Closing the gender gap in Southeast Asian pharmacies: new report from SwipeRx and GIF Growth.
Mar 12, 2026
At Global Innovation Fund (GIF), we believe scaling high-impact innovations requires more than just capital—it demands targeted insights and strategic support.
We are proud to announce the release of our first Technical Assistance report from a GIF Growth portfolio company: Leveraging Technology to Achieve Gender Equality for Community Pharmacists in Southeast Asia. Authored by SwipeRx and funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through GIF Growth, this report shines a light on the systemic barriers facing women pharmacists and offers a roadmap for technology driven solutions.
The challenge: a gap in leadership
While women are the backbone of the region’s healthcare frontline, there is a stark disparity between their participation in the workforce and their representation in senior leadership: 80% of community pharmacists in Southeast Asia are women yet only 28% of community pharmacies are owned by women.(1)
This gap signals entrenched gendered barriers that limit professional growth, economic viability and leadership opportunities.
The opportunity: leveraging technology
As the operator of the largest digital network of pharmacy professionals in Southeast Asia, connecting over 320,000 professionals, SwipeRx is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap.
The report identifies evidence-based opportunities to use the technology to empower women with the education, training, and digital tools necessary to not only serve their communities better but to successfully own and scale their businesses.
Our partnership with SwipeRx
GIF first invested in SwipeRx in 2016 to help them expand their network of pharmacies, reducing healthcare expenditures and improving health outcomes for the poor in Southeast Asia. In 2019 GIF provided further investment to scale up SwipeRx’s supply chain work, helping to quadruple the number of purchasing pharmacies in their network.
Bridging the "missing middle" with GIF Growth
GIF Growth is a blended finance vehicle designed to address the “missing middle” financing gap that companies face in emerging markets. GIF Growth provides the flexible financing and Technical Assistance (TA) that high-impact, early-mid growth companies need to reach the next stage of scale.
Partnering with KOICA for impact
By partnering with KOICA, we provide our portfolio companies with specialised TA funding designed to:
- Identify critical barriers to scale
- Deepen social and gender-focused impact
- Accelerate the trajectory of innovations that improve the lives of underserved and vulnerable people.
The success of SwipeRx and the opportunities highlighted in this report demonstrate what is possible when flexible debt capital meets targeted technical assistance. As we continue to support and expand our Growth portfolio, we remain committed to scaling high-impact social innovations.
Read the full report here.
- SwipeRx digital survey data, 2022