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As Impact Investors We Often Miss One Thing: Who Has the Power?
Impact investors are rightly focused on the social impact of the businesses they invest in. But they often overlook a fundamental question: How does the enterprise localize power? Galen Welsch, co-founder of Jibu, explores why the need to empower local markets should be at the core of social business and investing decisions.
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Hidden Opportunity: How Investors Can Unlock the Potential of Refugee Entrepreneurs
Globally, almost 70 million people were displaced as of 2017. But though this refugee crisis is serious and growing, a more hopeful narrative is being overlooked, say John Kluge and Tim Docking at the Refugee Investment Network. Refugees are natural entrepreneurs whose businesses can make a major impact on themselves, their families and their communities – an impact that would grow with more investor support. Kluge and Docking discuss a recent RIN report that explores the emerging “refugee investing” movement, and why it represents an exciting field in impact investing.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Markets in Cambodia Cheer First Bond Issue
Long-awaited listing lifts local firms' hopes of following suit to raise funds.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Pulling Back the Curtain on a Social Enterprise Merger: Practicalities and Surprises as Two Companies Become One
When Pollinate Energy began executing its recent merger with a former competitor, Empower Generation, some stakeholders doubted they would succeed. But as its CEO Alexie Seller describes, though the two companies were based in different countries, their models and missions were similar. Even so, they faced multiple challenges – and more than a few surprises – in the merger process. In this revealing post, Seller explores what has worked, and what hasn’t, as the companies have combined.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Turning Saris into Stainless Steel: How the Companies of the Future Can Learn from Business Models of the Past
In India in the 1970s, tens of thousands of itinerant street vendors carried stainless steel kitchenware products from door to door, bartering them for saris and other old clothes in a complex, multi-tiered supply chain. According to Prashant Yadav at Harvard Medical School, these vendors’ business model – like others from past decades – holds valuable lessons for modern enterprises working in challenging markets. He shares some of these insights – and encourages others to do likewise – in this fascinating article.
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- Uncategorized
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Social Innovation Needs Data, This Free Platform Provides It
New social innovations are exciting, but there’s also great value in scaling existing solutions that show promise. There’s just one problem with this approach, says Sweta Govani: The information about these innovations is incomplete, complicated and fragmented, making it hard to determine which ones deserve support. She discusses a new solution called Global Innovation Exchange, a free, data-driven technology platform that gives funders, social entrepreneurs and others easy access to high-quality, up-to-date information about existing global development innovations.
- Categories
- Investing
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Authentic Storytelling Can Boost a Social Enterprise’s Development – This Tool Can Help
When promoting their businesses, most social entrepreneurs naturally focus on talking about their successes. But though their instinct is often to minimize or ignore their enterprise's setbacks, this can actually be a mistake, says Barbara Börner, a consultant for social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations. She explores how telling the stories behind these challenges can raise awareness of a social business among potential investors, customers and other stakeholders – and she shares a free tool that can help entrepreneurs develop more effective storytelling skills.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations
Over 4 billion people around the world lack necessities like food, water, energy, health care and housing. This represents not only a major social challenge but a major market, as low-income consumers have an annual purchasing capacity of US $5 trillion. Rajat Chabba and Sheena Raikundalia at Intellecap explore how entrepreneurs are developing innovative, frugal products to meet these customers’ needs – and why an ecosystem approach is needed to help them scale their solutions.
- Categories
- Technology