CrossBoundary Quarterly: Women in Motion – Power, Progress, and Investment

Women represent the largest emerging market in the world—an immense, untapped force of economic potential. But they also face the steepest barriers to opportunity.

Globally, just 2% of venture capital funding goes to women-led businesses. In Africa, the World Bank estimates the finance gap for women entrepreneurs at over $42 billion, due to limited access to credit, collateral constraints, and systemic gender bias in investment decisions.

The consequence? A missed opportunity for growth, innovation, and shared prosperity.

The data tells a clear story: unlocking the economic power of women isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s an investment thesis. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that advancing gender equality could add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. In underserved markets where CrossBoundary works, the effect is even more profound. Women reinvest up to 90% of their income into their families and communities—compared to just 30–40% for men—amplifying the multiplier effect of every dollar earned or invested in them.

And yet, persistent inequities remain. Women-led enterprises struggle to scale. Female founders are often judged on performance; men, on potential. In energy, finance, and agriculture—sectors central to our work—the leadership bench is still overwhelmingly male. And even in sectors like Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, where the future is still being written, women’s contributions too often go under-recognized.

This issue of CrossBoundary Quarterly, Women in Motion: Power, Progress, and Investment, is a challenge to that status quo.

We begin with a standout piece, written by Kate Pallett of CrossBoundary Energy—with contributions from feminist economist Lerato Shai and CrossBoundary Energy’s Head of ESG Ifeoma Dike—which asks: can we flip the switch for women in energy? Then, we travel to Northern Nigeria, where our team convened a roundtable with women entrepreneurs, tackling the real financing obstacles that keep female-led MSMEs from scaling. From South and Southeast Asia, CrossBoundary Advisory Associate Aditi Mehta offers a cross-regional lens on gender lens investing—and what Africa can teach Asia about doing it right.

In Ghana, where our team is working on the Mastercard Foundation’s BRIDGE-In Agriculture program, we ask what gender impact looks like in a sector ripe for renewal.

We have also spotlighted women building the future of AI—challenging the narrative that innovation is the exclusive domain of Silicon Valley’s male elite. And closer to home, reflected on our own practices and how to support women at CrossBoundary navigating leadership and parenthood.

Where are the deals backing women-led enterprises?

Where are the gender-informed infrastructure investments?

What internal systems must we redesign to ensure equity at every level?

Our hope is that this issue provokes new thinking—and new commitments. Because the world doesn’t just need more women in motion. It needs the systems around them to move too.

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