors such as Sustainable Energy, Finance, Agriculture and Entrepreneurship. Rebecca is frequently invited to speak as an industry expert in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
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