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Catalyzing Retail Investment to Fund the ‘Missing Part’ of the Missing Middle
Recent developments in crowdfunding legislation in the U.S. and general growing interest in retail investment in Europe and the US are signaling a growth in new capital available for impact investing. But how does the impact sector ensure there are enough investment products to cater to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of unaccredited investors who are increasingly interested in international investment opportunities that will deliver diverse environmental, social, and financial returns?
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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The Unitus Seed Fund: Harnessing Small Equity for Scale at the BoP
I recently had the opportunity to interview Dave Richards, managing director of Unitus Seed Fund – a new seed stage venture fund investing in startups with high potential to improve the lives of many BoP families in India. USF is focused on making small equity investments – typically $50,000 to $100,000 – at the seed stage where round sizes are less than $500,000 and usually less than $250,000.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Daniel Izzo on Brazil’s First Impact Investing Venture Capital Firm
Recently, the Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ) Initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank hosted Daniel Izzo, co-founder and partner of Vox Capital, Brazil’s first impact investing venture capital firm, which focuses on high potential businesses that serve the Brazilian low income population through products and services with the potential to improve their lives. In addition, Vox Capital is the first Brazilian fund OMJ is investing in.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Scratch it Off the Public Health Wish-list: A menu of IT solutions for global health challenges
Observing the widespread use of ICT, coupled with intense interest from the global health community—witness, a few of my colleagues at the Center for Health Market Innovations set out to figure out why programs used technology. To answer this question, they analyzed more than 600 programs in over 100 countries—the contents of CHMI’s database at the time. Their findings, published in this month’s WHO Bulletin, highlight six key reasons health program managers adopt ICT.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Achieving Sustainable Energy for All Hinges on International Cooperation and Leadership
This year was designated the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All by the UN General Assembly to raise awareness and promote the three objectives: clean energy access, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. 2012 is also the year of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in late June. The moment is ripe for action, and lofty goals have been set, but where to begin?
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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NexThought Monday: Complexity is the New Black
NYT columnist David Brooks recently called on social enterprise types to take a dose of realism. I argue it’s time to accept full responsibility for changing politics as part of social impact. If in attempting to improve some economic or social aspect of people’s lives we aren’t also improving their political standing and the rule of law, any economic or social impact remains temporary.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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Tools of the Trade: Building a Robust Deal Pipeline of Impact Companies in Emerging Economies – Part 3
What are the biggest lessons learned when it comes to finding high-quality companies in emerging markets? I posed this final question to our virtual panel of impact investing leaders who recommended teaming up with other investors to providing appropriate financing, making sure to select companies with a core social/environmental mission, embracing creativity, and embedding capacity building into the process.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
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An Entrepreneur’s View: WorldHaus, A Prototype for Progress in Global Housing
After months of planning and securing the prototype location in the outskirts of Chennai, India, we were ready to build in late summer of 2011. We begin our first housing development next month and aim to build over 500 houses by the end of the year.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing, rural development