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A Day at Husk Power University
Acumen Fund invested in Husk Power Systems (HPS) in 2010 to help scale their innovative business model of using discarded rice husks as a source for rural off-grid electricity generation. HPS has since expanded to over 90 plants all over Bihar, India, and has launched Husk Power University (HPU), a technical training institute for future mechanics and operators for HPS. I spent a day there.
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- Education, Energy, Environment
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The Case for Micro-Equity: Same Infrastructure, Different Mechanism
The vast majority of entrepreneurs served by MFI loans still lack the ability to scale their business, add real value in the supply chain, and steadily increase their profitability. Micro-businesses frequently take out several rounds of loans, creating a cycle, not true sustainability. We believe the answer that not only provides additional capital and a more long-term approach, but also greater benefits for investors as well, lies with micro-equity.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Mindful Metrics – A Conversation With GBF’s Metrics Officer
This guest post from the Grassroots Business Fund is part of a short series on approaches to metrics, leading to the upcoming Metrics Conference from the Ground Up Conference later this month hosted by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Allison Basile joined the Grassroots Business Fund (GBF) in 2009 and serves as its metrics officer, a role in which she oversees the organization’s metrics and environmental and social management
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Weekly Roundup: Bringing Broadband to the BoP and Other Insights From OMJ’s BoP Week
Like housing, expanding broadband requires close collaboration with public and private stakeholders, and a willingness to build trust across them. Building that trust was part of the mission of the Opportunities for the Majority’s Strategic Partners Dialogue, which brought together government officials, financers, NGOs, and, of course, entrepreneurs to discuss how policy innovation can be a catalyst for market-based solutions to poverty in both broadband and housing.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Building an Angel Investment Network in Pakistan: Launching I2i Angels
At Invest2Innovate, or i2i, we encounter these issues on a daily basis. We are an intermediary organization that supports seed-stage social enterprises in new and untapped markets, beginning in Pakistan. In order to better address the disconnects evident in this sector, we just launched i2i Angels, a community of angel investors committed to investing and supporting innovative and high-growth enterprises in Pakistan.
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- Uncategorized
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Remote Control: Three Innovative Solutions to Healthcare Distribution in Rural Areas
To ensure health products retain their quality means the entire supply chain – from storage conditions to distribution channels – must be considered. But distribution costs of health products and their associated service provisions in particular are one component of healthcare supply chains that’s often under-considered and therefore ineffectively budgeted. However, this is a new area of focus for many social enterprises that are looking to bridge the logistical gap.
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- Health Care
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On the Upswing: ANDE’s 2011 Impact Report
According to the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, over the past three years, fundraising targets for funds focused on small and growing businesses increased by 71 percent, reaching $3.73 billion in 2011. During this same time, 102 SGB funds completed fundraising efforts and began making investments.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- scale
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Bottoms Up: A Thought Experiment on Designing for Social Impact
I have been a participant in several student-led communities lately that demonstrated some of the social principles of biomomicry: The Social Enterprise Boot Camp (a collaboration between Columbia, NYU and SVA Design for Social Innovation), GES (Global Engagement Summit at Northwestern) and the NYC Creative Interns. While they still may not have cracked the code for how we will evolve to become a sustainable species, they provide enough hope to keep us all working at it.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
