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Blog Post
Natural disasters leave U.S. communities reeling – but those impacted generally have an insurance safety net. When climate-related catastrophes strike poorer populations, it is almost impossible to recover fully. In fact, every year natural disasters force 26 million people further into poverty. Stewart McCulloch of VisionFund International details a novel disaster insurance program that leverages big data climate models to support nearly 700,000 families with "recovery lending."
Finance Responds to Climate Change: How ‘Recovery Lending’ Can Help Victims of Weather-Related DisastersBlog Post
Many small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries fall into the “missing middle”: They're too big for microfinance and too small or risky for traditional finance. To better understand this sector and how to support it, the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) commissioned studies on the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo. WDI's Ekta Jhaveri discusses the research with Julia Kho, knowledge manager at TripleJump, an investment management and advisory services firm that manages DGGF’s Investment Funds Local SMEs effort.
Closing the Gap: Identifying Key Challenges for the Missing Middle SMEs in Francophone West AfricaBlog Post
With over $114 billion deployed into impact investments in 2017 and the total U.S. market at well above $8 trillion, the sector has gone decisively mainstream. And when that happens, industry consolidation is not far behind. In light of a recent wave of eyebrow-raising mergers and acquisitions, Stephanie Cohn Rupp at Tiedemann Wealth Management – which recently completed a merger of its own – says this trend should spark more excitement than concern.
Coming of Age: Why Consolidation in the Impact Investing Industry is a Great ThingNews
World Tokenomic Forum is innovating the social enterprise venture fund model with its Sandcastle Social Enterprise Fund focused on early stage, protocol and decentralized application investments for cybersecurity, infrastructure, identity, payments, and social impact companies.
Press release: World Tokenomic Forum Launches a Revolutionary Social Enterprise Venture Fund for Blockchain Related TechnologiesNews
"Each day, I grow more convinced that all entrepreneurs need networks of peers that can help them run more successful businesses—and become more effective leaders in the process," says Willy Foote.
Why Every Entrepreneur Needs To Tap Into A Network of PeersNews
Jibu, a social enterprise that has reinvented the traditional franchise model to equip emerging market entrepreneurs to build solutions that close infrastructure gaps and ensure access to basic human necessities, announces the completion of its $7 million Series B financing round, bringing its total raised to more than $10 million. The Company will use the funds to accelerate its launch of 1,000 drinking water franchises in at least a dozen new countries by 2022.
Jibu Announces Completion of $7 Million Series B FinancingBlog Post
Despite the importance of agriculture in Indonesia's economy, smallholder farmers are 2.3 times poorer than the general population – and they have little access to formal financing that could boost their production and income. Because of this, many fall prey to loan sharks and go into debt. To address this vicious cycle, the crowdfunding platform Crowde is helping smallholders connect with investors, who help finance their farms in exchange for profit-sharing. Heri Siswanto discusses the successes – and challenges – of this approach.
Crowdfunded Farming: Connecting Investors with Smallholders in IndonesiaBlog Post
The classic tech-meets-tradition narrative often portrays fintechs and established financial institutions as natural adversaries. But research from the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) and the Institute of International Finance found quite the opposite to be true. CFI's Sonja E. Kelly explores the report's findings, which detail the surprising scope for collaboration among these players – and the potential impact on low-income customers.
The ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Myth: How Fintechs and Financial Institutions Can Partner for Mutual Benefit – And Greater Financial Inclusion
