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What Impact Investing Could Do For Health Care
In his TedMed talk last week, where he called for a renewed focus on improving root causes of health problems rather than waiting until they cause full blown illnesses, Sandeep Kishore noted this somewhat startling statistic: Of the 30 years of average life-expectancy gains the United States made in the last century, a surprisingly small amount of that average increase--just five years--stems from improvements in the sort of medical care we get in hospitals. The rest of those gains came from other sources, like improvements in water quality and sanitation, vaccinations, and other improvements in public health.
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- Health Care
- Tags
- impact investing
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Looking to Frontier Markets for Next Big Thing in Investing
The difficulty with investing in the next big thing is that it is often not recognized as that until after it has become a current or former big thing. Before its arrival, it tends to be seen only as a crazy, risky thing or nothing at all. Emerging-market portfolio managers specialize in finding the next big thing. But after the transformation of many economies in Asia and Latin America in the past two decades and the strong returns and mainstream popularity of their markets, what’s left to be found?
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing
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CHMI Study IDs How IT is being Used to Solve Global Health Challenges
In response to the considerable challenges in providing high-quality, affordable and universally accessible care in low- and middle-income countries, policy makers, donors and program implementers are increasingly looking at the potential of e-health and m-health (the use of information communication technology for health) as a solution. Today, Results for Development Institute published findings in the May 1 issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, demonstrating that information technology is being increasingly employed to solve some of the world’s biggest health systems challenges. The study, “E-health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from the Center for Health Market Innovations,” is the most comprehensive survey to date in peer reviewed literature of programs using e-health to improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of privately delivered health care for the poor in developing countries.
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Singapore’s Social Enterprise Stock Exchange to Launch Soon
For impact investors and social enterprises looking for ways to link up, the ultimate dream is to have a stock exchange aimed solely at mission-driven companies. That’s a difficult feat to pull off, to put it mildly. You need a critical mass of investors and stock-exchange ready companies, not to mention the wherewithal to meet all manner of red tape and regulatory hurdles, as well as establish the technology capable of supporting the venture.But such an exchange is well underway in Singapore.
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- South Asia
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Scaling Social Enterprises
At the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, we focus on helping social entrepreneurs build ventures that scale. My colleague and mentor Jim Koch, founder of the Center and one of the founders of both our signature Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) and The Tech Awards, returned from the Unite for Sight's Global Health and Innovation Conference effusive about his airplane reading. Jim's praise was for the Monitor Group's recently released report, From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Forus Health Raises $5 Million From Accel Partners & IDG Ventures India
Bangalore-based affordable medical technology and solutions company Forus Health Pvt. Ltd. (Forus) has successfully raised Series A funding of $5 million from two leading venture capital funds, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India.Forus's mission is to address the healthcare delivery issues in the developing world through innovative, inclusive product design and service deployment. Its flagship product 3nethra, a portable, low cost, non-mydriatic, non-invasive pre-screening ophthalmology solution, can detect Cataract, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retina, Refraction and Cornea problems. 3nethra can be operated by a minimally trained technician, and can be deployed in remote areas.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Morgan Stanley Offering Advisors Sustainable Investing Platform
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is launching a platform for its financial advisors to offer clients investments with positive social and environmental impact in what appears to be a major push to offer sustainable investing to mainstream investors.Although many broker-dealers allow their advisors to offer sustainable investments to retail clients, few have specific advisor platforms for that purpose. MSSB made an announcement today about the new platform at the U.S. State Department-sponsored Global Impact Economy Forum.
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing
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BCF Invests in Kenyan Sanitation and Renewable Energy Company
Beyond Capital Fund, a public foundation that employs a traditional investment approach to social investing, recently completed a debt investment in Sanergy, a sanitation company with a focus on Kenya slum dwellers. In total, Sanergy raised over $500,000 to pilot the company’s innovative model, which seeks to solve two critical issues facing urban slums – proper sanitation and affordable energy – by offering low-cost, high-quality sanitation services that turns the collected waste into renewable energy.
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- Press Release
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