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Unlocking Off-Grid Energy Finance: What Options Are Available for the Last Mile?
Extending the power grid to underserved communities is often prohibitively expensive. That's why decentralized renewable energy (DRE) is increasingly recognized as an essential approach. However, investments remain focused on grid-connected electricity, with only 1.2% directed towards DRE solutions in 2017. Surabhi Rajagopal and Eco Matser at Hivos explore challenges and solutions in financing energy access through DRE.
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Investing from the ‘Frontier of the Frontier’: Lessons from Ten Years as an Investment Advisor in Africa
With six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies, Africa is an attractive target for investors. But investing there doesn’t always come easy. Ten years ago, Andreas Zeller moved to Nairobi and co-founded Open Capital Advisors, which helps investors access African markets, and helps African businesses become investment-ready. In this interview, Zeller discusses how development and donor agencies can remove the barriers to investment throughout the continent.
- Categories
- Investing
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Viewpoint: We Must Invest Differently to Support Women and Girls
Many of the structural issues at the root of gender inequality are locked in and magnified by our current financial system.
- Categories
- Investing
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The Clock is Ticking on Energy Access: Exploring Factor[e] Ventures’ Big Bet on Mini-Grids
Since 2010, the number of people without energy access has decreased from almost 1.2 billion to 840 million. But while that's encouraging, the world is not on track to meet SDG7’s goal of universal electrification. What's more, as Amanda DelCore at Factor[e] Ventures points out, more connections may not always equal more access. In light of these realities, she explores why Factor[e] has built its energy access thesis around mini-grids.
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Carlyle Breaks From Pack, Plans Impact Investing Across Firm
It was a curious moment last year when Carlyle Group Inc., once famous for bold bets on defense contractors, hired one of the more prominent names in socially responsible investing.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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ESG Investing Is a ‘Complete Fraud,’ Chamath Palihapitiya Says
ESG investing — or strategies that take a company’s environmental, social and governance factors into consideration — is growing in popularity, with investors increasingly prioritizing these metrics.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Making Subsidies Smarter: How to Create More ‘Bang for the Buck’ in Blended Finance
Blended finance can be a powerful approach to closing the SDG financing gap – and as Bjoern Struewer at Roots of Impact argues, it inevitably involves subsidies. But for those subsidies to be worthwhile, they must be provided in return for tangible development impact – and not eaten up by the cost of maintaining complex financial structures. Struewer explores how subsidies should be leveraged to maximize the impact of blended finance.
- Categories
- Investing
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Meet The All-Female Angel Group Making Profitable Bets On African Entrepreneurs
While the fund is focused on building a network of female investors, Rising Tide Africa will invest in both male- and female-led companies, although they prefer and do actively search for female-led companies. If the founders are men, they have to have at least one woman in an executive position.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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