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What’s Really Driving Africa’s ‘Investment Frenzy’?: An Entrepreneur Responds to Investor Concerns
In her much-discussed NextBillion article about avoiding “the Africa investment frenzy,” impact investor Lauren Cochran urged entrepreneurs to forego the “growth-at-all-costs” approach to scaling and “the ego-boost of big rounds and press releases.” But Zoona co-founder Mike Quinn argues that her advice ignores a reality that many investors don’t recognize. Quinn pushes back on Cochran's argument from an entrepreneur's perspective in this compelling counterpoint.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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Big Investors Need to Change the Way They Do Business: A Q&A with the GIIN’s Co-Founder and CEO, Amit Bouri
The overall impact investing market portfolio is now estimated at half a trillion dollars. So how are Asia – and specifically India – shaping up in terms of impact investment growth and development? Smarinita Shetty, co-founder and CEO at India Development Review, asks this and other questions in this interview with Amit Bouri, the CEO and co-founder of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Bouri notes that despite several new retail opportunities, it's still not enough to move the needle.
- Categories
- Investing
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Built to Scale? Growing Pains Hit Cambodia’s Businesses for Good
With the ‘Markle Sparkle’, the little-known business - which employs survivors of human trafficking and other vulnerable women to make ethically sourced, environmentally friendly jeans - exploded. However, the spotlight also created a dilemma for the young social enterprise - or business using profits for good.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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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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RSF-Purpose Initiative Responds to Demand for Mission-First Business Models
A grassroots global movement is emerging behind mission-first business models rooted in stakeholder governance—rather than shareholder control—and RSF Social Finance and the Purpose Foundation are collaborating to help that movement grow. Today they released a report that serves as a handbook for companies exploring alternative business structures and financing.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, Finance, Investing, Technology
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‘Pilots Never Fail, Pilots Never Scale’: Why the Global Development Community Needs a More Realistic Approach to Reaching Billions
We live in an era that calls for large-scale social and environmental transformation – but our standard approaches aren't working. As Lennart Woltering at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center sees it, we need larger systems change. He shares a new paper that argues that agricultural development should stop focusing narrowly on making an impact through specific projects, and instead transform the underlying system so new technologies can be used by millions.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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An Impact Investing Model Designed for Africa: Why the Continent Should Embrace Search Funds
According to Brendan J. Mullen of Secha Capital, there's a little-known but perfectly suited investment model for Africa's emerging markets: search funds. Often vehicles for young, aspiring entrepreneurs to finance, acquire and grow established SMEs, search funds trust the local market by directing capital to where it’s most needed. As Secha launches a new $30 million fund, Mullen shares how investments in both growth and human capital are yielding impressive returns.
- Categories
- Investing
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What Rural Solar Energy Enterprises Can Learn from Mobisol’s Hard-Earned Lesson
Energy access pioneer Mobisol’s insolvency, announced last spring, sparked questions about the industry’s health. But according to Rob Goodier, managing editor at Engineering for Change, subsequent analyses suggest that many of the company's problems were internal, not a reflection of the industry as a whole. He explores what the rural energy sector can learn from Mobisol’s struggles, based on interviews with industry insiders and two people close to the company.
- Categories
- Energy
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