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Is Your Impact a 1, a 5, or a 10?: Rating human needs and aspirations
The problem at the base of the pyramid is most often not the absence of needed goods and services, but rather difficulties in accessing them. Social enterprises are an exciting prospect because they have the potential to address this challenge. At their core, successful businesses are profitable, sustainable, and scalable. When they are successful, social enterprises can be a source of hope for serving the billions living in poverty today. But how do we measure the products of their work?
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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What Is eBay’s Omidyar Doing on Delhi’s MedTech Row?
Pierre Omidyar is best known as the founder of the online auction company e-Bay, which he grew from an “odd little Web site” to one of Web commerce’s biggest and longest-lasting success stories.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Patnis purchase stake in Grameen Capital India
Grameen Capital India (GCI) has announced that Amit Patni and Arihant Patni have acquired a stake in the company from original investor IFMR Trust. The Patni's after exiting their software services exports company to iGate in a $1.2 billion deal have started Nirvana Venture Advisors, a venture capital fund with focus on the internet space in India.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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eBay founder’s investment firm makes a grant to global health consortium
Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm of eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar, is making a $1.5 million grant to a global consortium supporting innovation in healthcare and medical technology. The grant has been made to Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Global Health to support the Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies (CAMTech).
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Lok Capital is re-inventing strategy for social impact
Rajiv B Lall, 55, managing director and chief executive officer of Infrastructure Development Finance Company talks unlike his peers in glamorous investment banking and private equity business despite spending over thirty years with institutions such as Warburg Pincus, Morgan Stanley and Asian Development Bank.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Voices from ANDE 2012: Building a Stronger Ecosystem
At the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs Conference last month, a good deal of focus was placed on developing the ecosystem to help social entrepreneurs connect with investors, business infrastructure and one another. One ANDE session took a close look at early stage incubation services, and the role they play in helping small and growing businesses, helping them to shape their business models along the way. Afterwards, I had a chance to meet with three leaders in this arena who are focused on social business development in India and Southeast Asia.
- Categories
- Investing
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Israel’s Rather Different Social Network
ISTANBUL—One of the more unusual presentations at the Webit conference here was from Israel Venture Network, a 10-year social entrepreneurship network targeting some of Israel’s deprived and excluded citizens, in a talk given by the former tech Chief Executive Isabel Maxwell.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Opportunity Africa: How One Social Venture Is Crowdsourcing the For-Profit Finance Model
The best social entrepreneurs are always tweaking the model. In microfinance, crowd-sourced ventures have aimed at connecting first world capital with developing world opportunity – and with some success. A few years ago, I met Mads Kjaer in Oxford and was fascinated by a model that added risk and reward to what had been more a form of philanthropy than investment.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa