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Building on the success of Phase I, the Biniyog Briddhi Programme, launched Phase II of its operations at an event held on May 28, 2024. The event drew together key stakeholders and ecosystem builders from Bangladesh’s entrepreneurial and impact investment sectors, reflecting a collective endeavour to drive positive societal change.
The evening kicked off with an insightful address by Corinne Henchoz Pignani, Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh. Pignani emphasised the collaborative essence of the initiative and its alignment with broader development goals:
“Tonight, we gather to step into the next chapter of the Biniyog Briddhi Programme. Our collective objective is to significantly impact the lives of men and women across Bangladesh, striving for inclusivity and ensuring that no one is left behind. Our efforts focus on creating an environment that transcends traditional boundaries, where we aim to address the fundamental needs of our most vulnerable populations.”
Adrija Das, Senior Associate of Impact Intelligence & Education at Roots of Impact, provided the keynote address at the event. During her speech, she highlighted the key accomplishments achieved during Phase I of the Programme and detailed the objectives and expectations as the programme transitions into Phase II. Her address served to both celebrate past successes and prepare attendees for the upcoming initiatives and strategic directions planned for the next phase. The focus will be on enhancing access to essential products and services through high-quality capacity building, Impact-Linked Finance (ILF), and knowledge support.
The event featured a panel discussion to facilitate conversations on the impact investing ecosystem in Bangladesh. Moderated by Maxime Cheng, Lead, Insights & Innovations at Roots of Impact, the panel centred around a key question – “What are the opportunities in impact investing for the next 10 years?” The panel was comprised of key stakeholders including venture capitalists, social entrepreneurs and policy experts:
Bjoern Struewer, Founder and Co-CEO, Roots of Impact
Sharawwat Islam, Managing Director, Truvalu Enterprises Bangladesh
Syed Javed Noor, Deputy Managing Director, IDLC Finance Ltd.
Syed Javed Noor identified tech as the next major focus, noting that “business models are being redefined beyond venture capital.” He explained that IDLC’s traditional lending model is relationship-based, which poses challenges in reaching individual farmers due to high operating costs and weather-related risks.
To overcome these hurdles, IDLC Finance Ltd. partnered with iFarmer, which has the country’s largest farmer network and one of Biniyog Briddhi’s portfolio companies, and Green Delta, a leading agri-insurance provider. “We partnered with iFarmer and invested in them from our own fund,” said Javed. “Green Delta was happy to take on the agri-insurance products, helping us scale up by integrating more components into the ecosystem, making our operations more efficient and expansive.”
The inclusion of female customers was a central topic of the discussion as Sharawwat Islam highlighted the importance of gender lens investing. Sharawwat explained that although Bangladesh is doing better than some nearby countries in treating men and women fairly, globally, there is still a long way to go.
To help fix this, Truvalu Enterprises and B-Briddhi, with support from the Embassy of Switzerland, started a gender lens investing programme. Sharawwat explained that they want to change how people think about companies that focus on women. “We want these companies to be run by women, owned by women, managed by women, and selling things to women,” she said. She further elaborated, “We want to redefine gender-focused companies as those led, owned, or managed by women and those catering to women customers.
The goal of our joint program with B-Briddhi is to mainstream GLI. We aim to work with all ecosystem players—capital providers, SMEs, startups, and impact enterprises—to foster a shared understanding of gender-inclusive businesses. This includes mobilising more capital to these businesses and helping them integrate more women customers, use gender-disaggregated data, and measure gender impact.”
Building on this notion of targeted empowerment, Bjoern Struewer, Founder and Co-CEO of Roots of Impact, expanded the conversation to include various forms of impact-linked financial instruments that can further support such focused initiatives. He elaborated on the potential of social impact incentives, drawing a parallel to carbon credits:
“Much like carbon credits in the climate finance space, social impact incentives reward enterprises for their positive impacts, aligning financial gains with social benefits.”
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