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Enough With the Old Unicorns: Why Argentina’s Tech Sector Needs to Look to the Future to Create Social Impact
Argentina boasts an array of tech "unicorns" and startup accelerators, indicating the sector's potential – but its growth seems to have stalled, says Johns Hopkins SAIS graduate Kevin Garrahan. And small-scale incubators may not be enough to generate the number of tech jobs that Buenos Aires, and the country as a whole, need. Garrahan highlights some ways Argentina could boost its tech industry's role as a cornerstone of economic growth.
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- Technology
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Announcing the Latest NextBillion E-book: Insights and Innovations in Financial Health
In response to a growing recognition that financial access alone doesn’t guarantee social impact, many of the sector’s leading voices are shifting their focus to financial health. MetLife Foundation and its partners explored that topic on NextBillion's Financial Health site, through 20 articles that discuss what’s working—and sometimes, what’s not working—in inclusive finance. We’ve compiled these articles into an e-book, which you can download and share here.
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Stop Looking for the Next ‘Uber for X’ and Start Changing the World
The paradigm of the Silicon Valley "tech bro" pioneering the next "Uber for (whatever)" has become a cliché. Its ubiquity is a distraction, says Alex Amouyel of MIT Solve – one that excludes social innovators from much-needed funding and keeps those with capital from making real change through their investments. Instead of looking for the next unicorn and quick exit, she argues, investors should expand their definition of “venture-backable” entrepreneurs to include those driving transformative, mission-driven impact.
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- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Low Tech, High Impact: An Affordable, Hand-Powered Innovation Aims to Boost Food Production in Africa
For many global development players, high-tech innovations are the go-to solution for challenges in emerging markets. But according to Taylor Quinn of JUST, Inc., low-tech approaches can be even smarter. He discusses the promising potential of locally made and hand-powered machines in emerging economy value chains, and explores how JUST is using one such device to improve food security, increase access to quality nutrition and promote entrepreneurship in Liberia.
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- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Beyond Inclusion: How Mission-Based Small Business Lenders are Evolving Their Definition of Impact
While microfinance institutions have grown rapidly around the globe, so too has economic inequality in developed countries. More than two decades ago, Accion in the U.S. and Opportunity Fund responded by adapting their microlending model from low-income markets to the United States. Gina Harman and Luz Urrutia, the respective CEOs of those two organizations, share new research on small loans have impacted revenues and profits for borrowing entrepreneurs, most of whom lacked the financing and resources they needed to start or grow their businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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Step by Step Credit: Empowering the Unbanked through Progressive Finance
Despite notable progress in the financial inclusion sector, widespread, permanent change remains elusive. The good news, says Aristotle Socrates at Juvo, is that not only is this change possible, but everything we need to make it happen already exists. In fact, it might be as easy as setting aside long-held assumptions about the role of wealth and income in establishing credit. He outlines how improved data infrastructure is connecting lenders to creditworthy customers, producing big gains for both providers and the financially excluded in the developing world.
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- Finance, Telecommunications
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Turning Intentions into Action: How to Boldly Implement Gender Lens Investing
There is strong evidence around the business case for investing in women, yet many asset managers and impact investors remain unsure about how to integrate a gender lens into their organization’s investment strategy. Though the process can take time to implement effectively, and will differ from institution to institution, David Venn offers several key questions that can help investors take the first step.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Looking Past the Buzz: Here’s How to Make Blockchain a Pragmatic Force for Good
Blockchain is often associated with extreme wealth and a disregard for environmental realities, such as electricity use. But Will Szal of Regen Network holds a different view: one that sees the technology's potential to offset carbon emissions and transform the lives of the next billion, particularly the one-fourth of the world's population employed in agriculture. He outlines some ways that blockchain could reach its full potential, for the benefit of the environment and the global poor.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
