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A Microfinance Pioneer Branches Out: Early Learnings from FINCA’s Experiences as an Impact Investor
Some three decades after launching its work in microfinance, FINCA International has gotten into impact investing. Hoping to better understand emerging innovations and their impact on its customers and operations, FINCA Ventures has invested in six social enterprises operating in sub-Saharan Africa. Ami Dalal, the initiative's managing director, discusses the lessons it has learned so far, and how these investments improve FINCA's business strategy while furthering its mission.
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Viewpoint: Impact Investing is Driving the Most Exciting Emerging Technologies
“The advent of very powerful emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, blockchain, and XR can make big differences when combined with smart money coming from venture capital."
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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A Peter Thiel-Backed Credit Card Company That Caters to People with Little to No Credit Just Raised $30 Million
Peter Thiel has doubled down on his investment in a credit card company geared towards people that might typically be turned down by traditional banks.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Viewpoint: Impact Investors are not Funding the Patagonias of Tomorrow—and That’s a Problem
By creating a sense of shared identity, a “cool factor,” and sensitizing parka buyers to technocratic topics like supply chain transparency, Patagonia has transformed the conversation around environmentalism and made it a defining part of many people’s identity. That shift is incredibly hard to quantify and to value in dollars and cents .
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Still White, Still Male: New Report Quantifies Impact Investing’s Diversity Problem
As interest and investments have grown, it’s time for an honest conversation about whether impact investing is perpetuating the inequalities it seeks to address, says Bonnie Chiu, managing director of the Social Investment Consultancy. She shares highlights from a new report that illuminates the challenges faced by women, ethnic minorities and others trying to break into leadership positions in the U.K.’s impact investing sector – and explores the broader implications of this research for the global industry.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, research
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The Rise Fund Spin-Off Marks Growth of Impact Investing
“A lot of what happens with impact investing and philanthropy is people measure afterward,” says Chris Addy, a partner at Bridgespan. The IMM is a metric “to quantitatively account for” social or environmental impact before an investment is made, he says, “with a goal being, you can actually look at hard numbers.”
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Viewpoint: Misaligned Hiring Priorities Risk Taking The Impact Out Of Impact Investing
There is a risk, however, that the ‘impact’ part of impact investing becomes diluted if the teams behind these funds - whether launched by corporates or established venture investment firms - lack the necessary expertise in creating social change. This is a very real possibility - in researching the hiring preferences of impact investment funds to help students identify routes to careers in the sector, my Stanford GSB colleague Bernadette Clavier and I found that hiring managers don’t value expertise and experience in social change as highly as they should in their decision-making.
- Categories
- Investing
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Press release: Women Can Use Impact Investing to Change Capital Markets for the Better, Says New Campaign
“Invest for Better aims to make it easier for women to take action and invest with purpose by addressing their need for information, inspiration, community, and support,” Remmer says. “Even joining the conversation at #investforbetter will connect women to others who are now ramping up or already leading the way.”
- Categories
- Investing
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