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Viewpoint: Behind Toms Founder Blake Mycoskie’s Plan to Build an Army of Social Entrepreneurs
Last year, Blake Mycoskie confronted the one dilemma all entrepreneurs dream of: what to do with a personal windfall. In Mycoskie’s case, the $200 million (after taxes) that arrived after he sold half of his company, the buy-one, give-one shoe retailer Toms, to Bain Capital. He consulted family and friends, intending to find a philanthropic cause that he could embrace and attack, in the manner of other entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Marc Benioff, and Sergey Brin. But Mycoskie has always been an unusual businessman, a free spirit sprinting down a path of his own invention. His decision: use $100 million of that money to launch an investment fund that will back, well, companies that want to be like Toms.
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The Equity Crowdfunding Bandwagon: South East Asia Jumps on Board
Southeast Asia (SEA) represents a burgeoning regional economy comprising of 11 countries with a consolidated GDP of US$2.57 trillion (that’s approximately 15% the size of the US economy), and a combined population of 620 million people. It’s no wonder that there’s a buzz around the potential that the region presents; growing populations, rising wealth of the middle class and a track record of 5.23% GDP y-o-y growth since 2011 form the core pillars of the SEA growth story.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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- crowdfunding
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What You Need to Know About the Mobile Wallet War in India
“Buy this through XYZ digital wallet and get Rs. 50 (US$0.75) cashback on every ticket booked,” read a recent email I received from PVR Cinema. I usually receive this a few times a week and it keeps me informed about the latest movies. The bottom of the emails, as seen, are peppered with advertisements for mobile wallets. All of them vying for your attention and begging to pay part of the ticket price on your behalf. All I have to do is make the transaction through them.
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- Region
- South Asia
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- digital payments
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JP Morgan Backs Project to Get Poor Women to Use Bank Accounts
The world's biggest bank by assets JP Morgan, is spending over half a million dollars (Rs 3.9 crore) in India to get poor women to do more banking. The two-stage programme involves first identifying reasons why women bank accounts are inactive and later coming out with a value proposition for such women by involving a financial services company and a digital payment company.
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- Region
- South Asia
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In Response to Crisis, Bank of Ghana to Review Licensing Regime for Microfinance Companies
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has decided to review the process of granting licences to microfinance institutions (MFIs) to forestall illegal operations by unqualified MFIs in the country.
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- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Amended Financial Law Could Revolutionise Banking in Uganda
After nearly six years in the making, it took Members of Parliament a single day to pass amendments to the 2004 Financial Institutions Act.
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- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- Islamic finance
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Why Bitcoin Can’t Help The Poorest – Yet
The term “financial inclusion” is a new buzzword in the fintech space. With the rise of services like Abra and MPesa, we are convinced that bitcoin is the solution to the problems of the unbanked. With bitcoin, we say, the house cleaner in Dubai can get her money home and the refugee can get his money over the border into a safer place.
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Ghana Microfinance Crisis Growing Into Security Crisis
Bono Ahafo Micro Finance crisis has grown into a security crisis as aggrieved clients demonstrate attack and threaten to stop financial institutions from operating.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- microfinance
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