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Investors warm up to start-ups with a cause
To outsiders, Vindhya e-Infomedia Pvt. Ltd appears to be just another business process outsourcing (BPO) company. What sets the Bangalore-based company apart is the fact that 80% of its 500 employees comprise women below the poverty line and those with physical disabilities; some are blind, hearing-impaired or autistic.
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- Impact Assessment
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How Ankur Capital is following a different path to impact investment
In 2010, J.P. Morgan estimated the potential capital need for impact investments (targeting the part of the global population earning less than $3,000 a year), which drive not just social impact but also financial returns, to be $400 billion to $1,000 billion over the next 10 years. Fortunately, over the last 20 years, the number of specialised commercial funds in the impact investing space has risen 10 times. Capital committed to impact investing via private equity style active managers alone has risen from $4 billion to $12 billion over the same period.
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- Impact Assessment
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- impact investing
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PRESS RELEASE: Calvert Foundation and Bank of America Partner to Invest in Women
Bank of America's $10 million investment will support the economic and social advancement of women in developing countries.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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- impact investing
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World Bank to Appoint ‘Global Practices’ Directors This Week
World Bank President Jim Kim announced on Monday that the appointment of senior directors of the bank’s “global practices” will be finalized later this week ahead of the institution’s spring meetings.
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- Impact Assessment
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- lending
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PRESS RELEASE : BRAC Launches Innovation Fund to Make Mobile Money Work for the Poor
On March 30, 2014 BRAC officially launched the BRAC innovation fund for mobile money at the Frugal Innovation Forum: Scaling Digitally in Savar, Bangladesh. BRAC is experimenting with transitioning from cash and exploring new development strategies enabled by mobile money with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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- Impact Assessment
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Crowdfunding for the Common Good – How Does it Drive Social Change?
Crowdfunding platforms raised an estimated $5.1 billion worldwide in 2013, nearly twice the total for 2012. Although most of this booming investment is in private ventures, mission-driven crowdfunding platforms are also emerging on the leading edge of technology, philanthropy, and social entrepreneurship.
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- Impact Assessment
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- crowdfunding
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3 Factors That Show Social Enterprise Might Start Seeing Bigger Exits
Stewart Craine, cofounder of Barefoot Power and now Village Infrastructure Angels, walks into investor presentations with a pair of well-worn, highly scuffed shoes with the soles falling off. They are his "investor shoes," illustrating the ridiculous distance he has traveled in pursuit of investment for his businesses, which work with world’s poor.
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- Impact Assessment
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How Philanthropists And Investors Can Work Together To Create Social Change
Scaling up innovation is rarely as simple as investing in a company. The best social innovations aren’t companies – rather they are social movements, coalitions co-created by businesses, social sector organisations and governments working together. But how do you fund and scale up a movement?
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- Impact Assessment