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E11 - Yijing Wang, Founding Partner at 2060 Advisory
53 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Women Changing Finance, Yijing Wang, founding partner of 2060 Advisory, a pioneering impact investing firm based in Shanghai, explains how China’s social and environmental entrepreneurs are building new solutions. We explore what’s happening on the ground in China: artisan cooperatives that support vulnerable women, inclusive tech startups, and climate ventures creating low-carbon concrete and plastic alternatives. These are powerful innovations, yet many global investors overlook China’s potential in solving urgent global challenges. Yijing shares what it means to work in this gap: building trust between local changemakers and capital providers, navigating a fragmented funding landscape, and pushing for stronger collaboration despite geopolitical headwinds. She also explains how 2060 Advisory is helping translate between sectors and align finance with sustainability goals that matter at the local level. This conversation is a rare window into China’s impact space, and a reminder that systems change is happening in many languages, and led by women everywhere.
Please review the episode, share your feedback and subscribe to the podcast!
You can also:
- Visit our website: womenchangingfinance.org
- Follow Yijing on LinkedIn
To go further here are some of the references mentioned during the episode:
- 2060 Advisory https://www.2060advisory.com/
- China Alliance of Social Value Investment (CASVI) https://www.casvi.org/en/
- British Council, Social Enterprise Programme in China https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/uk-china-social-enterprise-social-investment-partners
- Impact Management Platform (IMP) https://impactmanagementplatform.org/
- IRIS+ by the GIIN https://iris.thegiin.org/
- UNDP China https://www.undp.org/china/sdg-finance
- Yijing Wang was awarded the 2023 British Council Business and Innovation Award https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/2023/how-award-winning-cambridge-graduate-is-changing-impact-investment-in-china/
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, welcome to the podcast Women Changing Finance, where you will discover amazing women from all around the world who are making finance become a force for good.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast, Women Changing Finance.
Guest Introduction: Yejing Wang
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm k Krisztina Tora, and I'm welcoming today Yijing Wang, founding partner of 2060 Advisory. She's a leading advisor and impact investor working out of Shanghai in China.
00:00:36
Speaker
I met Yijing six years ago when she was working for the China Alliance for Social Investment, and she was kind enough to show me Shenzhen. Yijing has a wealth of knowledge about the impact investment ecosystem in China, and I'm really excited to have her on the show so that she can share with us her journey and insights.
Impact Investment Ecosystem in China
00:00:56
Speaker
Yijing, very welcome. Thank you so much for making the time for this podcast today. So before we go further, i would love to better understand the ecosystem in China.
00:01:08
Speaker
You have been operating in China for a long time. You know really well the different players, the different trends. So could you please paint us a picture of the ecosystem? What's specific about the ecosystem for impact in China?
00:01:20
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Thanks so much, Krisztina, the invitation. And it's really a pleasure to be here and sharing more about what's going on in China. So I started when I was working with the association where we were the first generation of ah people working impact investing to understand the ecosystem.
00:01:42
Speaker
And I later on wrote ah my paper on impact investing in China. at Cambridge. ah Before that, I was also with the Impact Fund in Shanghai. And then after my research paper, I then started my own Impact Investing Advisory, 2016 Advisory, which I can share more later.
00:02:01
Speaker
But this journey actually is a representation of my personal exploration of the landscape of Impact Investing in China. um So I was firstly very interested and curious about the state in China at the time.
Stages of Impact Investing in China
00:02:16
Speaker
And there wasn't many organizations to start with. And the ones that you can actually find online were also very starting. They were just starting off. So they might only have a website.
00:02:29
Speaker
And you were like, okay, is that like a legit company or like a legit organization to apply a job to? So it started off really, really like a startup. And I guess the industry is still very, very new even today.
00:02:42
Speaker
From my research, I defined the whole landscape into three kind of times and three kind of arrows. The first stage, the 1.0 impact investing in China, I defined them in my research.
00:02:56
Speaker
It's from 2008 until 2018. This is a time where we saw a bunch of Chinese entrepreneurs as well as investors.
00:03:07
Speaker
They were educated abroad, either in Europe, in the UK or in the States. And they got the first idea of what impact investing was. And people really wanted to do something, either they're from the philanthropy side or they're from the commercial side.
00:03:23
Speaker
And then they brought the idea back to China. um And around that time, we saw a number of different impact funds, venture philanthropy, and also a huge movement.
00:03:34
Speaker
ah Huge in the sense of, I think it's relative, but for our kind of, for for our field at the time, it was a really big movement on social entrepreneurship, particularly with the support of British Council.
00:03:49
Speaker
You would still see their influence after so many years. I think I remember meeting a lot of social entrepreneurs in dating back in 2018 and 2019, where they were like, ah, my first workshop was when British Council held a workshop regarding social entrepreneurship was back in like five years ago or seven years ago.
00:04:13
Speaker
and they might haven't been doing anything relating to that. And then somewhere, maybe like six or seven years later, they came back to it and then they were like, I remember there was a workshop.
00:04:25
Speaker
So was very interesting. And then the second part, I defined 2018 and 2019 very shifting years process.
Evolution of the Industry
00:04:32
Speaker
and so very shifting years where I was also in the industry and Krisztina was also visiting China at that time as well.
00:04:41
Speaker
It was a very changing times where you see ah there was 1.0 industry people in the sector, but also this new blood coming in. And I also think at the time, globalization and also China's trajectories and also optimism was also like a huge boom.
00:05:04
Speaker
So within 2018 and 2019, I personally also saw a lot of newcomers coming into the industry and trying to define them differently and trying to do things differently.
00:05:18
Speaker
and so it was really ah kind of booming times or even i wouldn't say bubble because we never had like such big industry yet. it We're still developing, but it's just you met all people from different works of life and then and then they are interested and they wanted to be part of and they might have their own definition.
00:05:39
Speaker
But it's also very messy as well, because you also want to define impact investing much more concretely. Not anybody can do it. And anybody thinks that they have a kind heart is an impact investor. We need real data and evidence.
00:05:54
Speaker
But those two years are very, from my ah personal opinion, I think they're like changing times. Do you feel that there is now a relatively well understood definition of impact investment in China?
00:06:07
Speaker
I know that was something that we discussed back in the days. Yeah, yeah, I think so. And I also think because the global community also has much clearer definition by then.
00:06:19
Speaker
And we have a lot of correlations coming up, IMP and genes. Iris has also developed many versions. And so I think even combining the global experiences, I think from there onwards, it's a much more clearer definition. So you can't, because in Generation 1, 1.0, you would always participating in so many, I'm sure you do as well, so many conversations with different professors and different
00:06:51
Speaker
think tank researchers and they're debating endlessly, which is great for academia purposes, but for people from industry and you're like, okay, so which, which one do I really do?
00:07:03
Speaker
And so I think after that, from 2019,
Impact Investing 2.0: Local Focus
00:07:06
Speaker
it's a much clearer principles. And I define from 2019 up until now, the second gen of impact investing in China, where there are several kind of chasing characteristics.
00:07:21
Speaker
One of them is we're really seeing like a new generation of players in the market. which are more professional and which are also much more down to earth.
00:07:33
Speaker
One of the biggest chains that separates 1.0 from 2.0, 1.0 is much more about bringing in it really new and great idea and ways of thinking and am investing into China.
00:07:52
Speaker
And so you're like wearing the sunglasses, you have your lens you have this region lens and then you're looking at a new lens you want to find and fit the different types of businesses, startups, and as well as investing portfolios into this lens.
00:08:12
Speaker
So there were a lot of discussions on, okay, so where do we find affordable housing projects in China? Where do we find women empowerment projects in China?
00:08:25
Speaker
And then it's kind of boiled down to a lot of layers to really understand, first of all, what is the role of female in different settings and and also behind affordable housing?
00:08:39
Speaker
What is the underlying differences between different countries that different structures and different, especially different relationships between private sectors, public sectors and the third sectors?
00:08:50
Speaker
So what structure works for one region doesn't necessarily work another region. So I think that's one of the biggest characteristics for 1.0 versus for 2.0 is much more about, okay, like we're really looking in the lens of how China is making impacts.
00:09:09
Speaker
And when we were talking about, let's say, poverty alleviation, China has its own ways of doing poverty alleviation. within its structure.
00:09:20
Speaker
So that's one. And then secondly, for things like a lot of social problems, education problems, and also environmental problems, you need to look into how the system works first and then combine the local differences with impact investing landscape.
00:09:40
Speaker
And so I think that's like where the 2.0 is really trying to kind of do and explore. We're still on our way to do it, but it's a different mindset starting point.
00:09:53
Speaker
Surely like I am also one of the entrepreneur entrepreneurs within that landscape in that thinking. Yijing, I would be super interested because you've given, i think, a really amazing framework for how the ecosystem has been evolving.
Technology and Social Impact
00:10:08
Speaker
Can you perhaps take of a few examples or one or two examples of what you see is as good, maybe good impact stories, amazing players or social entrepreneurs that are doing a ah great job in the ecosystem today?
00:10:22
Speaker
Absolutely. There are actually several, like they're also very different fields. So I'm not like comparing them apple to apple because different impact areas, very different.
00:10:33
Speaker
But for the but like 1.0, there were several organizations that I really liked. There's one bracket where it's more classic around handcraft and women empowerment where There will be entrepreneurs who are helping vulnerable women. Maybe they're disabled or maybe they will engage with trafficking or like they have some sort of disabilities and give them and teach them ways of living and also education.
00:11:05
Speaker
we use some of the profits to support their mental health trainings. There's one company in Guangzhou doing like a small handcraft and also earrings and stuff. And there's one in Beijing.
00:11:17
Speaker
And there's also one, not particularly for women, but for very, because China is a very big land, has a lot of different minority ethnicities.
00:11:28
Speaker
And the other company called Noha is really helping the local high-plane tribes people with their communities, cultural preservations.
00:11:39
Speaker
But then because they have a very special type of, ah would I don't know, are they sheep or lamb? Not very familiar with, but like they're The cashmere from that is very unique.
00:11:52
Speaker
So they're also selling that and then giving back a lot of profits to preserve the communities and their cultures. That's also very, very cool. And there's also, in the second bunch, there's a lot of SMEs, social enterprises,
00:12:07
Speaker
doing like all sorts of natural educations they're still running today as well maybe they organize a lot of chips and tools for kids to explore and watch birds somewhere in the wetlands or preserve like biodiversity in different regions so so there were many and i can also think about ah a lot on the um because we have a lot of Softwares is a quite big market in in China, and there are several teams who are developing technologies that helping, let's say, blind people to access all the apps because we have all this easy access with delivery, food delivery, buying all sorts of stuff.
00:12:54
Speaker
but they have, the company is called Lian Di and they have a number of disabled software engineers themselves in the team.
00:13:05
Speaker
And then they understand the process and experience of, you know, like, although the world has developed so much technology wise, but they're not including them these groups. So they're, and then now they have worked with all the big tech companies.
00:13:20
Speaker
And I think this year, the law, is going to include the include the laws that say that all the software engineers and software companies in China, to certain level, they have to integrate all the disabled functions for people.
00:13:40
Speaker
so So all these are doing great progresses, not to mention like this other ones, Zhonghe Nongxing helping and inclusive finances in in rural areas.
00:13:51
Speaker
So this is a lot for from 1.0. And these companies are still around in the market and doing different things across the region. Yeah, those are beautiful examples.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, and for now, I think it's for 2.0 because we have such a strong emphasis on climate change, both nationwide from the government, so day to day.
00:14:16
Speaker
So we like we see so
Sustainable Innovations
00:14:19
Speaker
many climate entrepreneur entrepreneurs on the ground day in, day out. So for instance, we talked a lot about CCUS, carbon capture, carbon storage, and carbon usage.
00:14:31
Speaker
We actually worked with many of them as well. Maybe like one of the technologies is turning CO2 plus the solid waste into carbon concrete and low carbon concrete. so So this is one of the most mature technology to consume CO2, but also to have a very commercial ready output product.
00:14:53
Speaker
Global-wise, there are several, but because China is largest producers and consumption is also the largest, I believe, on concrete and construction. So these kinds of circular economy goes really, really well.
00:15:06
Speaker
And there were many like other bio-based CO2 consumption technologies developing very fast as well. So they can consume a lot of CO2, but also producing all different sorts of materials for plastic alternatives and even for like clothing materials.
00:15:27
Speaker
So many of the companies within 2.0, it's fair to say that is more technology based focused and the type of entrepreneurs are also different as well.
00:15:41
Speaker
I know that's but really amazing to hear. Yeah, and there's also a lot of circular economy ones and green supply chain as well, because China is a very huge supply chain tree.
00:15:53
Speaker
And we understand that ah government is trying to solve the scope one problem, which is you ah green electricity. But also, if you really want to do the real action, you need to change your supply chain. Otherwise, you can't just depend on all the large corporations to buy carbon credits because that's not changing anything.
00:16:15
Speaker
So I think that's also really, really important for the economy to go into transition. Yeah, thank you. One thing that I will, learn I mean, among all of the great examples that you mentioned that I will pick on is ah circular economy and the huge potential that that has to really change and transform the Chinese economy and to help address some of these environmental issues.
00:16:41
Speaker
You mentioned the construction industry and and how we can improve its emissions because it's the largest emitting sector. So I'm super excited to hear that there is a lot of progress and a lot of innovations happening with already on this industry, for example, in China.
00:16:59
Speaker
So you have started to share about your journey in this ecosystem. Let's go and look at that. And I would love to hear a little bit more from you on whether you had any milestones or turning points in your journey.
Yejing's Journey into Impact Investing
00:17:13
Speaker
Really, how did you get here? You started mentioning that you have a relatively unusual path in China and and getting here, creating your own advisory firm.
00:17:24
Speaker
Can you tell us more about what that looked like? Any maybe anecdotes or stories during your journey? Sure. You probably know a lot, but I will start from... So I did my undergrad um in London.
00:17:39
Speaker
And at the time, there was the really had a big social enterprise movement. And I think even for Sorona Cohen was at around the time, ah working around the green finance, everything.
00:17:55
Speaker
And it was really great to be in London at the time because... you were actually immersed with all different types of doing business at the time. For instance, we have like a co-op next to school. and then And then if you explore co-op, it's a very interesting business model.
00:18:14
Speaker
All the people working there, filling the shelves, there are people from the community. And you're like, oh, why are you like spending your time here? So you're just curious. There was also higher Christian, which is like a religion-based free food, I would say nonprofit in front of our school. And then we're also curious, why do people donate their food to the organization? And then how does that operate?
00:18:41
Speaker
And you also have the social enterprise who were developing, i think at the time they're like, because they want to minimize plastic bottle water. And then they They sell this bottle where you can go to any restaurant or anywhere and to get tap water. So that connects in everybody, getting the traffic, going coming to the shop, but also offering free but water. and And so just like a lot of interesting stuff happening in London.
00:19:11
Speaker
So as a student, I was very drawn into doing business differently and also for good. And I would be doing a lot of volunteering and internships to help these social enterprises at the time.
00:19:24
Speaker
And their demands were so different. One social enterprise would be like, are we doing education? Can you connect us with anybody from the Ministry of Education? We want to arrange a meeting with them.
00:19:37
Speaker
And then youre you will volunteer to another social enterprise. And they're like, oh, you're wanting some marketing help or some sales help. And at the time, I was only a student and i don't have that much capabilities. And so I was just very curious.
00:19:54
Speaker
I can't be everything to everybody. But if there's one thing that everybody needs and I can then scale up myself and to help many more social enterprises, just just by focusing on one thing that everybody wants,
00:20:10
Speaker
And then I slowly found out there's something called impact investing and, you know, everybody needs funding. So then I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to learn more about it. So after graduation, I went back to so China and I was in Shanghai.
00:20:27
Speaker
And I was doing some consulting work. And then it was just the time where I found, I felt like I really wanted to know and explore what impact investing is like in China.
00:20:38
Speaker
And so I did my research, I think luckily, but also because there weren weren't that many stuff to to research about. So I quickly have like a list of organization that has anything to do with impact investing.
00:20:53
Speaker
And so I decided to talk to people. And so I spoken to the organizations and people on the list. At the time, it was even very weird because you would go into this very startup environment, ah small office and very, ah wouldn't say shady, but it's it's just like very weird.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then people are talking about huge vision. you know It's such a contrast because they're like in a very dodgy, small startup-like office.
00:21:23
Speaker
And then they're talking about global vision, global impacts. They're talking about all the big issues with you. And you're just like, ah can I believe these people? And then, because I was just really, really curious, I really wanted to do something within the sector. So, so it's like, there's nothing to lose. Like, ah you know, I'm just gonna join.
00:21:46
Speaker
I joined the alliance that we talked about earlier Shenzhen and soon realized the industry is so new that there's not much to grab. did you You have to, it's like a jungle. You have to explore yourself.
00:22:02
Speaker
And I would listen to so many different people's idea about impact investing. And i'm like, really? Is that really? Like, how do you, you know, I have so many questions. And also because an industry association, you would hear so many ideas and point opinions from different sides, from policymakers, from foundations, from think tanks, from investors.
Global Positioning Challenges
00:22:25
Speaker
And you kind of feel like it's so difficult to put everybody together and then to convene anything. And by trying to advocate for the idea and by trying to kind of influence people, you got so many rejections and and so ah so many people think you're scam as well. You're like, this is investment.
00:22:47
Speaker
What are you talking about? I think we still achieved many things but within that time. And I think one of it is putting in China onto the landscape of many of the international impact investing boards and committees.
00:23:04
Speaker
One of it is the China with the with the work with you on GSC. And there's also like UNDP's impact investing country board and and also others.
00:23:15
Speaker
And at the time, i was really kind of, I think the the earlier conversation we touched about, so where China stands. One is where China stands in all this.
00:23:26
Speaker
And the second thing is, the more you research into it, the more you understand the different structures underneath different societies and countries. So we think that how could China scale up in power investing in a way that is not for the sake of, you know, we are similar, but for the real reason that is actually helping China itself.
00:23:51
Speaker
The people here like everything. And then I got curious where I really, really wanted to explore firsthand. So I joined an impact fund based in Shanghai.
00:24:03
Speaker
And we looked at the time, we looked at both the environmental side as well as the social side. So for the environmental side, we invested into companies like Recycle, Heavy Metal Recycle, new energy like Hydrogen.
00:24:19
Speaker
And then on the S side, we invested into the largest mental health hospital in China. We also invested like Education Group for Autism Kids,
00:24:30
Speaker
and also elderly care hospitals and care centers. And then with that industry experience, I just felt like my brain was bombarded with all kinds of information.
00:24:47
Speaker
really, really wanted some time to consolidate and just bring all the experience and ideas in my head into a structural thinking and have some output.
00:25:00
Speaker
And then I went back to school. So I joined business school at Cambridge and then I wrote my research paper on impact investing in China, um which was difficult because at the time, i was also a bit tired of impact investing.
00:25:20
Speaker
I was like, okay, I'm not going to, you know, it everything is about this. but there was You were tired because everything was about that or you were disillusioned? How could you put this? I just felt like, I don't know about maybe you have that as well.
00:25:37
Speaker
I am still like a young professional or we're still like young in in like career wise. But then within impact medicine in China, people think I am an old person in the industry.
00:25:50
Speaker
And then, which maybe is true because the industry is so young. And then people will say all sorts of things. They're like, ah, see this, this has been a while now, but it's,
00:26:00
Speaker
it still hasn't picked up. Do you want to second think about your career or like, like, you know, like all sorts of comments coming in and some comments are very, they said it in a way that they care so much about you. They're like, I'm really giving you my heartfelt advice that you should try something else.
00:26:24
Speaker
And it's just like a mix of everything. And you're like, yeah, maybe, you know, like if, Taking a... Self-stop. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think one of the difficult things for this is because, as I mentioned earlier, because industry is so new.
00:26:39
Speaker
So really, as a young professional, it's really hard to kind of grab any discipline or grab any, like, your kind of... um people you have to learn on mentors yeah exactly mentors so or people that you I can actually seek advice and and be like oh so where where do you think we're heading to but like no one knows so that is ah bit scary which relates to self-doubt I guess But when I was writing my paper halfway through, COVID happened.
00:27:13
Speaker
So I was forced to come back to China. And I felt really lucky because my subject was about China and I i was in China, so I can still but do my research.
00:27:25
Speaker
Many of my peers couldn't because they were writing about maybe like but Brazil system versus ah Morocco and suddenly they can't travel to either of them and they have to change their research topic entirely.
00:27:38
Speaker
So I came back and and wrote my paper, but which was also the time when I got reached out by ah carbon and climate entrepreneur entrepreneurs in China on the ground, which I knew them personally before, but it was a time where they really felt that when they were having conversations with investors, by this I mean just like usual investors, they were only evaluating on their P&L, on their...
00:28:13
Speaker
revenues and profits, but they think that was very misunderstood because they also have a lot of potentials on the environmental and social, like the the impact side, but they couldn't translate that themselves. And there's nobody advocating for them on this.
00:28:31
Speaker
And the investors only see them on that. And they were like, oh, we know you're doing great stuff, but that doesn't count. And so they were facing very harsh environment.
00:28:42
Speaker
So they reach out to me. They're like, Eugene, I want you to to do this fundraising for us. And I've never been on the sell side. So was like, are you sure I haven't done this? And they're like, yeah, we're very sure. Like, we just want you to to be working on this.
00:28:56
Speaker
So I started just, I mean, by this child's. of talking to 150 VCs in China. The majority of them at the time were giving the comment, Eugene, you know, the companies in China for their survival, they're already very tough.
00:29:16
Speaker
And now you want them to spend more money to measure their own carbon credits to regulate themselves. That doesn't make business sense.
00:29:27
Speaker
And I think from their logic, it is true. Like if you're thinking that way, yeah, it makes sense. But I just have that belief that this is something we have to do.
00:29:38
Speaker
So I would just kept going. i was just like talking to them. And at one point felt... So tired of all these comments. So I talked to a friend and we were like, okay, we're going to build a group and I'm going to get everybody inside, the all the VCs and PEs and all the investors into the
Climate Investment Shifts
00:29:57
Speaker
group.
00:29:57
Speaker
And we're just going to educate them. So on every month and also sometimes bi-weekly, we just share so many business and investment opportunities from the climate and green side.
00:30:10
Speaker
So we'll be sharing the reports on, you know, like carbon credits this week and then we'll be sharing something else. All of this was during the COVID lockdown. It was during the COVID, yeah.
00:30:21
Speaker
And was half a year later because the central policy on climate change and 2060 goal was so clear and so strong. Actually, I think at the beginning, people were also having doubts. They were like, just another policy.
00:30:37
Speaker
But actually throughout the that half year, One day after the central government to provincial, to city, to different bureaus, you really know there's a strong central government conviction on trying to turn the economy green.
00:30:54
Speaker
So there's new policies coming out every week. At one point, I think we just lose count. We were just like, okay, let's not check. It's too many. We can't check. the green policies. And then we started to see that investors have a different term.
00:31:09
Speaker
And then I'll receive message from um investors that I've never known. The introduction sentence reads like, IEZ, we've been looking into green space and investing for past 10 years.
00:31:21
Speaker
And in my heart, I'm like, ugh. But I mean, just by the the introduction sentences that people actually take a much bigger emphasis and seriousness on this is a great turning point.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so from there onwards, were we're seeing a much bigger shift in in China in this space. And then we also very successfully finished my first deal, which You know, it's a carbon-sat management platform company, and it's the first portfolio company by one of the largest, probably like top two BCNPs in China um as their first climate portfolio company.
00:32:04
Speaker
Coming back to personal, it went back to finish my research at the time. was really, really afraid that I wouldn't get time to submit everything, but I successfully submitted everything.
00:32:16
Speaker
And then was the time really think about career.
Founding 2060 Advisory
00:32:20
Speaker
i think I always knew that I wanted to do something, but I always thought that I would be doing ah with some other people together.
00:32:29
Speaker
i always thought that I would have co-founders. After the first year, which went really successful, luckily, there's other clients coming to find me. And there's also people who wanted to join my team.
00:32:44
Speaker
And I... said I didn didn't have a company and they were like, just build one. so I was like, okay. yeah And I thought I also need some co-founders, which was in my mind. I thought you always have co-founders, but it was COVID time. So it was really difficult to meet people and having co-founders is very, you know, by luck, it didn't just happened.
00:33:15
Speaker
I really had a struggle because i was never like trying to link my startup with me personally. like I never had that ego. I always wanted like a team to do things together.
00:33:27
Speaker
ah went through the process of, is this what I want to do? or Should I depend on something that is so uncertain and delay the stuff that I wanted to do?
00:33:38
Speaker
And so obviously i should just do it. So I then built a company and from there onwards, we we ah set up the vision and the goal, which Actually, building a 2068 advisory is also one of the conclusions drawn from my research paper as well, because one of the conclusions is the market is still very diverse, but it's also very chaotic as well.
00:34:05
Speaker
You would have impact investing supply side of money from foundations, family office, some impact funds, maybe also... some from the government, but it's also always spread out and people don't talk to each other. And also they have different ideas versus on the other side, social enterprises and impact ventures, we season on daily basis. They're there. They're not like many people say, oh, we can't find good companies.
00:34:37
Speaker
But I think if you look deeper, they're there. there But the lack of intermediary where for impact ventures, maybe you need money from foundations plus VCs or you know like different structures.
00:34:51
Speaker
But if there's no professional intermediary to get people on the same table and to discuss what's the best strategy, it's very difficult for the market to move effectively and efficiently.
00:35:04
Speaker
So that's one of the conclusions. And that's also why built 26A Advisory, which is not to say all these chaotic landscape is easy to kind of put them together, which is still very, very difficult.
00:35:17
Speaker
Plus a COVID hit, but I guess I am now in my two and half years of being a founder and CEO, which is weird because up until last year, i was putting all my energy on trying to help because we're working with CEOs as well and founders.
Challenges as a Woman in Finance
00:35:36
Speaker
And so i always felt like their problem is our problem. So I always put so much emphasize, oh, okay, we oh my God, did like this this happened, that crisis happened, we need to work on that. And last year, a friend mentioned that i am also founder and I'm also a CEO.
00:35:52
Speaker
That was a moment that I realized for the first time, oh, that's why I was also feeling so difficult. Amazing. So a quick clarifying question. I mean, I know why, but I think it would be great for you to explain why it's called 2060 Advisory.
00:36:09
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. So 2060 is a year for China to go carbon neutral. And I believe there are some other countries in the world that has 2060 as a goal as well.
00:36:20
Speaker
So we really want for everything to go carbon neutral and sustainable. If any of our efforts can help move more capital into climate solutions and sustainable solutions and towards 2060, that would be great.
00:36:37
Speaker
Wonderful. Thank you. Well, definitely congratulations for setting up your company and doing all the work with the entrepreneurs that you're supporting. How does it feel to be a woman doing that?
00:36:51
Speaker
How does it feel to be a woman CEO? How does it feel be a woman in China? That's a very good question. My immediate response is my mind kind of go blank because i think in my daily operation, I don't think about gender and I wouldn't think, ah, because I'm female, I can't do this. I shouldn't do this. And so it's not how ah kind of make decisions and and think about things.
00:37:20
Speaker
But secondly, it does have many downsides as other people have definitely shared in the past. I think investment seems very mal-dominated anywhere across the world.
00:37:34
Speaker
And so many of the times and many of the negotiations, I would always find myself being the only female across a big table. So maybe there's like three people from the investment side and These are all ML and there will be three co-founders from a company that I represent. These are all three MLs.
00:37:56
Speaker
And surely like many of the situations, maybe people went out to get like a cigarette or something, or maybe they drink together or something, which is not very easy for you to join.
00:38:09
Speaker
from time to time. So I think there's definitely these kind of drawbacks as a female in the industry. But I also think, just to add on to that, I think it is true that for our sector, because we did calculate it, that the number for the International Women's Day this year, and got a question. And so we went back to look at our data.
00:38:34
Speaker
So out of perhaps 10 entrepreneurs in the sector that we work with, particularly on climate, there's probably only one female. So the ratio is very crazy.
00:38:46
Speaker
i think because we're working with a lot climate mitigation rather than climate adaptation, which is much more on hardcore tech and many of these solutions like the carbon capture we just mentioned and the low carbon concrete.
00:39:04
Speaker
These are very industrial and you go to like very rural places for big factories and it's male dominated. um So I think the industry also has a big reason onto it.
00:39:19
Speaker
Yeah. The third thing is it's interesting. I think even with East Asia, there's a big movement on female became much more independent and feminism rising up as well.
00:39:33
Speaker
But I don't know. I still need to figure that out in a sense of how do you maybe play a role as a strength. I don't know whether that's because female or just my personality, because just last week,
00:39:46
Speaker
We were working on a project and then somebody commented to me saying that I'm not as aggressive and was comparing to another female. So I don't know, like, how do you take on that? You expect it to be more ambitious or aggressive or or not?
00:40:03
Speaker
But yeah. Yeah, a lot of questions still to be figured out. but Any advice or any tips that you have for other people, other change makers maybe working in China as women operating in this field?
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah, for female, I would definitely say, think about your strengths. Let's say if I can't drink with the males together, i don't want to compete on my drinking.
00:40:30
Speaker
I want to compete on other stuff that we have much more advantage around. So I think I would say like build on your advantage and your strengths.
00:40:41
Speaker
Even the successful female entrepreneur entrepreneurs that I have been working with, I think they share the same idea as well. I would actually very secretly ask because they're like senior than I do and much more, you know, they built their company probably like 10 or 15 years ago.
00:40:58
Speaker
So I would be very sickly and and asking them, did you have to drink with them? Like, do you, do you know, like the all sorts of questions. And like, no, Eugene, I don't. I go home and I have kids.
00:41:08
Speaker
I don't do this. Like, you don't need to do these things, which I think really helped me. so So I will also share this with the audience of this podcast that if that's something that you don't want to do, like you don't need to do it.
00:41:21
Speaker
and build on your strengths. Absolutely great advice. I also want to touch on something that is a topic for many of us is how do you become your best self?
00:41:34
Speaker
How do you make sure that you have a good, healthy work-life balance? What are the things that you're doing or thinking about in this area? One of the recent discoveries was Over the weekend, because as an entrepreneur, you always have like so many scenes in your head. You're like, I could do this. I could do that.
00:41:54
Speaker
i should be going back to my office. You know, like I want to get this done, get the that done. But then at the same time, i also want to just go out with my friends and then join like a hiking track.
00:42:07
Speaker
i also want to do blah, blah. There's like a list of stuff that I really, really want to do. And if I do something, will think about, ah, maybe i actually should go back to my office and get that done.
00:42:19
Speaker
And if I do, I'll be like, ah, I really want to go hiking. I don't want to stay in the office. Probably it's also about balance. So this recent finding is just choose whatever I want to do or like for now and don't think about the other ones.
00:42:35
Speaker
If you talk about balance, if I think about one thing and then I'm doing another thing and I still think about the other thing, I think that's the most, I wouldn't say toxic, but that's that's very unhealthy. Just be happy with, if I'm taking our rest, I'm okay with taking that rest.
00:42:51
Speaker
And if I decide to just put few hours extra work, that's also okay. And I just decide to do that. And that's fine. You can have rest maybe like after that, just don't mix them.
00:43:05
Speaker
And I found that quite helpful for me. Yeah, very liberating. Being present and in what you're doing, creating the flow, right?
00:43:15
Speaker
the Yeah, it's very liberating because then you do what you are doing and then you switch to something else. Great. Thank you, Yee-Jing. So one thing also that I noticed about ah tendency that we have ah We often are too humble to promote ourselves.
00:43:33
Speaker
So I would like to give you the chance to tell us about your biggest achievements. What are the things that you are proud of? Okay, I'm just going to say whatever comes to my mind.
00:43:46
Speaker
Exactly, do that. Yeah, and thanks for the opportunity. I think I was very ah lucky um and honored to be be receiving the first Forbes 30 under 30 impact investing back in the days.
00:44:00
Speaker
And I also won the global winner of the British Conscious Business and Innovation Awards last year. Hey, congratulations. Thank you, which is really exciting.
00:44:11
Speaker
But I think one of the biggest achievements so far is surviving through my CEO and founder life so far.
Connecting Global Opportunities
00:44:23
Speaker
And I can talk about we've done great deals on the climate technology in China. We have all the data, we analyze everything and we've done facilitate many deals in the sector.
00:44:36
Speaker
And actually from this year, we're also looking to connecting these Chinese climate technologies with global impact investors and global climate investors, because this is such an important puzzle globally, because as I mentioned, we are such a big pollution country, but we're also such a big innovation kind ah countries with these climate technologies as well.
00:45:02
Speaker
I remember last year I was speaking to some of the climate investors in Europe, and then they were asking me whether China has any carbon capture. And then I shared with him that up until our most recent data, we have around 70 to 80 technologies developing right now.
00:45:19
Speaker
And it's such a big gap. And and I wanted to share much more. with the wider audience. And there's a lot of business opportunities within that as well. So that's something that I will be taking forward as something that I'm really, really passionate to be working on going forward.
00:45:37
Speaker
But personally, surviving through my startup life is something that I'm really proud of. Yeah. Massive congratulations for that and wishing you a lot more great success in in that direction.
Final Thoughts and Call to Action
00:45:50
Speaker
So we're starting to approach the end of this podcast. So I have this kind of short session where I would like to ask you quick questions.
00:46:02
Speaker
Maybe you can answer by one word or one sentence. So let's go. What's keeping you optimistic? Humanity. Nice one. What's inspiring you?
00:46:13
Speaker
Also humanity. Good one too. Who is inspiring you? Oh, there's so many people. So many. i i can't pinpoint people, but I met environmental activists, scientists, and a lot of phil philanthropists and just day-to-day people. like Many of the people that they think about their own consumption and think about secular economy, so many great people.
00:46:42
Speaker
So, well, it's time now to conclude. i had really a great, great time listening to your experience and your insights into the ecosystem in China.
00:46:53
Speaker
Thank you so much. Before saying goodbye, do you have any final thoughts or advice to fellow changemakers or maybe any specific call to action or or ask of the listeners?
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think before when I wasn't a founder, I would give a lot of like encouragements and and stuff. But right now, as also as a founder, I ah would just want to share that just hanging there and keep going and also take care of yourself is so important. I realized that so many people really started from scratch on that one.
00:47:32
Speaker
felt like with just year one or year two in that journey, So I think deep relaxation and also just give yourself space and bring space and care is just the very critical thing for changemakers as a whole.
00:47:51
Speaker
That's one of the shirings. But also secondly, I think impact investing in China is a missing piece within the larger ecosystem right now.
00:48:02
Speaker
Many of the data information is very much lacking. But I think also because of the current environment geopolitically that there's a very strong barrier for people to even have some willingness to to understand more before but anything.
00:48:20
Speaker
So my ask would be to be more open minded there. I think humanities is very much shared regardless of religion and country.
00:48:33
Speaker
And we will try our best to share more. And ah would also kindly ask that more people in the global ecosystem to be more open-minded and then to to kind of learn more from us as well.
00:48:50
Speaker
We will share more as well. Yeah. Thank you. Well, i definitely I'm committed to supporting the agenda of sharing more examples, sharing more case studies and learnings from the Chinese ecosystem. So please feel free to keep connected with me so that we can work together on that objective.
00:49:10
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time today, Yijing It was really insightful and I hope that the listeners are enjoying as well your insights. And yes, let's stay tuned for one of the next episodes.
00:49:26
Speaker
Absolutely. Really looking forward to it.
00:49:34
Speaker
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00:49:45
Speaker
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00:49:57
Speaker
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