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Funding the Fight Against the World’s Oldest Fuel Source: How New Financing Mechanisms in Clean Cooking Can Succeed Where Grants Have Failed
The use of biomass fuel for cooking has remained consistent over the centuries, despite the development sector's efforts to scale global access to clean cookstoves. As Paul Ronalds at Save the Children Global Ventures argues, a key reason for this failure is the estimated $5.5 billion annual funding gap facing clean cooking initiatives — a gap that traditional sources of finance, like private donations and government grants, have been unable to fill. He discusses several funding solutions, including carbon credits, that could help the clean cooking sector finally end the era of biomass fuel.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Replacing Old Technologies or Creating New Markets?: The Pros and Cons of Two Paths to Impact for Productive Use of Energy
Productive use of energy (PUE) technologies have the potential to unlock higher incomes and reduce reliance on more costly, non-renewable energy sources in rural and low-income communities. Dan Waldron, Chris Emmott, Yash Vardhan Gaddhyan and Ruth Wairimu at Acumen discuss the advantages and disadvantages of two different paths to impact for PUE: replacing inefficient, fossil fuel-based incumbent technologies, vs. disrupting entire markets with innovative PUE approaches.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology, Transportation
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Solving the Funding Challenges of Indian MSMEs: The Advantages of Founder-Friendly Non-Dilutive Financing
About 30% of India’s GDP is generated by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which provide jobs for more than 110 million people and account for around 50% of the country’s exports. But as Bhavik Vasa at GetVantage points out, a drop in private equity and venture capital investments has led many of these entrepreneurs to shift towards more founder-friendly types of non-dilutive capital. He discusses the funding challenges facing Indian MSMEs, and why alternative forms of non-dilutive financing are uniquely suited to these businesses' needs.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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Accelerating the Adoption of Inclusive Business Models in Multinational Corporations: Challenges, Solutions and Success Stories
Over two decades ago, C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart challenged the private sector to tap into “the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” by developing business models that serve people living in poverty. As Annabel Beales at Business Fights Poverty explains, this vision has gained traction under the mantle of inclusive business — yet adoption of these business models remains low among large corporations. She explores why accelerating this adoption is crucial to eliminating poverty and addressing the other SDGs, and shares three key lessons that show how inclusive business can be operationalized by large corporations.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Regulatory Roadblocks are Holding Blended Finance Back: Here are Three Concrete Ways to Address Them
After hitting a 10-year low in 2022, blended finance flows bounced back to a five-year high of $15 billion in 2023. But despite this renewed momentum, Andrew Apampa at Convergence points out that blended finance faces a number of challenges that hinder its ability to scale — including the complex web of policies and regulations that deter highly regulated financial institutions from investing in emerging markets. He discusses these obstacles and presents some promising solutions, as outlined in Convergence’s State of Blended Finance 2024 report.
- Categories
- Investing
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Water Scarcity Can’t be Solved by a Single Sector: How Businesses and NGOs Can Work Together to Advance Water Security
Around the world, 2 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, and a staggering 3.6 billion people lack basic sanitation, as of 2021. Amelia Metcalf at Water Unite argues that the vast scale of these challenges has created an urgent need for collaborative action between water-focused non-profits/NGOs and for-profit businesses, especially corporations and larger enterprises. She explains how this sort of partnership can deliver benefits to both sides — while offering a key opportunity to combat water scarcity at a global scale.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing, WASH
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Founders vs. Funders: How the Two Sides of the Investing Relationship Can Foster More Effective Collaboration to Maximise Impact at Scale
Funders in the social impact space and founders of social ventures depend on one another to drive positive change at scale, so their relationship must be built on trust and alignment. But as Fan Gu at 100x Impact Accelerator explains, these partnerships are often marred by complex dynamics that threaten their success. She shares some of the key ingredients to effective partnerships between these two crucial players in the social impact sector, based on insights from 100x's community of funders, entrepreneurs and non-profits.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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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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