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Impact Investing Lessons for NGOs: Mercy Corps’ Scott Onder Discusses its Social Venture Fund
We don’t typically associate NGOs, particularly humanitarian organizations like Mercy Corps, with impact investing. But since 2015, Mercy Corps has run the Social Venture Fund, which invests in and accelerates the growth of innovative, scalable ventures that can positively impact millions in the developing world. NextBillion interviewed Scott Onder, managing director of the fund, about Mercy Corps' experiences as an investor, the rationale behind this ground-breaking approach – and lessons for other NGOs that may be considering a similar move.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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More than Money: Changing Financial Services One Startup at a Time
The Financial Solutions Lab – managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) with founding partner JPMorgan Chase & Co. – is looking for fintech startups and nonprofits to compete in its $3 Million Challenge to help underserved people. Winning organizations will receive a $250,000 investment. The fintech innovators who will rise to the top, writes CFSI's Shannon Austin, are those solving real financial problems faced by real people – often the same problems experienced by the founders themselves.
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- Finance, Technology
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In a World of 5 Billion Mobile Phone Users, ID Policy Needs to Catch Up – Fast
With a global subscriber base of over 5 billion, the mobile ecosystem has created a digital platform that is increasingly connecting everyone and everything. Yet millions risk exclusion from this network – and the social, digital and financial exclusion this implies – due to lack of proof-of-identity. A new GSMA report offers a global perspective of the trends and linkages between access to mobile and access to official identification - and explores solutions for reducing the "identity gap."
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- Finance, Technology
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Closing the Gap: Identifying Key Challenges for the Missing Middle SMEs in Francophone West Africa
Many small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries fall into the “missing middle”: They're too big for microfinance and too small or risky for traditional finance. To better understand this sector and how to support it, the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) commissioned studies on the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo. WDI's Ekta Jhaveri discusses the research with Julia Kho, knowledge manager at TripleJump, an investment management and advisory services firm that manages DGGF’s Investment Funds Local SMEs effort.
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- Investing
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Why Impact Investing is the Next Big Move for Grameen America
David Gough of Grameen America says philanthropy will always be at the heart of the organization's funding, but the nonprofit saw impact investing as an untapped opportunity to fight gender inequity. In celebrating its 10-year anniversary of supporting female entrepreneurship and financial inclusion in the U.S., the group established its first Social Business Fund. The impact investing vehicle is allowing Grameen America supporters to directly invest in the success of more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and receive a financial return in exchange, writes Gough.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Why the Next Steve Jobs Could Be From Pakistan
Author and professor Elmira Bayrasli sees a big shift taking place among entrepreneurs in developing markets: They're seeking opportunities in their home countries, instead of fleeing to Western nations. In this video dialogue with WDI's Amy Gillett, Bayrasli, who wrote the book “From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places,” offers several other insights on what startup founders are really looking for and what they need to achieve it.
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- Social Enterprise
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A Business Accelerator Puts India’s Urban WASH Challenges Front and Center
India's cities are plagued by multiple water, sanitation and hygiene challenges, from inadequate drinking water to low sewerage network coverage. Private sector innovators and entrepreneurs are tackling these challenges with new technologies, products, services and business models. But their successes are inconsequential compared with the scale of the problem. Niyatee Goyal and Aditya Tejas at Ennovent discuss a USAID-supported platform that's addressing these problems on several fronts – including through a business accelerator.
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- Health Care, Technology, WASH
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How Impact Investing is Advancing Affordable Housing
For millions of people, especially for the 13.2 million who have worked with the organization to build new or updated homes, Habitat for Humanity is a household name. But many don't realize that the international charity that put “sweat equity” on the map is also pioneering a different approach: A pair of funds that invest in businesses that advance affordable housing via financial products and services. Jyoti Patel, global director-capital markets at Habitat’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, discusses the funds and their wide-ranging impact.
- Categories
- Investing
