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Transparent Sustainability: A Free Tool Aims to Empower Retail Investors to Align Their Investments with Their Convictions
The growing demand for sustainable investments has brought a greater degree of scrutiny to the industry, as it attempts to address rising concerns about greenwashing. But as Shaan Madhavji and Anna Helena Chaim at Impaakt point out, many investors still have a lack of knowledge about the true impacts of their investments. They explain how Impaakt's free “How Sustainable to Me?” tool provides retail investors with transparent impact data that allows them to align their investments with their values.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Transforming Startup Financing: The Rise of Venture Debt and Alternative Finance in MENA
The venture capital ecosystem in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) experienced a 23% drop in funding and a 34% decline in the number of transactions closed in 2023. But as Reem Goussous at Village Capital and Dunya Bashiti at Capifly explain, alternative capital solutions are emerging to fill the gap — including venture debt, which reached $757 million in the region last year, a staggering 50-fold increase from 2020 levels. They explore how venture debt provides an important financing tool for early-stage, high-growth startups in MENA, enabling them to access funding without diluting their equity.
- Categories
- Investing
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Reversing Climate Change is Possible — But First, We Need to Democratise Climate Finance
Much of the current conversation around climate change focuses on the obstacles that make the problem so difficult to solve. But according to Kevin Kyer at Pyrpose, there are signs of hope, as a growing, global sense of urgency around the issue is driving consumers to embrace sustainable products and behaviors. He explores how emerging technologies and businesses are helping to reduce Co2 emissions — and how platforms like Pyrpose can help mobilize climate-conscious investors to direct climate finance to the most vulnerable parts of the world.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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More Data is Not the Answer: Why We Need to Reset Our Expectations for Impact Measurement and Management
Impact measurement and management (IMM) is gaining momentum. As Julia Mensink at Acumen explains, while the sector was once underfunded and under-emphasized, it is now taken much more seriously — not only by impact investors, but also by mainstream banks, pension funds and corporations. But she argues that this progress has brought with it some challenges, including investors' growing demand for rigorous impact data, regardless of the challenges this data collection and reporting may present to entrepreneurs. She proposes some ways investors can work with social enterprises to shift IMM from a burden to a means to greater impact.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Taking Stock of India’s Fintech Landscape: A Venture Capital Firm Shares Six Insights from One of the World’s Most Vibrant Investment Markets
The global team at Quona Capital — a venture capital firm focused on inclusive fintech — recently concluded a visit to India, during which they immersed themselves in the local fintech ecosystem. Michel Zaidler at Quona shares six insights they gathered from several of their Indian portfolio companies, and from these companies' customers and other fintech thought leaders. He highlights some of the groundbreaking business models these fintechs are using, and explains why the Indian market offers unique opportunities to investors.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Investing, Technology
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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Mobilizing Capital in the Low-Cost Private School Sector: Key Insights Two Years into an Innovative Partnership
One in five children in sub-Saharan Africa are out of school, and without scalable solutions, the region — like other emerging markets — won’t meet SDG 4’s goal of education for all. Mauricio Rincon and Mathieu Fourn at Opportunity International, and Alvaro Ma at Oikocredit argue that affordable non-state schools can help address this need — but only if they're supported by financial institutions and impact investment. They share learnings from a partnership between Opportunity and Oikocredit that is directing millions of dollars in capital to these schools, along with capacity building and other support.
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Reshaping Africa’s Food Systems: Three Opportunities to Drive Sustainable, Inclusive and Scalable Impact
Africa's agricultural sector is plagued by low yields, fragmented value chains and a large finance gap, and the region is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. As Neil Wood, Oscar Garza and Hanna Dohrenbusch at Open Capital explain, these challenges have brought the sector to a critical juncture. They share three key solutions based on Open Capital's work on 450+ agriculture and food systems projects across Africa, which have the power to help drive the future of agriculture on the continent in the decades to come.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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