Why We Invested: FAIR WEAVE
Founded in 2022, FAIR WEAVE is working with more than 120 women weavers in the Phnom Srok district in northwestern Cambodia to offer handwoven textiles, ethically and sustainably made with natural fibers and dyes, for home furnishings and apparel. In this region of Cambodia, Khmer women have been weaving since the 13th century. Textiles are handwoven on traditional looms with skills handed down from mother to daughter for generations.
Why We Invested: Away Pallay
R.I.S.E. Artisan Fund announced that the fund has joined Beneficial Returns, an impact investment manager, in an investment improving the livelihoods of Indigenous women weavers in the high Andes of Peru. R.I.S.E. Artisan Fund is participating in the loan that Beneficial Returns has extended to Away Pallay.
Karghewale: Weaving Agency Into the Fabric of Indian Handloom
In Hindi, "kargha" means loom. Add the suffix "wale," a common construction meaning "people of," and you have Karghewale: people of the loom, or weavers. For the young weavers in this network, the name means something deeper than craft. It means belonging, ownership, and a future they are actively shaping.
Founded in December 2020, Karghewale operates at the intersection of traditional handloom weaving and entrepreneurship. Based in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, a town famous for its fine silk weaving, the enterprise works with artisan-designer-entrepreneurs across four states: Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Bihar. Currently incubating more than 40 weavers, Karghewale offers something most fair trade models do not: not just a fair wage for labor, but the tools to elevate their work entirely, giving these weavers genuine agency over their designs, their businesses, and their futures.