Invest Early in Social Enterprises and Dream Big: Jacqueline Novogratz

Thursday, December 11, 2014

“We are in a moment of history where we are seeing growing opportunity for equality. But what we need is ’patient capital’, which gives us the space to make mistakes and learn,” said Novogratz, Founder of global venture fund Acumen, in Chennai on Wednesday. “When it comes to companies tackling poverty, we need to invest early but dream big.”

Delivering the keynote address at the Unconvention|L Chennai, a social enterprise event organised by Villgro and TiE Chennai, Novogratz also said the need today is to seek out, nurture, celebrate and invest in the “leaders who are rejecting the status quo.” She added that only then can the big problems in sectors like education, housing and sanitation in India be addressed.

Over 200 people, including students, academics, NGO and corporate professionals and entrepreneurs, participated in the one-day event, which seeks to unearth and nurture social entrepreneurs in Chennai, build the ecosystem and grow the social enterprise movement in India.

Other speakers and panelists included Paul Basil, Founder of Villgro, Lakshmi Narayanan, President, TiE Chennai, Dr. Sailakshmi Balijepalli, Founder of Ekam Foundation, Rema Subramaniam, Co-founder of Ankur Capital, Vipul Rawal of Elevar Equity andPadma Chandrasekaran, Angel Investor.

The event also saw the announcement of the winners of Impact-a-preneur Quest, a business plan competition for entrepreneurs with businesses or ideas that have social impact; the process included several months of selection, evaluation, mentoring and a final closed-door pitch to an expert jury on Tuesday.

Source: PR Newswire (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Impact Assessment
Tags
public-private partnerships, social enterprise