Finnfund strengthens support to women entrepreneurs in Pakistan through Kashf Foundation

Finnfund has announced a follow-on loan of 10 million US dollars to Kashf Foundation (Kashf), one of the leading microfinance institutions in Pakistan. Kashf primarily offers microloans to women entrepreneurs as well as other innovative products and services such as pension savings, microinsurance, and telehealth clinics.

The new senior loan of 10 million US dollars is Finnfund’s third senior loan to Kashf. Finnfund’s first investment of 10 million US dollars was made in 2021 followed by a second in 2024.

“At Finnfund, gender equality is a significant cross-cutting priority, and we are very pleased with Kashf’s well-managed growth supporting women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Kashf has established a strong niche in Pakistan’s microfinance sector and through the addition of insurance products, it is further strengthening safety nets for low-income households, especially women. Furthermore, Kashf uses innovative and efficient practices to improve financial literacy among the underserved population in Pakistan, who lack access to financing,” says Antti Partanen, Investment Manager at Finnfund.

“This continued partnership with Finnfund reflects a shared commitment to expanding women’s economic participation through well-designed, long-term capital. At Kashf, we see women entrepreneurs not as beneficiaries, but as active economic agents whose enterprises sustain households and local markets. Finnfund’s support allows us to strengthen the financial architecture that enables these women to grow with resilience and dignity,” says Roshaneh Zafar, Founder & Managing Director, Kashf Foundation.

Kashf Foundation currently serves over a million customers and over 96 per cent of its loans are deployed to micro-enterprises owned by women.

Established in 1996 to alleviate poverty and empower women in Pakistan’s urban and peri-urban areas, Kashf transformed its status from a society to a not-for-profit company in 2007 and has since then become the largest distributor of microinsurance solutions in Pakistan. Kashf has also introduced health insurance products aimed at underserved women who did not have access to insurance before. Kashf has successfully carved out a distinct and unique niche for itself in the microfinance sector in Pakistan by offering a suite of innovative and transformative products and services along with other non-financial services to have a transformative impact at the household level. Kashf serves a particularly fragile segment of the population, as majority of employed Pakistani women are informally employed.

The investment qualifies as a 2X compliant gender lens investment as Kashf Foundation mainly serves women customers and also strongly promotes women’s employment and leadership in their organisation.

Finnfund in brief
Finnfund is a Finnish development financier and impact investor. Finnfund builds a sustainable future and generates lasting impact by investing in businesses that solve global development challenges with Finnish added value. Each year, we invest 200–250 million euros in 20–30 companies in developing countries. Our focus is particularly on digital infrastructure and solutions, clean energy, forestry, agriculture, and on providing funding for small and medium-sized enterprises through financial institutions. Today, Finnfund’s investments, commitments, and investment decisions total about 1.3 billion euros. The company has about 100 employees based in Helsinki and Nairobi. For more information, please visit www.finnfund.fi/en .

More information
Antti Partanen, Investment Manager, Finnfund tel. +358 41 468 6333, antti.partanen@finnfund.fi

Media contacts
Terhi Elomaa, Communications Manager, Finnfund tel. +358 40 194 0281, terhi.elomaa@finnfund.fi

Areeba Mahmood, Assistant Manager, Strategic Communications, Kashf Foundation, areeba.mahmood@kashf.org