Articles by Kyle Poplin
-
Friday
January 15
2016Scott Anderson / Kyle Poplin / James Militzer
Weekly Roundup: Big Upside of Small Farmers; Using the Bully Pulpit to Fight a Bully; It’s Good to Be Ultra-Rich
What if some of the most marginalized people on the planet – the proverbial “smallholder farmers” with a small plot and an even smaller number of livestock – could command the attention of powerful telecom and technology players? Here’s another question: What if it’s already happening?
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
Friday
January 8
2016Kyle Poplin / Scott Anderson / James Militzer
Weekly Roundup: Starting SDGs, Africa’s IT Meritocracy, Safaricom’s Setback
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) officially took effect on Jan. 1, with the stated goals of freeing “the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet” over the next 15 years. Whew. Talk about a tall order.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
Guest Articles
Friday
December 18
2015Weekly Roundup: Will Narayana Health’s IPO Hearten Investors and Patients Alike?
The collective ears of the healthcare world pricked up this week on the news that Narayana Hrudayalaya is going public. Narayana has combined economies of scale and specialization to turn a profit while charging an average of only $2,000 for open-heart surgery. So it might be fair to ponder: Does an IPO mean the model so many have held up so high will stop working?
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
-
Interviews
Tuesday
December 15
2015Turning Flower Pots into Life-savers
In 2009, Philip Wilson led his Guatemala-based organization’s transition from an NGO to a social business, and since then its customer base has expanded dramatically. Ecofiltro found that giving its water filters away was not scalable or financially sustainable – but that ensuring his customers' dignity was.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Friday
December 11
2015Weekly Roundup: OPIC’s Big Jump with LeapFrog; the Dearth of Do-gooder Drones
With a $200 million planned investment by the U.S. government’s development finance arm, impact equity firm LeapFrog Investments has now attracted $1 billion in funds to invest in companies reaching low-income people with financial and healthcare services. This week, the board of directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved the investment, as well as eight others. LeapFrog’s announcement hailed the OPIC investment as “the largest commitment in history to any impact fund manager.” That’s not something I could independently confirm, but it is OPIC’s largest single commitment to a private equity manager.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
-
Interviews
Wednesday
December 2
2015The Economic Case for Sanitation
"The economic impact of poor or zero safe sanitation is catastrophic but preventable," says Mark La Trobe, international managing director of Enviro Loo. He believes his firm – which makes waterless, chemical-free toilets that use air movement and heat from the sun to reduce solid waste – is in prime position to make a global difference.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
-
Friday
November 20
2015Weekly Roundup 11-20-15: Being Bullish on Being Dovish
Given the dire news of terrorism from Paris, and yes, in Beirut as well, it can feel like war and talk of war is everywhere. Which is why the essay “Impact Investing for Peace?” by Durreen Shahnaz, founder and chairwoman of the Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), in Wharton magazine was a welcome sight for sore eyes. We need to talk more about peace dividends, not just war deficits.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing, Technology
- Tags
- impact investing
-
Wednesday
November 18
2015What McDonald’s Could Learn from Aravind
There’s certainly a “sauce” that makes Aravind special, according to Dr. R.D. Ravindran, the organization's chairman and director of quality, but it’s not secret. It all boils down to a culture of respect, and Aravind isn't shy in talking about it.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- innovation