Philippines Launches a Gender-Smart Investing Directory for Women-Led Startups

Kerubin Capital launched the Gender-Smart Investing Directory and Map of the Philippines on October 8, 2026, according to a BusinessMirror report published the same day. The directory was introduced at a media roundtable in Makati. The report places that event on a Wednesday before publication but does not give a date.

Kerubin’s Managing Director, Tina de Cicco, said that about 3.6% of startup capital in the Philippines, Southeast Asia and globally goes to women-led enterprises. She said the figure has been a concern for about a decade and declined to set a target for raising it.

How the directory is built

BusinessMirror reports that the directory was developed with Investing in Women. The initiative’s website describes it as an Australian Government-funded programme established in 2016 to remove barriers to women’s economic participation in Southeast Asia. The site lists the Philippines among four partner countries, with Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, and lists offices in Makati and Canberra. One of its four work areas is gender lens investing, which it describes as strategies for capital providers to invest in women-owned and women-led businesses.

BusinessMirror says the directory uses the 2X Global Standard, created by 2X Global Ltd, a London-based organisation. It describes the benchmark as women-led companies making up at least 30% of an investment fund’s portfolio. It also says an investment qualifies as gender-smart when it meets at least two of the 2X criteria. A 2X Global resource hub I read describes tools that help impact investors screen investments through a gender lens. That page does not set out the criteria or the 30% threshold, so those figures rest on the BusinessMirror description alone.

The directory is free to access. BusinessMirror reports that it relies partly on information that companies submit voluntarily to track impact, and it describes the directory as a platform.

About Kerubin Capital
Kerubin Capital was established in 2021 as the gender-focused fund of the Manila Angel Investors Network, and it launched the directory on October 8, 2026, according to BusinessMirror.

Where the funding gap sits, as the report describes it

The report identifies the largest disconnect as the one between seed funding and Series A, which is a larger round. It describes this gap in qualitative terms and gives no figure for it.

The 3.6% figure is presented as one number covering the Philippines, Southeast Asia and globally, with no separate figure for the Philippines alone. The report does not link that share to the seed-to-Series A stage.

Kerubin was established in 2021 as the gender-focused fund of the Manila Angel Investors Network, according to BusinessMirror. The Investing in Women site I read does not mention Kerubin or a Philippine investor directory, so the details of the launch rest on the BusinessMirror report.

The Investing in Women site does report gender lens activity in the region. It says that in June 2026 the Beacon Fund signed an investment with TIMEC International General Clinic in Ho Chi Minh City, the first under its partnership with the Australian Government through the initiative’s Innovation programme. In August 2026, the fund signed investments with two Vietnamese women-led companies, GPS PLAS and Nina Group. Those deals are in Vietnam, not the Philippines.

The directory’s value depends on whether its platform connections lead to actual financing.

What the report says comes next

BusinessMirror reports that the directory’s value depends on whether its platform connections lead to actual financing. The directory relies partly on information that companies submit voluntarily, and the report does not say how it will be updated.

Tina de Cicco sees Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, as attractive for long-term investors despite current economic pressures. She pointed to catalytic capital, which the report describes as more patient than conventional financing, as a possible source of support for women exporters and solo entrepreneurs.

Photo: mjlsha · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons