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USAID Announces A New Development Impact Bond
Launched Thursday, the Utkrisht Impact Bond, named for the Hindi expression for excellence, will fund maternal and newborn health in the Indian state of Rajasthan. DIBs are results-based contracts, in which investors — in this case UBS Optimus Foundation, a grantmaking organization focused on improving the lives of children — provide financing for social programs upfront.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- impact investing
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Investment = Inclusion: Can Fintech, With a Boost from Investors, Level the Playing Field for the Unbanked in Africa?
Fintech – particularly mobile finance – is increasingly vital to Africa's economic growth. But despite the continent's impressive mobile money penetration, much of its population remains unbanked or underbanked. That’s why it’s so encouraging to see another trend developing in tandem with Africans’ embrace of fintech: namely, investors’ embrace of African fintech companies. Iftin Fatah at OPIC explores why more investment means more digital financial inclusion.
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Who Will Pay For Nature? How To Catalyze Private Investment In Sustainability
Annual government grants today only punch in at $142.6 billion. Philanthropy produces about $400 billion per year in the U.S., though only a small percentage of this goes to environment or sustainability issues. That leaves a huge financing gap.
- Categories
- Environment
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Impact Investing at a Turning Point: Read a Free Chapter of Morgan Simon’s New Book, ‘Real Impact’
Impact investing is at a turning point, says Morgan Simon, managing director of Candide Group and founding CEO of Toniic, in her new book "Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change." It's preparing for rapid scale, but risks falling short of its ideals and transformative potential. Simon discusses eight pitfalls facing the sector in the book's third chapter – which we’re delighted to offer, for free, to readers of our e-newsletter “NextBillion Notes.”
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Ford Foundation hires Swan to lead Mission Investments portfolio
The Ford Foundation announced today the appointment of Roy Swan as director of its Mission Investments team based in New York. Swan will lead a dedicated team managing the portfolio announced in April, when Ford committed to invest $1 billion over the next ten years in mission-related investments (MRIs).
- Source
- Press Release
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Alibaba launches US$1.5 billion fund to help fight poverty in China
At a conference attended by the company’s 36 partners at its headquarters in Hangzhou, executive chairman Jack Ma announced it would set up the Alibaba Poverty Relief Fund, with the money to be donated over the next five years.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Venture Capital is Broken – Here’s How to Fix It: A Q&A with Village Capital President Ross Baird
Venture capital investors are often backing the wrong ideas for the wrong reasons, hoping to strike it rich by dumping billions into frivolous apps that benefit only a wealthy sliver of the world’s population. Meanwhile, innovative solutions to pressing global challenges go underfunded. That's the thesis of Village Capital president Ross Baird, which he expresses in a new book. NextBillion editor Sonya Vann DeLoach discusses the book's message with Baird in this interview.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Blended Finance Gets a $500 Million Boost: Convergence CEO Discusses Groundbreaking Partnership with IFC
US $2.5 trillion: That’s the estimated funding gap the world needs to close in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this daunting goal, says Convergence CEO Joan Larrea, “We need to tap into new sources of capital, particularly from private investors” – a goal Convergence advances by connecting, educating and supporting investors to execute blended finance transactions. This approach recently got a half billion dollar shot in the arm; our interview with Larrea reveals how.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing