How Amazon helps fund and advance women-led climate solutions

The Resilient Futures Fund invests in women at the forefront of climate innovation with seven new grantees from across Latin America.

Around the world, women are pioneering climate adaptation and mitigation solutions. Through its support of the Resilient Futures Fund, Amazon is helping these innovators receive the necessary capital and resources to scale their impact.

Earlier this month, the fund named seven new grantees from across Latin America that are supporting women-led climate solutions: Amplifica Capital (Latin America), Fondo Impacta (Colombia), Fundación Mundo Azul (Guatemala), Irrazonables (Latin America), MAR Fund (Mesoamerican Reef Region), Positive Ventures (Brazil and Latin America), and Regenera Ventures (Mexico).

One of the new grantees, Fundación Mundo Azul, is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening coastal resilience through science-based conservation and community leadership. With support from the fund, the organization will expand women-led initiatives such as mangrove beekeeping and community-based mussel recovery.

"The support from the Resilient Futures Fund has been instrumental in helping us launch and strengthen women-led climate initiatives in coastal Guatemala,” said Elisa Areano, executive director for Fundación Mundo Azul. “With this collaboration, we are equipping women from fishing communities with technical training and new livelihood opportunities linked to nature-based solutions. Together, we are helping communities restore vital ecosystems while building more resilient and sustainable futures."

The Resilient Futures Fund, which is managed by 2X Global and supported by Amazon, Reckitt, Skoll Foundation, UPS Foundation, and Visa Foundation, provides needed capital for people on the front lines of climate change, who are uniquely positioned to innovate for healthier and stronger communities, economies, and ecosystems.

From serious health risks to increased labor burdens, women and girls are significantly affected by the impacts of climate change. But across the world, women are driving clean energy access and strengthening climate-resilient livelihoods. Their solutions are practical, rooted in local knowledge, and designed for long-term impact—whether they're building climate-resilient agricultural supply chains that support small farmers or expanding recycling systems that create economic opportunities for women.

These innovations are often underfunded because women entrepreneurs lack access to adequate capital and technical resources. Startups founded solely by women consistently receive about 2% of venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase.

The Resilient Futures Fund is trying to change that. It’s accelerating climate solutions that generate opportunities by investing in a range of projects, from high-impact enterprises to community-based organizations. Since its launch, the Resilient Futures Fund has committed $11.83 million in catalytic capital, with $7.9 million already deployed to grantees supporting women-led climate initiatives, according to 2X Global. To date, the fund has supported 22 grantees and strengthened 184 organizations focused on climate solutions led by, involving, or benefiting women and girls. These efforts have helped support nearly 3,000 jobs—more than half benefiting women—and mobilized $10.9 million in additional climate finance, expanding opportunities for women entrepreneurs and climate innovators.

”Investments like these are critical because they unlock opportunity where it has historically been overlooked—particularly for women entrepreneurs who are developing innovative solutions to the climate crisis,” 2X Global CEO Jessica Espinoza said. “When women have access to capital, markets, and networks, they are not only building successful businesses but also driving climate resilience in their communities. Supporting women at the forefront of climate innovation is both a powerful strategy for inclusive growth and an essential part of building a more sustainable future.”

Collaborations with corporations like Amazon—one of the founding partners of the fund—are essential to accelerating progress, Espinoza said. “By working together, we can help direct more capital and opportunities to women entrepreneurs who are tackling some of the world’s most urgent challenges, including climate change, and support them in scaling solutions that benefit both people and planet.”

The fund is one component of Amazon’s leadership in addressing climate change, said Tina Sciabica, senior manager of just transition on Amazon’s human rights and social impact team.  

“As a co-founder of The Climate Pledge—our goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040—Amazon wants to support a range of solutions to address the climate crisis,” Sciabica said. “If we really want to accelerate progress in addressing climate change, we need to make sure that those who are impacted, and therefore also uniquely positioned to develop solutions, are getting the resources they need to design and scale up these climate solutions.” 

There are currently two types of organizations that can receive the fund’s grants. The first are network (or ecosystem) organizations, such as accelerators and incubators, that work closely with women to help them develop skills, connect to capital, or prepare to raise money for climate solutions. The second are women-led investment funds looking to invest in local women-led enterprises benefitting the climate.

The new cohort of grantees is a mix of venture capital and impact funds, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship communities. Each recipient is approaching the gender-climate nexus differently, according to 2X Global, but they’re all building solutions that are investable, scalable, and rooted in the communities they serve.

“Across sectors and regions, they are developing bold solutions to climate challenges while building businesses that create jobs and opportunity in their communities,” Espinoza said. “Their leadership is a powerful reminder that when women have the chance to innovate and lead, they can drive transformative change.” 

Learn more about the new cohort of grantees:

• Amplifica Capital: The first Latin American venture capital fund investing in women-led tech companies. With capital from the Resilient Futures Fund, it plans to invest in “three women-led climate companies to pilot and scale their technologies, accelerate commercial traction, and expand their environmental impact.”
  
• Fondo Impacta: This early-stage fund investing in climate and social solutions across circular economy, bioeconomy, and clean energy plans to launch “a dedicated climate and gender investment window to move women-led ventures from acceleration to investment.”
• Fundación Mundo Azul: This foundation to build coastal resilience through conservation, community leadership, and sustainable livelihoods plans to scale “women-led solutions, mangrove beekeeping, and mussel recovery with technical and market support.”
• Irrazonables: This impact community challenging conventional entrepreneurship to solve the world’s most pressing problems plans to support “20 women-led climate ventures with acceleration and investment readiness, while training 3,000 women in climate and entrepreneurial skills through a digital platform.”
• MAR Fund: This blended finance initiative supporting reef-positive enterprises across the Mesoamerican Reef plans to build capacity and provide “seed funding to women-led businesses in fisheries, ecotourism, and circular economy.” 
• Positive Ventures: This women-founded venture capital firm is investing across Latin America and demonstrating that profit and purpose can go hand in hand. It is running a Climate & Gender Nexus pilot through Eureciclo, a portfolio company expanding recycling access and strengthening the economic inclusion of women waste pickers.
• Regenera Ventures: This impact fund bridging the gap in catalytic capital for regenerative, climate-resilient businesses through a gender lens plans to “deploy their first investment ahead of fund closing, proving that gender-responsive, climate-focused investing delivers both ecological restoration and a more equitable distribution of wealth and power.”  

Learn more about how Amazon is advancing human rights.

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