Dear Friend,

We are at the final newsletter edition of 2025, and we have a question for you.

How did 2025 feel for you?

It’s a universal truth that some years feel like they just fly by while others can feel incredibly long, with seismic event after seismic event taking place before we can even process the previous one.

Certainly, 2025 has been an extraordinary year – tumultuous and uncertain in many ways, some literally existential. Just a few days ago, we witnessed yet again the real-world impact when some see the world in binary ‘us vs. them’ terms and reject the humanity of others.

At 2X Global, our mission to advance equity and inclusion in finance is grounded in the belief that inclusion is a principle. Our mission is but one small part of the whole – the pursuit of a world where all are treated fairly, entitled to safety and able to pursue opportunity equitably – no matter their gender, race or faith.

Yet while it has been tumultuous, 2025 has also been a year which has shown us light, resilience and hope – in heroes writ large, who would literally look death in the eye and wrestle it to the ground and in everyday heroes who find ways to persevere, collaborate, adjust their approaches and advance initiatives to make the world better and fairer.

And so, as we close out 2025 and look ahead to 2026, we are powerfully reminded of the rallying message from Tokunboh Ishmael, Managing Director and co-founder of Alitheia Capital, delivered in her rousing keynote address at the 2X Global Summit 2025 in Manila in September.

“It will always end in good, despite the challenges…. I urge us all to recommit to the truth. We cannot afford to give up. We have to walk out of this room with a renewed sense of connection, hope and determination. Create new allies and get existing allies on board. Go forth, you can do it. Feel the fear and do it anyway.” 

We have taken that message to heart and put it into action throughout the year. Together with our community of members and partners, as well as the wider ecosystem, this is some of what we’ve managed to accomplish in 2025.

2X Ignite

2025 was a milestone year in our long-running work to support and advance women-led fund managers, as we launched the 2X Ignite Africa Warehousing Facility and reached first close in late December 2024. The Facility is a catalytic initiative which provides flexible loan capital to help first-time, women-led fund managers build a track record, accelerate their path to first close, and unlock even more capital for gender-smart, impact-driven investments. By the end of 2025, we were thrilled to be able to select the first fund managers who will receive funding from the Facility.

Significantly, throughout 2025, we brought together over 300 senior women in private equity and venture capital for connection, collaboration and opportunity-building, at our Convene events in partnership with PEWIN and our 2X Ignite GP/LP dinners. 

2X Certification

Since its launch in 2024, 2X Certification has seen strong momentum. In 2025, eight Entities became officially 2X certified, reflecting growing adoption among funds and companies.

Building on this traction, 2X Certification expanded its scope in 2025 to reach new parts of the investment ecosystem. This included developing a methodology for 2X Certification for Financial Institutions, alongside early testing with selected partners, and advancing a 2X Certification methodology for Gender Bonds. Together, these expansions position 2X Certification to scale adoption further in 2026 across funds, companies, and capital markets.

Building the field through research

In September, we launched a gender bonds study co-authored with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) entitled Empowering Change: The Rise and Role of Gender-Focused Bonds”. The study analysed data on 576 sustainable bonds that allocate all or part of their proceeds to financing projects or set clear objectives that contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It provided key insights into overall trends and showed clear momentum over the past five years, with gender bond issuances more than doubling.

Resilient Futures Fund

The last quarter of 2025 saw us launching a new initiative - the Resilient Futures Fund, aimed at strengthening resilience and increasing opportunities for climate solutions led by, involving or benefiting women and girls. The RFF provides catalytic capital and ecosystem support for solutions that tackle climate mitigation and adaptation where they are needed most. The RFF is managed by 2X Global and supported by Amazon, Reckitt, Skoll Foundation, UPS Foundation and Visa Foundation.

Climate & Gender

2X Global continued our high-level contributions to the global policy discussions on climate finance, this time focusing on the new Gender Action Plan (GAP) recently adopted at COP30 under the Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG). 

In March 2025, 2X Global submitted an input paper to the UNFCCC for the new GAP, proposing concrete incentives to standardise and mainstream gender-impact metrics in climate finance, such as the 2X Criteria, and to build robust accountability frameworks to mobilise private capital at scale for gender-responsive climate finance.

2X Challenge and 2X Criteria 

In its first full year, the third edition of the 2X Challenge continued to make progress, with 70 qualified 2X Challenge investments representing US$1.4 billion deployed across 38 countries. 

During the year, we continued to refine the 2X Criteria Reference Guide to better support members and practitioners, providing updates to strengthen the application of the 2X Criteria in complex transactions, including structured finance, guarantees, and bonds. 

Towards year-end, a look back at the two previous editions of the 2X Challenge, came in the form of a new report from Kore Global, which looked at independent evaluations from four DFIs - British International Investment, Proparco, FinDev Canada and FMO.

The report laid out the power and potential of the 2X Criteria, which underpin the Challenge and are a widely used industry standard for GLI, showing that across 81 investments assessed, every top-performing investment with regard to gender outcomes was 2X-qualified, typically under multiple 2X Criteria. 

Membership and Community Building 

We deepened our community-building efforts in 2025, engaging hundreds of members and partners worldwide through virtual and in-person convenings and capacity-building. Our new GLI Deep Dives, mini-conferences on gender-lens investing, brought together nearly 400 members across three virtual events in 2025, focused on digital and financial inclusion, climate finance, and innovation strategies. Meanwhile, our in-person events, such as our Investor Meetups, brought together the wider ecosystem in Sydney, Singapore, Barbados, Mexico City and more. Our flagship event, the 2X Global Summit, brought representatives from 127 organisations to the world’s most populous continent in 2025, co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines.

This is just a snapshot of what we’ve done together in 2025. We’re looking forward to a 2026 filled with even more commitment, community, and courage as we work to build a more equitable, inclusive, and gender-smart world for all.

See you in January!

Keep reading for a selection of the latest GLI news and insights.

In Community,

2X Global Team