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Press Release: Imaginable Futures, New Global Philanthropic Investment Firm Focused on Learning, Spins Off from Omidyar Network
Imaginable Futures will utilize the hybrid funding structure pioneered by Omidyar Network that is part philanthropic foundation and part impact investor. This structure allows Imaginable Futures the financial flexibility to support for-profit entrepreneurs harnessing the power of markets, as well as social and public-sector changemakers innovating to produce scalable change.
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- Investing
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Press Release: Rensource Secures $20M in Series A financing to Power Nigerian SME Productivity
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, only has 12 gigawatts of installed grid capacity, with just one-in-four Nigerians connected to the national power grid. In contrast, South Africa has 50 gigawatts. Rensource launched commercially in 2016 to address this problem
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- Press Release
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Omidyar Network CEO Opens up About VC-Influenced Philanthropy
In 2018, coinciding with a strategic shift that saw Omidyar Network spin out several of its initiatives, the firm elevated to CEO Mike Kubzansky, who had started the firm’s Intellectual Capital arm. In a wide-ranging discussion, Scott Bade spoke to Kubzansky about Omidyar Network’s origins and evolution, and his approach to venture philanthropy.
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- Investing
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Turning Impact Measurement on its Head: A Q&A with 60 Decibels Co-Founders Sasha Dichter and Tom Adams
How should a social business measure its impact? The sector has always struggled to answer that question, leaving many enterprises and investors without useful data about the impact of their work. Acumen is addressing this issue by spinning out a standalone social enterprise called 60 Decibels, which leverages mobile technology to quickly and easily acquire impact data from low-income customers and beneficiaries. Co-founders Sasha Dichter and Tom Adams discuss its innovative model, and the potential it offers to investors, enterprises and the people they serve.
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- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Omidyar to Support Three Emerging Market Think Tanks Exploring Appropriate Use of Digital Identity
Omidyar Network has invested in a trio of organizations from different regions to support enhanced understanding of the appropriate use and limits of digital identity.
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- Technology
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PayPal Makes Its First-Ever Investment in a Blockchain Startup
Neither PayPal nor Cambridge Blockchain disclosed the investment amount, but recent filings with the SEC indicate that Cambridge Blockchain has raised a total of $3.5 million in new equity from several investors over the past nine months.
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- Technology
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Digital Lending To Small Business in India Set To Surge, Says BCG-Omidyar Report
As the number of digital lending platforms rise and the availability of data around small businesses improves, digital lending to the country’s micro small and medium enterprises could surge, said a report co-authored by consulting firm BCG and philanthropic investor Omidyar Network.
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- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Open the Spigot: The Way We Think About Impact Investing is Too Narrow
You hear about it all the time in impact investing reports, articles and blogs: The lack of deal flow. But Tanner Taddeo of ChangeSquare believes the industry's challenge isn't a lack of investible companies, but rather the industry’s narrow definition of impact and how it "blinds" investors to companies that are creating impact in other industries and geographies. Taking a more holistic, rather than plug-and-play approach, will contribute to a broadening definition of impact and subsequently open the spigot for deals, he argues.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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