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21st Century Investing: Why Today’s Global Challenges Call for a System-Level Approach to Impact
From climate change and embedded social inequities to global pandemics, the scope and scale of the risks facing our world have increased. But according to William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg at The Investment Integration Project, these overlapping crises are serving as wake-up calls to many investors, leading them to take a more holistic approach to today's complex challenges. They describe this growing class of “system-level investors,” and how they're going beyond both conventional and sustainable investing to address global problems on a deep, systemic level.
- Categories
- Investing
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1.3% Isn’t Enough: The Case for More Diversity in Investment Fund Management
Fund managers play an important part in both traditional and impact investing, helping to set development priorities by leveraging capital. But as Sagar Tandon of Moonshot Ventures points out, women and minority-led funds account for just 1.3% of the $69 trillion investment industry in the United States – even though they perform better than funds managed by white men. He explains how greater diversity in fund management could benefit both investors and enterprises, while gradually introducing an impact focus to mainstream investing.
- Categories
- Investing
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Viewpoint: Demise of ESG Investing Overstated
The Department of Labor’s recent notice of proposed rulemaking on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in pension fund investments has received a lot of responses, both in the official Federal Register docket and in the news media and blogosphere.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa Attracted $3.9 Billion VC Deals in 6 Years
Fintechs, information technology firms, and other companies in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa attracted a total of 613 Venture Capital (VC) deals valued at $3.9 billion, between 2014 and 2019.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Rethinking the ‘Africa Play’: Why We Held Back from the Africa Investment Frenzy
Earlier this year, the investment committee at Blue Haven Initiative’s Ventures team raised a painful question: Did they miss the boat? As managing director Lauren Cochran explains, they'd only made one new investment at a time when the venture market in Africa was exploding. But it soon became clear that the growth-at-all-costs model other investors were adopting was never going to work in Africa. Cochran explains why investors should "forget the ego-boost of big rounds and press releases" and take a more fundamental approach.
- Categories
- Investing
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Yes, Your Pitch Deck is That Important: Here’s How to Get Investors’ Attention and Raise Your First $100K
Entrepreneurs often have a lot of misconceptions around fundraising when they start their business. And according to Mehak Malik, Investment Associate at Beyond Capital Fund, these misunderstandings can undermine one key element of their success: the all-important pitch deck. She discusses the questions entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before drafting a pitch deck, based on a recent series of entrepreneur workshops from Beyond Capital and ANDE.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Solutions to Five Key Barriers to Women’s Financial Inclusion
In developing countries, only 59% of women have a bank account – an issue VisionFund is addressing through its Women’s Empowerment Fund. But though the fund has supported thousands of female-led businesses, it has also faced persistent challenges – many of which are unique to women. Johanna Ryan, VisionFund's Global Director of Impact, discusses five obstacles the fund has encountered, and how they've responded.
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Why Africa’s Energy Sector Needs Transparency: A Q&A with the Head of KawiSafi Ventures, Acumen’s for-Profit Energy Fund
While investing patient capital into for-profit firms has been Acumen’s MO for decades now, the organization itself has remained a non-profit. But in April, Acumen announced that it was doing something it hadn't done before: creating a commercial investment fund. Called KawiSafi Ventures, the for-profit fund has lined up $70 million to boost clean energy firms – and therefore clean energy access – in East Africa. Managing Director Amar Inamdar explores the fund's focus on scalable businesses, and why debt and equity need to start playing nice with one another in the sector.
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