Women are one of the Philippines' most "deeply undervalued" assets, says serial entrepreneur Maoi Arroyo.

As we celebrate women's month 2022, Arroyo reminds us that female entrepreneurs account for majority of the country's top money-making sectors and yet, only 24 percent of small and medium enterprises and 22 percent of startups are owned and led by women.

"It's time that we invest in ourselves," says Arroyo. "Girls really do just want to have funds."

Women are grossly underrepresented in the field of investing. Only 14 percent of 25,000 fund managers around the world are women, and they manage less than 1 percent of the world's assets, based on data from Bloomberg.

Here, the daughter of the late statesman Joker Arroyo seeks to make a difference. In the past 17 years, she has been investing in and building new businesses.

She is one of those rare science geeks who has a natural affinity for entrepreneurship. After studying at the Philippine Science High School, she went to UP Diliman to major in biology. She also holds an MBE (MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise) degree from the University of Cambridge.

"I could not stand that all the innovations were stuck in bound [academic] thesis. I wanted to make a difference in the average Filipinos' lives. So, I have many hats and started multiple businesses, but I really only do one thing: what I want to is to enable Filipinos to live a better life, to bring people out of poverty by creating jobs," she says in an interview with Inquirer.

Her first venture, Hybridigm Consulting, was established to commercialize innovation by matching the scientists, farmers and innovators with big businesses looking to invest in technology. Over a 15-year period, Hybridigm has facilitated over $3 million in biotech investments, helped shape government policies and created 3,500 jobs around the country. Because of this, she was honored by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Young Global Leader (YGL) in 2015, initiating her into a global community of exceptional young people driving positive change in the world.

Over the years, she has also founded other enterprises in various fields, from food, fashion, local film and property development. She is also part of the faculty at Asian Institute of Management, where she has been teaching innovation since 2009.

Ignite Impact Fund

Most recently, Arroyo and her partners incorporated Ignite Impact Fund in Delaware in the United States.

"We want to pioneer this new asset class in the Philippines called impact investing: profit with a purpose. It's not just about making you more money; It's about making your money more meaningful, more aligned with your values and more helpful to our communities," she explains with conviction.

The fund will invest in Philippine enterprises but it was incorporated in the United States to ensure world-class compliance as well as to attract discerning global Filipinos interested in impact investing.

Based on WEF estimates, impact investment funds in Southeast Asia give an average financial return of two to four times the initial investment over a typical horizon of seven to 10 years.

"You need patient capital, obviously, to support SDGs," she says, referring to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Arroyo hopes to raise at least $10 million to as much as $50 million for Ignite and channel these to impactful Filipino enterprises that are not on the radar of big fund managers hunting for unicorns.

Ignite invests within the range of $500,000 to $1 million, but could fund as low as $100,000 in the case of exceptional early-stage startups.

Among the companies that Ignite has already invested in is Quicksilver Satcom Ventures, which provides satellite-based internet connectivity to underserved and unserved areas in the Philippines. This company is involved with the Makati Smart City program of Mayor Abby Binay.

Then there's Plentina, a fintech that gives the unbanked access to credit that they can use in stores and merchants. After sowing its seeds in the Philippines, Plentina—co-founded by fellow YGL Earl Valencia— is now expanding to Vietnam.

Ignite has also invested in BioPrime, a natural fertilizer and soil conditioner that accelerates plant growth yield and increases farmers' income. It has supplied to over 10,000 hectares of farmland and is now poised to expand to Vietnam and Thailand.

Ignite has a robust pipeline of impactful enterprises to invest in the future. Its funding structure is pretty flexible— debt, equity or whatever the investee needs.

One of the new businesses considered by Ignite is solar power co-generation that will allow households to save on electricity costs by having solar panels on their roofs.

Ignite is also looking to work with banks—potentially using alternative compliance to the mandatory agriculture/agrarian or agri-agra lending—to fund a coconut processing plant in Quezon, where the average tenant-farmer is earning just P50 or $1 a day, the international threshold for extreme poverty. The idea is to issue a zero-coupon bond to bankroll the project, which Arroyo's group will manage.

Three tips for women entrepreneurs

Ignite itself is not focused on women-led enterprises. It is "gender-neutral," she says. However, Arroyo advocates gender equality and investing in women.

She has three tips to share for fellow women entrepreneurs to become more "investment-ready."

1. "Our fund looks for two ‘MVPs': a minimum viable product to launch and maximum vision possible for impact. Never be emotionally attached to the way you do business, just be loyal to your vision as a whole. This will make it easier to learn from the market when you need to change your business model."

2. "Know your worth, then add tax. It's important for women to have the confidence to charge what their skill and their time is worth. Partnering with the right people and those with expertise is key. Rural women are cut off from the networks in Manila, so mentorship is one of the key elements of our investment strategy."

3. "Eliminate ‘decision-debt.' There's so much concern about what other people will think that you keep putting off decisions and that hurts the business and causes huge amounts of stress. Believe me, nobody's opinion has ever paid your bills. If these people are not financing you, feeding you, or your spouse, their opinion does not matter. And even with your loved ones, you should analyze before you take their well-meaning advice."

Her own father was skeptical at first when she was starting Hybridigm. He even wrote a four-page single-spaced memo explaining why it would never work. However, she followed her own gut and vision and turned out to have better business acumen than the late senator.

But from her father she inherited a deep sense of patriotism. Setting up Ignite is her own way of contributing more to this country's future.

"There's not a lack of companies in the country that are sustainable and that need funding and want decent investment," she says. "It's really a matter of getting Filipinos to invest in other Filipinos. My whole goal here is to prove that investing in Filipinos works." INQ