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Citi Leads Investment in SJF’s New Fund
he team at SJF Ventures had to undergo federal background checks, submit fingerprints and provide 20 references each in order to obtain a license from the Small Business Administration for its new nationally focused impact investment fund, SJF Ventures III LP.The fund could be a potential new funding source for some start-ups with a social good focus.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy
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Selling to the World’s Poor Offers Huge Potential
It might seem counterintuitive, but setting your sights on the world’s four billion poorest people can be remarkably lucrative. Just ask Suneet Singh Tuli. The CEO of wireless-device manufacturer DataWind Ltd. says his Montreal-based company’s revenue could soar from less than $10 million last year to more than $300 million next year, thanks to the stripped-down tablet computer it developed to sell in India: “It’s an astonishing rate of growth.”
- Categories
- Technology
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N Sundaresha Subramanian: Why the SME Exchange Needs a Big Hand
For the third time in the Indian stock market history, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now have a new platform to access funds from people other than friends and family in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) SME exchange that completed its first initial public offer (IPO) in February.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Kiva and Silatech Launch Online Entrepreneur Micro-loans
Online micro-lending platform Kiva has announced a partnership with Qatar's Silatech to develop an online funding programme for young Arab entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Interest-free Microfinance Hope for Poor Muslims
Making headlines in the recent past for crushing interest rates claiming lives of debtors, microfinance is now being offered with a more humane approach. The Human Welfare Foundation will now offer loans in the form of interest-free microfinance to the poor across the country including Hyderabad, said vice president of Jamat-e-Islami Hind Prof K A Siddique Hassan here on Saturday.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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Enterprise Sets Up Service Centres for Livestock Farmers
A social enterprise has opened 16 livestock service centres to help farmers improve production through better extension services.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Right Entry Point for Emerging Markets
Scott Anthony recently participated in a spirited panel discussion with Bruce Brown, Procter & Gamble's Chief Technology Officer, and Erich Joachimsthaler, Vivaldi Partners' managing director and CEO. The topic — part of a series on innovation sponsored by Singapore's Economic Development Board and coordinated by Harvard Business Review — was "What's the Right Entry Point for Emerging Markets: Target Customers at the Bottom or the Middle of the Pyramid?"
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IFC To Start $100M Microfinance Debt Fund
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, along with two other investors, will set up a $100 million debt fund called Micro Finance Initiative for Asia (MIFA), to address the funding needs of microfinance institutions in developing and underdeveloped economies.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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