SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2025

Dear Partners and Investors,

In 2024 Enabling Qapital (EQ) strengthened its dedication to its mission to moving money to meaning, striving for a more equitable, sustainable world through both financial inclusion and clean cooking solutions. The 2025 Sustainability Report highlights our progress in deepening environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, strengthening collaborations with investees, and delivering meaningful impact in the communities we serve.

Over the past year, we broadened our ESG activities, refining evaluation and monitoring frameworks for greater transparency while aligning with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Continuous ESG training for our team and consistent engagement with investees have helped reinforce good governance structures and foster resilience in emerging markets. We also worked with expert consultants to sharpen our focus on gender lens investing, reinforcing our commitment to inclusivity and equity.

challenges into opportunities for raising awareness around sustainable practices. By maintaining open dialogues with investees, we introduced improved disclosures, promoted robust data-sharing protocols, and will roll out additional initiatives in 2025 to help institutions surpass required ESG standards.

We continued navigating the evolving requirements of Article 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), turning these regulatory During this period, EQ reached new milestones in managing approximately USD 700 million across a growing portfolio of responsible companies. Our efforts in financial inclusion expanded outreach to millions of micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs, helping them achieve business success and a higher quality of life. We also scaled clean cooking investments, reducing health risks for families while mitigating carbon emissions and deforestation.

In 2024, we strengthened our Sustainability Department and added expertise to the Team, ensuring that sustainability informs every decision we make. Looking ahead, we extend our gratitude to everyone who shares our vision – our investors, partners, investees, and the global EQ team – for demonstrating that financial returns and positive impact can thrive together. Let us continue moving money to meaning, building a more inclusive, sustainable tomorrow.

The commitment of our partners and investors continues to prove that financial returns and positive change go hand in hand. Thank you for being part of this journey!

We are grateful to our investors and partners who have joined our mission since early 2020. With your support, we’ve grown our investments in emerging markets from USD 80 million to USD 700 million, moving money to meaning – creating a world where investments empower people and embrace the planet.

In 2024, EQ continued its journey towards a world where investments empower people and embrace the planet. Sustainability is not a static goal – it is a continuous process of learning, adapting, and leading by example. While challenges persist, we firmly believe that meaningful change is possible, and we remain committed to driving it forward.

A Three-Pillar Approach to Sustainability

EQ’s sustainability strategy is built on three interconnected pillars that guide our commitment to responsible investing and internal excellence. These pillars ensure that we uphold ESG principles, actively manage investment risks, and drive measurable impact.

❶ Living by Our Values - Walking the Talk

At EQ, sustainability is not just a concept – it is deeply ingrained in the way we operate and lead. Servant leadership has been at the heart of our company since its founding and continues to shape our actions today. We believe that true leadership is about taking responsibility, leading by example, and continuously striving for improvement. Before we ask our investees to meet high sustainability standards, we ensure that we uphold these principles ourselves.

In 2024, we remained committed to this philosophy, expanding our sustainability efforts across all levels of our organization. We strengthened our internal governance, refined our HR practices, and improved the way we track our environmental footprint in business travel. But our sustainability journey does not stop with internal progress – it extends outward, guiding how we invest and the impact we strive to achieve.

At EQ, our formula for sustainable investments is simple: ESG + Impact

This means we do not only identify and mitigate ESG risks but also actively seek opportunities to improve sustainability practices and create positive change.

❷ ESG Assessment

From the very beginning – since EQ’s inception – it has been a core principle that no investment is made without undergoing an ESG assessment. This is not just a checkbox exercise; it is a fundamental part of our investment approach.

Every investment product at EQ integrates ESG assessment tools, ensuring that sustainability considerations are embedded into our decision-making. Of course, these tools are tailored to the nature of each investment, whether active or passive, and adjusted to the industry and context in which we invest. However, one thing remains consistent: the assessment will always be there.

Our ESG evaluation starts at the country, sector and industry levels – some fundamental issues are simply not considered for investment. But our responsibility doesn’t stop at the initial screening. Once an investment is made, EQ continuously monitors key ESG risks across our portfolio, ensuring that sustainability remains a priority throughout the investment lifecycle.

❸ Impact

Our final pillar focuses on impact. Here, we start with intentionality, ensuring that our investments are guided by a Theory of Change (ToC). We design our products with the goal of enabling positive outcomes – for example, when we invest in financial inclusion, we aim to expand access to finance for underserved communities.

To ensure we stay on track, we assess our ToC progress annually, using well-defined indicators to measure impact. Beyond our own products, we collaborate with portfolio companies to strengthen their ESG profiles and support them in enhancing their sustainability practices. At the same time, we remain mindful that impact measurement can be resource intensive.

To ease the cost burden on end borrowers, we leverage public data sources to supplement our internal research, allowing us to gather meaningful insights while maintaining efficiency.

Sustainability as a Continuous Commitment

At EQ, sustainability is more than a strategy - it is a commitment that shapes every decision we make. By integrating ESG principles, managing risks responsibly, and striving for measurable impact, we ensure that our investments contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable world.

While challenges will continue to evolve, so will our approach. We remain dedicated to learning, improving, and leading by example - because responsible investing is not just about what we do today, but about building a better future for generations to come.

Our sustainability approach starts from within. We believe credibility in responsible investing stems not only from what we finance, but also from how we operate. Before expecting our investees to meet ESG and impact standards, we ensure those same principles guide our own practices – from reducing our environmental footprint and fostering an inclusive workplace to upholding strong governance. For us, sustainability goes beyond compliance; it’s about living our mission every day and translating it into meaningful action across our portfolio. The following sections explore how we apply ESG principles internally under our first strategic theme: Living by Our Values.

We view environmental responsibility as both the right thing to do and a driver of long-term value. We start with internal engagement, encouraging our team to act as responsible global citizens. During our last EQ Week, teams presented ideas to enhance internal sustainability. The winning project – a sustainable welcome kit for new employees – was selected by peers and will be rolled out in 2025, demonstrating how small, tangible actions can build a shared culture of sustainability.

We have also implemented a range of practical measures – such as using energy-efficient lighting and recycled paper wherever feasible (including the very pages of this report). We focus on feasible actions that allow us to contribute meaningfully within the constraints of our operational context.

One such area is business travel. While we recognize its environmental footprint, travel remains essential to our work. In-person due diligence is key to risk management and fulfilling our fiduciary duty. To balance operational needs with responsibility, we improved flight-emissions tracking and raised staff awareness. We also conducted a thorough review to ensure that all flights taken as part of EQ’s operations are accurately captured.

We strive to mitigate our environmental impact by purchasing carbon credits, with the aim of progressively reducing the net effect of our emissions over time. To achieve this, we prefer to collaborate with one of our portfolio companies active in the clean cooking or access-to-energy sectors. These investees have undergone thorough due diligence and are subject to regular monitoring, giving us confidence in the quality and credibility of the carbon credits they can offer.

In the past, we have purchased carbon credits from Burn Manufacturing, a Kenyan enterprise that produces clean cooking stoves. We continue seeking high-quality providers to maintain this practice, support carbon markets in emerging economies, and channel climate finance beyond developed regions.

While digital tools keep us connected, real relationships are built face-to-face. EQ Week is designed to bridge the gap created by remote work, fostering trust, collaboration, and a shared sense of purpose. In 2022, we brought our team together in Nairobi, where we have a branch, and in 2024, we gathered in Switzerland. These events have led to stronger teamwork, faster decision-making, and a deeper cultural connection across our global offices.

We carefully manage costs, which is why EQ Week is strategically planned rather than held annually. The return on investment is clear – employees leave these gatherings more aligned, engaged, and motivated to drive impact.

Diversity has been at the core of EQ since its creation. Our team representatives span across 15 countries and speak 21 languages, ensuring that our investment decisions reflect both local expertise and global perspectives. Diversity isn’t just a goal for us – it’s a strength we’ve built into our foundation.

On gender equity, we are proud that 40% of our team members are women, including representatives in regions where opportunities for women in finance remain limited. Female representation in management stands at 42%, while board representation has increased to 60% in 2025. We’ve strengthened gender-disaggregated data analysis across the employment cycle, a major step for a company of our size. To further promote equity, we offer four months of fully paid maternity leave with flexible and reduced working hours for nursing mothers, paternity leave, and have adopted a company-wide gender strategy focused on inclusive hiring, work-life balance, career progression, pay equity and leadership development. At EQ, diversity and inclusion are not just policies – they are the foundation of our success.

Because we’re not just building a company – we’re building a mission-driven organization. A purely transactional approach might work in other industries, but in impact investing, passion and engagement are critical.

A strong culture attracts and retains top talent. Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP/SAP) provides confidential mental health support, and our structured mentorship and leadership training ensure career growth. Beyond financial incentives, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including flexible work arrangements, paid study leave, travel compensation, and wellness programs.

Ultimately, our success as a company is tied to the well-being and performance of our people. When employees feel valued and supported, they go the extra mile – not because they have to, but because they believe in what they do.

We’re continuously evolving. In 2025, we plan to:

• Expand our scholarship and training programs.
• Introduce quarterly refresher training on ESG, investment strategies, and HR policies.
• Strengthen our leadership and sustainability training for managers.
• Continue developing team-building initiatives.

At EQ, investing in our people isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s essential to our mission. Because we don’t just “move money to meaning” – we move careers to purpose.

64 team members (up from 13 in 2020) – Our team has grown in experience and efficiency, delivering stronger results with minimal expansion. Throughout this journey, we have maintained a 40% female representation – a milestone we take pride in, especially as we hire globally, including in countries where opportunities for women remain limited. However, we recognize there is still room for improvement in some departments and we remain committed to fostering greater gender balance across all areas of our organization.

21 languages spoken (up from 10 in 2020) – Our team speaks more languages than ever, enhancing our local expertise and deepening our connection to the markets where we invest.

Investing in our people – Five of our team members sponsored between 2023 and 2024 pursued Master’s degrees, Diplomas, and professional certifications such as Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Beyond business-focused training, we are committed to holistic development, offering learning opportunities that support personal well-being and workplace culture. Recent training highlights include:

• Mental health awareness
• Nutrition and healthy eating habits
• Emotional intelligence
• Sexual harassment awareness and prevention
• Work-life balance and burnout prevention
• Personal safety and travel awareness