NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The Questions of Sankalp Forum : Angels, incubators, impact measurement and who should pay for it all

Nearly 1,000 members of the impact investing community congregated at Sankalp Unconvention 2013 last week. The fact that this industry has grown so rapidly is anecdotally visible in the turnout at this event – while one would expect social enterprises and investing funds; the breadth of representation from other players was impressive: from incubators, international aid agencies, journalists, and academia to even tech consulting services, marketing and branding specialists. Some interesting themes emerged.

Categories

Social Enterprise

Tags

impact investing

Making the Grade – the NextBillion Case Writing Competition Winners: Catch the replay of our Google+ Hangout to learn the stories behind the social enterprise cases

Earlier this month we unveiled three winners and two honorable mentions in NextBillion’s Case Writing Competition, which was sponsored by the Citi Foundation. Now you can meet the professors and students who wrote these top-tier cases chronicling how companies both large and small dealt with a variety of challenges in serving low-income customers.

Categories

Education, Social Enterprise

Video Q&A: Toys That Teach – Both Children and their Caregivers: Brazil-based PUPA is building a network to serve early childhood education at the BoP

Categories

Education, Social Enterprise

Weekly Roundup 3/6/13: Getting ready for Sankalp 2013

By linking up with Villgro’s UnConvention, Intellecap’s Sankalp Forum later this month is the largest conference of its kind in India, and perhaps anywhere else in Asia.
Considering the rapid scale up of the conference, I wanted to find out what Sankalp would like like in 2013. For more I spoke with Sankalp Forum Director Aparajita Agrawal. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Looking Beyond Impact: Seeking Transformational Change’.

Categories

Social Enterprise

Subscribing to Better Health: How Sevamob’s model helps patients – and its bottom line

When people think of innovative business models in BoP health care, they often think of delivery or supply chain innovations. But there’s also a wealth of experimentation on the health financing side, involving everything from micro-insurance to subscription fees. Sevamob, an Indian social enterprise, uses a subscription model. In this Q&A, Shelley Saxena, Sevamob’s founder, discusses the advantages and challenges of this approach.

Categories

Health Care, Social Enterprise

Tags

public health

EcoZoom on Building a Market for Clean Cookstoves: What it takes for consumers to invest for long-term savings

Global Envision interviewed Chief of Operations Phil Ferranto on the challenges EcoZoom faces in convincing people to invest in clean cookstoves, developing a market for cookstoves in developing economies, and what sets EcoZoom apart as a socially-minded for-profit business.

Categories

Energy, Social Enterprise

Tags

clean cooking, climate health

FEATURED EVENT – The 10th Annual Global Health & Innovation Conference: Join the world’s largest global health & social entrepreneurship conference April 13-14

Unite for Sight has become an acclaimed NGO, and the Global Health & Innovation Conference has become the world’s largest global health and social entrepreneurship event. Join NextBillion Health Care on April 13-14 in New Haven, Connecticut for the 10th annual conference.

Categories

Health Care, Social Enterprise

Tags

public health

A New Wave of Crowdfunding: Connecting Social Enterprises with Investors (for Greater Social Impact)

In a growing ecosystem where for-profit social enterprises are becoming more visible and investors equally interested, a significant problem remains: How do we connect the two and streamline them in a way that is both efficient and helps accelerate social impact?

Categories

Social Enterprise, Technology