SEPTEMBER 2022

WEPs IN ACTION
PRINCIPLE 5Contents

Implement entreprisedevelopment, supply chain andmarketing practices thatempower women

1.

Context

2.

Actions

3.

Challenges

4.

Results

5.

Recommendations

CASE STUDY: CONNEC TING FOUNDERSPROMOTING GROWTH FOR WOMEN-OWNED AND WOMEN-LED
BUSINESSES AND AN INCLUSIVE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMLESSONS LEARNED•When supporting SMEs, building a trusting working relationship takes a long time, but it is indispensable to makeany meaningful changes.

•Building transparency through robust data collection andvisualization methods can significantly accelerate a company’s alignment between performance and strategicgoals.

•Incorporating inclusivity and diversity goals in a way that isconcrete and practical can help companies build businessresilience.

CONTEXT
Connecting Founders is a financial advisory firm based in Thailandthat works with female entrepreneurs to bridge funding gaps andaccelerate the growth of women-owned businesses across Southeast Asia. Founded in 2014, the company’s goal has been to support female entrepreneurs and contribute to a more inclusive
business sector from the outset, with a focus on growth-stagesmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) led and/or owned bywomen. While there are strong examples of women-owned businesses in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia, accessing capital and the right networks can be a challenge for female
entrepreneurs.

In Connecting Founders’ experience, women-owned businesses
often struggle with connecting to investors that truly understandtheir products and services, especially if their target customers
and clients are predominantly women, because the majority ofinvestors the company encounters in Asia are men and they typically support products and services that they can intuitively relateto.
A key challenge for entrepreneurs of all genders is communicating
and negotiating with investors. There is often a language gap between entrepreneurs and investors, particularly for those entrepre-

Case Study: CONNECTING FOUNDERS COMPANY LIMITED | 1

neurs who may not have extensive experience in negotiating deals,
as the two sides focus on different needs and bring different perspectives. Connecting Founders also found that women entrepre-neurs, in particular, lack experience and confidence when it comesto business pitching and negotiation. This often results in limitedaccess to market and business opportunities.1ACTIONS
Addressing challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and enhancing their opportunities
To address obstacles and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs,
Connecting Founders assists women founders to access affordable
funding by providing services such as capital structuring and investment readiness services, as well as by supporting deal negotiation andclosing to secure capital. Since its inception, the company has been
assisting women-owned and women-led businesses to become moreinvestment ready by providing support in determining the right typeof capital structure and financing partners for each business, as well as
assessing the value of the company and protecting founders against
excessive dilution.
The company acts as an intermediary between investors and entrepreneurs to bridge such gaps and increase the chances of entrepreneurs accessing capital on fair terms. Having a trusted advisor
throughout the process helps entrepreneurs feel more comfortablewith the capital raising experience and builds their confidence, which
is a common issue for many of the first-time female entrepreneurs
Connecting Founders supports. The company also helps businesses
liaise with a growing base of female investors in Southeast Asia, who
are more likely to understand the value of those products and are typically more inclined to invest in promising and growing women-ledand women-owned businesses.
Another way in which women entrepreneurs can increase their confidence, especially in their financial management skills and negotiatingwith investors, is by participating in the company’s investment education courses that are tailored to them and becoming part of entrepreneur networks where they can learn from other business owners. Overthe years, Connecting Founders has offered many investment workshops

2 | Case Study: CONNECTING FOUNDERS COMPANY LIMITED

for small business owners, covering the various steps of the fundraising process and other fundraising issues such as funding costs, valuations, the different types of capital available, and how to match theappropriate capital for their business. In 2022, the company began
hosting Money & More, which is a free series of investment and finance workshops that focus on guiding women-owned and women-led SMEs in learning sound financial management practices.
The onset of COVID-19 and its economic impact brought business resilience to the forefront of founders’ needs and led to an increased
demand for Connecting Founders’ services as more SMEs needed
support in navigating economic uncertainties. To meet this demand,the company introduced Interim Chief Finance Offer (CFO) Services,which includes highly tailored strategic capital planning coupled withhands-on, day-to-day execution of key financial operations to ensure
SMEs are on track to meet their set targets. The company also leads
financial strategy for other women-owned and women-led companies and provides them with hands-on support to improve the commercial viability of operations, product lines, and partnerships.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in the business ecosystem
Connecting Founders gives guidance and advice to businesses–fromSMEs to corporates—to advance diversity and inclusion with strategies tailored to their specific vision and needs. This includes strengthening diversity both internally and along their supply chains by integrating gender, and environmental, social and governance (ESG)
considerations in their business models.
Over the past two years, an advisory arm was developed to support
foreign government programs to advance gender diversity and inclusion in the business sector in several Southeast Asian countries. Thisoccurred across a range of sectors, from energy efficiency, to manufacturing, infrastructure, food, and more. This is part of Connecting
Founders’ commitment to strengthening ‘the women-led economy’and making the business sector more inclusive by supporting womenin their multiple economic roles as entrepreneurs, employees, suppliers, and decision-makers. In order to infuse equality throughout anorganization’s value chain, there is a need to increase female leadership, support women in the workplace, and diversify supply chains. To
support this, Connecting Founders takes a pragmatic approach thatguides businesses to advance diversity and inclusion based on their
specific needs and goals, and at their own pace. In promoting gender
diversity and inclusion, obtaining sufficient management and staff
buy-in can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to efforts to diversify their supply chain. Globally, only 1% of large procurement contracts go to women-owned businesses. Overall, men-owned firms

tend to be larger and more established, and women-owned businesses are typically younger and have smaller business networks to counton.2 Consequently, more needs to be done to sensitize people to theopportunities and benefits of working with diverse businesses. Connecting Founders raises awareness about how this diversification canoccur, and this may include encouraging the use of gender-inclusive
language in procurement bids, collecting data on suppliers’ femaleownership and leadership, and establishing direct channels of communication with established women business networks to facilitate
access to information.

TIMELINE
20192014•Connecting Founders
was founded•

2021

Introduced Capital Structuring••

Introduced the CFO Service•

Launched the Money & More training seriesAwarded the winner of UN Women 2021 Thailand
WEPs Awards in the Gender-responsive
Marketplace category

CHALLENGES

Providing capital and investment advisory services tosmall and growing businesses requires extensive
hands-on and one-on-one support to guide them on
their journey to growth.

Focusing on depth of engagements with fewer companies
rather than number of companies has allowed the firm tospend more time on improving their systems and processes,
all of which has led to stronger growth performance for thosecompanies.

There is a lack of data on women-owned businesses,
female leadership, and female employment.

Connecting Founders is handling this issue by supporting
individual companies to track their own data, to better
understand what can be done to improve its operations andimpact. With data about individual companies in hand, more
can be communicated with investors and relevant partners.

HOW IT WAS ADDRESSEDCHALLENGE

The key challenges faced by Connecting Founders in promoting growth for women-owned and women-led businesses are 1) the extensive one-onone support needed for each business and 2) the lack of data.

Case Study: CONNECTING FOUNDERS COMPANY LIMITED | 3

RESULTS
Connecting Founders’ capital structuring work has led to over USD
20 million in capital raised for female founders across Southeast Asia,
including Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Through its capital advisory arm, more than 10 women-owned businesses have received one-on-one support on how to raise capital,
structure commercial partnerships and tailor their funding plans.

The company has advised dozens of businesses on sound financial
management practices through individual mentoring sessions andmany more through their investment workshops. As a result of establishing COVID-19 recovery and post-pandemic financial and resiliency planning for companies, Connecting Founders succeeded in scaling its clients’ operations through strategic partnerships and newcapital commitments valued at over USD 10 million.

RECOMMENDATIONS
For businesses that are interested in incorporating gender inclusive policies into their business model, Connecting Founders recommends breaking the goal down into actionable items, analysing
the business and figuring out gender inclusive policies that makesense in their company, then planning how they can be implemented.

this process takes time, and that there will be a period of trial anderror, which is a normal part of the process, but ultimately a rewarding one.

It is recommended to observe what is being presented in the company data, and data that is being collected internationally, including the benefits of diversity and treating employees well. Based on
this, companies should be able to implement activities with concrete steps and tangible goals that suit the business.
Keep an open dialogue with employees and track the company’s
data regularly. It is useful to check progress regularly to see whether any goals need to be reprioritized. It is important to note thatTHE ROLE OF WEPs
Connecting Founders’ work embodies Women’s Empowerment Principle (WEP) 5, which serves to enable enterprise development,
supply chain and market practices in ways that empower women. These strategic financial and investment services not only help
female entrepreneurs expand their business (including cross-border expansions) and overcome financial obstacles so that they canbetter serve their customers, they also help create more inclusive supply chain and market practices overall.

ENDNOTES______________________________________________________

1. See https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/459551/women-entrepreneurship-lessons-asia-pacific.pdf (accessed on 19 August2022).
2. Power of Procurement: How to source from women-owned businesses. Corporate Guide to Gender Responsive Procurement.

4 | Case Study: CONNECTING FOUNDERS COMPANY LIMITEDFunded by:Principle 1

Establish high-level corporate leadershipfor gender equality.

Principle 2

Treat all women and men fairly at work– respectand support human rights and nondiscrimination.

Principle 3

Ensure the health, safety and well-being of
all women and men workers.

Principle 4

Promote education, training and professional
development for women.

Principle 5

Implement enterprise development, supply chainand marketing practices that empower women.

Principle 6

Promote equality through community initiatives
and advocacy.

Principle 7

Measure and publicly report on progressto achieve gender equality.

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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European Union, UN Women or the United Nations