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WAMDA: Inspiring, Empowering and Connecting Entrepreneurs in the MENA Region
Launched by Abraaj Capital at 2010 milestone event “Celebration of Entrepreneurship” in Dubai in 2010, Wamda has evolved to be a major entrepreneurship platform in the region. It nurtures entrepreneurship both online as well as offline by combining an information outlet, funding opportunities, and additional programs – each specifically catered to entrepreneurs in the MENA region.
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- Uncategorized
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Shape Up and Scale Up: The Value of Mentors for Guiding Impact Entrepreneurs (Part 2)
We interviewed several business accelerators – Unreasonable Institute, TechnoServe, New Ventures Mexico and New Ventures India to learn more about the structure of their programs and key lessons learned in providing mentor services. For part two, we spoke directly with mentors and entrepreneurs who have been involved in these programs to learn why they do it and what makes mentor programs successful.
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Financing Business Skills Development for Impact Enterprises: Who Pays?
One of the main barriers preventing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from getting to scale in emerging economies is a lack of core business skills. To meet this need, a plethora of stand-alone business incubators and accelerators have emerged over recent years. All play a critical role in preparing companies for the market, but who ends up footing the bill?
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NexThought Monday: Shape Up and Scale Up: The Value of Mentors for Guiding Impact Entrepreneurs (Part 1)
A recent study by I-DEV International analyzed incubator/accelerator models and best practices across the globe and determined that mentor and peer learning are, in fact, the strongest components of existing social incubator/accelerator models. Given their importance, we wanted to get a handle on the types of mentor programs currently offered by a few of these incubator/accelerator programs.
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NextThought Monday: Helping the BoP Design its Own Way Out of Poverty
Daniel Altman is an economist, writer and teacher with a deep commitment to international development. He’s had a revelation about the power of consumer products to create markets from the inside out, and he’s doing something about it.
Emerging Design Centers (EDCs) is a for-profit enterprise that puts cutting-edge design tools in the hands of the poor.- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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PopTech: On Failure, Jedi Knights and the Edge of Social Change
I recently sat down with Executive Director and Curator Andrew Zolli, and PopTech President Leetha Filderman for a candid conversation on a broad spectrum of topics, from impact investing to the importance of failure, to the pace of social innovation and how PopTech sees its role as an accelerant. While best known for its leave-your-head-spinning conferences, it appears that what’s actually popping at PopTech is a lot quieter, slower and more fundamental than may initially meet the eye.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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- failure, incubators
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Njambre, a New Social Enterprise Accelerator in Argentina Looks to ‘Swarm’ Impact
Based in Buenos Aires, Njambre (a Spanish term for “swarm”) is a new space of support, advice, and mentorship for social entrepreneurs. Launched by Paula Cardenau, Emiliano Fazio and Federico Seineldin, Njambre seeks to identify entrepreneurs with ideas and with the potential of becoming sound social enterprises.
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Incubator and Impact Investor Aims for Multiple BoP Sectors
In July 2011, Anurag Jain decided to leave his position as the head of Dell’s Services Delivery unit, where he lead a team of thousands of IT professionals working in key infrastructure areas like cloud computing, applications, and business process solutions. Jain, an engineer and entrepreneur, decided to focus exclusively on growing a multi-sector BoP impact investing incubator, Anavo Global LLC.
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- Health Care