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Needed: A ‘Facebook’ for Impact Investing: Why the Sector Needs to Embrace Failure – And Also Produce Some Inspiring Successes
Impact investing has had some notable success stories, but no true breakout companies that – like Facebook – can inspire public attention and draw more entrepreneurs and investors to the sector. That's a problem, says Vox Capital director Daniel Izzo – as is the fear of failure, both financial and social, among investors. He discusses these challenges, and some possible solutions, in this video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Previewing SOCAP15: A rundown of this year’s agenda – and a $500 discount for NextBillion readers!
Now in its eighth year, SOCAP15 will convene leading impact investors, world-class entrepreneurs and innovative cross-sector practitioners for three full days of networking and engaging content. The event will be held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA, Oct. 6-9, and NextBillion readers can get a $500 discount.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Needed: Naïve People with Stupid Ideas: An interview with Intellecap co-founder and director Vineet Rai
When Intellecap was founded in 2002, few people would have predicted that it would become a social business and investing powerhouse. According to co-founder and director Vineet Rai, the company’s early years were defined by failure. He discusses the lessons he learned from these failures (and subsequent successes), Intellecap’s unique model and future plans, and many other topics in this wide-ranging video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Feel Better Now, Pay Later: AfriMedico founders are hoping an ancient Japanese drug sales system will work in Africa
Okigusuri is a drug sales system that worked for centuries in Japan and has been successfully exported to other Asian countries. The founders of AfriMedico are betting the system – in which households are given a box of medicine, and they pay only for what they use – will work in Africa, too.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Weekly Roundup 7-11-15: Sports for Girls, Marriage Counseling for EU/Greece, Tweets for All
The NextBillion team is a bit far-flung as the summer season hits high gear, so we’re continuing our experiment of combining our weekly Roundup with our list of Twitter favorites.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Jayashree Industries: Achieving gender equity one sanitary pad at a time
What if a little, two-by-four inch piece of soft, cottony material could reduce gender inequality and restore the dignity of women in underdeveloped nations? Indian entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham has discovered that even the most basic sanitary pad can allow for women to more fully participate in society.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Our Newest E-Book, ‘Going Off Grid’: Leaders building a grid-free future with limitless potential
In many countries, the once inflexible electrical grid is being reshaped and retooled in a creatively destructive process that offers access and returns on investment with less risk. The “Going Off Grid” series, which we are proud to present to you here in e-book form, explored new technologies, new business models and new forms of investing and participation in the developing market of energy infrastructure.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Closing the Market Gap: The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership trains female entrepreneurs to sell a varitey of products in remote regions
The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership created a distribution social enterprise model that trains female entrepreneurs as a door-to-door distribution network in remote regions. The model aims to create livelihoods for female entrepreneurs and to increase the access and affordability of essential and pro-poor goods to BoP communities.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise