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Alibaba executive chairman creates $10M African youth entrepreneur fund
Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma launched a $10 million African Young Entrepreneurs Fund at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit. The fund is expected to be operational this year.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Social Impact Incentives: A New Solution for Blended Finance
In just six years, social enterprise Clínicas del Azúcar has grown into the largest private provider of specialized diabetes care in Mexico, but faces an almost constant challenge to balance its financial and social performance. That's where social impact incentives (SIINC) come into play. A new solution for blended finance, SIINCs align profitability with social impact by paying social enterprises directly for proven social outcomes.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Entrepreneurs Are the Same Person All Over the World. And That’s a Good Thing.
Steven R. Koltai, an entrepreneur and international development expert, believes the U.S. and other powerful nations should give to seed funds and invest in accelerators for foreign startups because "entrepreneurs are the same person all over the world." They aren't interested in socio-political and religious grievances that lead to violence and war, he says, but are a "bridge" class of people, capable of linking nations and cultures.
- Categories
- Investing
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Advisory board on impact investing to drive SDGs
More than 550 people from 43 countries met in Chicago to discuss how to deploy sufficient private capital to fund the Sustainable Development Goals over the next 13 years. It was a ringing response to recent cries for nationalistic policies regarding the insufficiency of planetary resources.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Addressing Eye Care in Emerging Markets with Blended Finance
WHO estimates that 39 million people suffer from blindness, more than half of them due to cataracts, and more than 90 percent of blind people live in the developing world. Cataracts are often curable but the traditional surgery is expensive. Convergence is supporting GlobalVision's plan to build on the affordable eye model that Aravind pioneered in India and establish a network of 60 eye care hospitals in emerging markets over the next 10 years, borrowing techniques from the microfinance sector.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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CompareAsiaGroup scores $50M from investors including IFC, Alibaba and Goldman Sachs
CompareAsiaGroup claims that more than 28 million people used its sites last year, making it the largest personal financial management platform in Asia.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- fintech
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UBS Raises $325 Million for Bono-Backed Impact Investment Fund
The Rise Fund, which counts Irish rock star Bono among its co-founders, aims to achieve "measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns", UBS said in a statement on Monday.
- Categories
- Investing
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Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are backing a controversial education program in East Africa
Though it operates with the mission of providing high-quality, low-cost education for all, Bridge has drawn criticism from some education experts and teachers unions for the model it uses to make good on that mission.