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Venture Capital is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It: A Q&A with Village Capital President Ross Baird
Venture capital investors are often backing the wrong ideas for the wrong reasons, hoping to strike it rich by dumping billions into frivolous apps that benefit only a wealthy sliver of the world’s population. Meanwhile, innovative solutions to pressing global challenges go underfunded. That's the thesis of Village Capital president Ross Baird, which he expresses in a new book. NextBillion editor Sonya Vann DeLoach discusses the book's message with Baird in this interview.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Water ATMs: How Technology is Improving Water Governance in Tanzania
The lack of accessible, potable water for many of the world's most remote communities is too often due to a water governance issue. But as Madison Lawson is at Catholic Relief Services points out, new enterprises are combining database management, water pumping and business models that can deliver fresh water to places most in need. She highlights one such "water ATM" system in Tanzania.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, WASH
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Welfare Schemes Don’t Work if Nobody Knows About Them: Fixing India’s Information Deficit
An information drought is causing millions of India's poor to miss out on billions of dollars in vital government assistance. Haqdarshak is a tech platform that addresses this massive problem. Using a combination of technology and a network of people, the social enterprise aims to transform the way people find out about, apply for and benefit from various welfare schemes.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Philanthropy is Changing Fast: 12 Lessons from Three Reports
A slew of reports over the last two years from the more progressive spheres of the social good sector shows that philanthropy cannot continue with “business as usual” if we hope to actually achieve the global SDGs. Mark Horoszowski and Petra Barbu of MovingWorlds pull some nuggets of wisdom from several recent reports, all pointing toward new rules the changemakers of the future are, or soon will be, following.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- philanthropy
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Toilet To Tap: Solving the Global Water Crisis With Wastewater
World Toilet Day is Nov. 19, and as it focuses global attention on how to improve sanitation and fight water scarcity, one somewhat uncomfortable solution is emerging: the re-use of wastewater. Of course, not everyone agrees with the methods, and the thought of "drinking human waste" isn't palatable. But thanks to rapid technological advancement and the growing recognition that waste can be profitable, the practice could finally be overcoming the "ick" factor to become an important strategy for solving the world’s water crisis.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
- Tags
- waste
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Empowering OPIC: Why the U.S. Should Embrace Development Finance and Harness the Power of Impact Investing
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) supports projects in nearly 100 countries around the world, leveraging limited public investment to attract billions of dollars in private capital. And for 39 consecutive years, it has returned money to the Treasury, reducing the deficit by $2.6 billion over the past eight years alone. Yet it remains constrained in the types of investments it can make. Fran Seegull urges the U.S. to let OPIC better harness the momentum of impact investing.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Making it Rain: Solar-Powered Irrigation and the ‘Household Productivity Ladder’
Solar energy can be put to many constructive uses in emerging market households, but SunCulture focuses on helping smallholder farmers move water. Why? Because it has the greatest impact on a key area: household productivity. Their CEO Samir Ibrahim shares the story of a SunCulture customer, whose experiences highlight the value of solar-powered irrigation to 2.5 billion farmers living on less than $2 a day.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Exclusive Giveaway for NB Notes Readers: Free Chapter of Jed Emerson’s New Book
Along with curating NextBillion's top articles, jobs and events in an easy-to-read format, our weekly e-newsletter has grown to include something equally cool: free stuff! We have two giveaways this month, exclusive for NextBillion Notes subscribers: A free chapter of “The ImpactAssets Handbook for Investors," edited by Jed Emerson, and 1 free ticket to the Social Finance Forum, Canada's leading conference on impact investing and social enterprise.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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