-
Founders vs. Funders: How the Two Sides of the Investing Relationship Can Foster More Effective Collaboration to Maximise Impact at Scale
Funders in the social impact space and founders of social ventures depend on one another to drive positive change at scale, so their relationship must be built on trust and alignment. But as Fan Gu at 100x Impact Accelerator explains, these partnerships are often marred by complex dynamics that threaten their success. She shares some of the key ingredients to effective partnerships between these two crucial players in the social impact sector, based on insights from 100x's community of funders, entrepreneurs and non-profits.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
-
Press Release: Roots of Impact Raises Impact-Linked Finance to Grow the Pie and Help Others Enter the Market
With this fresh capital injection, Roots of Impact will build the enabling infrastructure to scale Impact-Linked Finance and support other practitioners to enter this promising field.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- impact investing, innovation, scale
-
Downforce Technologies Secures $4.2 Million to Scale Revolutionary Soil Organic Carbon Measurement Tech
Downforce’s groundbreaking natural capital analytics technology leverages cutting-edge science, modelling and remote sensing.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
- Region
- Global
-
Wasoko-MaxAB E-Commerce Merger Faces Delays Amid Headwinds in Africa
The delay is important in part because of how high-profile this deal has been so far. It’s been described as “the largest merger in African e-commerce” by both companies.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- e-commerce, scale, startups
-
Solving the Educational Disparity in India: A Scalable Solution Leverages AI and Behavior Change to Reach Underserved Communities
Around 37 million Indian children lack access to any form of early education service. Vishal Sunil and Sushmita Roy at Rocket Learning discuss how their organization is addressing this issue through its learning platform, which leverages AI technology and WhatsApp to provide free educational tools to children and parents, while offering training and other resources to the daycare workers who play a key role in the country’s early childhood development landscape.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
-
Under-Leveraged Best Practices for Scaling Productive Use of Energy Appliances: Part 2 — Financing Options
Productive Use of Energy (PUE) appliances are the subject of growing attention in the development sector, but manufacturers and distributors are facing a number of challenges and misconceptions that are limiting uptake of these devices. In the second article of a two-part series exploring best practices for selling PUE appliances, Thomas Charoy and Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath at Hystra discuss the affordability challenge, sharing solutions for handling the high level of working capital and financial skills required to offer financing options to end-users.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Technology
-
Scaling Impact in the Last Mile Distribution Sector: The Pros and Cons of Different Pathways to Scale
The last mile distribution sector has gained significant momentum. But as Russell Lyseight at the Global Distributors Collective and Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact point out, there is still a huge discrepancy between the size of the problem (i.e., last mile consumers’ lack of access to beneficial products and services) and the distribution solutions that currently exist. They explore several approaches last mile distributors can use to close this gap.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
-
Comparing Business Models for Scaling Access to Productive Use of Energy Appliances in Agriculture: The Advantages of Pay-Per-Use
Productive Use of Energy (PUE) appliances — including solar refrigerators, water pumps and more — can boost productivity, income and quality of life in vulnerable communities. But as Ankur Singh, Argha Ghose and Clementine Chambon at Oorja explain, challenges like high upfront costs, lack of financing and poor after-sales service hinder their adoption among these consumers. They explore several business and end-user financing models that can support PUE uptake in agriculture, and explain why the pay-per-use model is uniquely suitable for low-income consumers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Technology
Subscribe to Our 'Business in Global Development' Newsletter!
Our new weekly LinkedIn newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with curated news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage of impact-focused business in emerging markets.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.