When I first heard people making generalizations about “millennials,” I realized that I was, indeed, in that category. I embraced what I had learned as a philosophy major . “Know thyself” – or, myself as the case may be. What I learned was spot-on. Millennials, are intrigued and motivated by the potential and the power […]

From The Mint: Mumbai–Financial inclusion service provider IFMR Holdings Pvt Ltd. said on Thursday it has raised $25 million in equity from Accion International, LeapFrog Investments and impact investment fund Lok Capital. Accion is investing $12.5 million of the total, LeapFrog Investments $9 million and Lok Capital $3.5 million. The company provides access to finance […]

ImpactAlpha is excited to again be a media sponsor of SOCAP, the annual gathering of the Social Capital Markets community. For the eighth year in a row, SOCAP15 will convene leading impact investors, world-class entrepreneurs, and innovative cross-sector practitioners for three full days of networking and engaging content. Last year’s sold out-event gathered more than 2,200 […]

Philanthropic funders are working to close the funding gap for social startups with a new mix of flexible investment tools. RSF Social Finance, for example, plans to launch four new funds focused on fair trade, biodynamics, soil health, and women. The new funds are modeled after RSF’s Local Initiatives Fund, which was launched in 2012 to […]

Entrepreneurship was top of President Obama’s agenda during his recent trip to East Africa. But as he noted in his keynote address at the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi, “This is still a neglected market, and accessing capital for entrepreneurs here is still too hard.” One group trying to change that: impact investors. A new report […]

Village Capital has relied on peer selection to build one of the most productive accelerator programs in the impact investing marketplace. In six years, “Vilcap” has launched more than 35 accelerator programs on five continents, investing $2 million in 55 early-stage companies. Entrepreneurs chose every investment. Now Ross Baird, Village Capital’s executive director, is taking peer selection to the big, […]

For decades, the five-ounce can of tuna fish has been the 99¢ pantry essential that U.S. families turned to for a quick sandwich or last-minute meal. Now, a new crew of tuna distributors, including Wild Planet, American Tuna and Ocean Naturals, is breaking the price barrier with brands that promise both sustainability and flavor. That […]

An invasion of green crabs. Plummeting populations of northern shrimp and cod. Shifting seasons for lobster, the anchor of Maine’s $585 million fishing economy. Stretching from Cape Cod to southern Nova Scotia, the Gulf of Maine is among the fastest-warming oceans in the world, a living laboratory for the effects of climate change on marine […]

ImpactAlpha is excited to again be a media sponsor of SOCAP, the annual gathering of the Social Capital Markets community. SOCAP 15 kicks off a little later than usual, and runs October 6-9 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. We’re particularly looking forward to the 30 sessions that emerged from SOCAP Open — the […]

A cundina in Mexico. A chit fund in India. A sou sou in West African and Caribbean nations. Informal savings pools, around for centuries, are still the preferred savings tool of billions of low-income people around the world. Savings circles are common in another country with a large unbanked population as well — the United States. Phoenix-based […]

Impact investors are a tough crowd. For years, proponents have called for more data on impact fund performance and comparable returns to give investors better visibility into the real results of investments intended to generate social and environmental as well as financial benefits. But no sooner had the Global Impact Investing Network and Cambridge Associates released […]

Social lenders such as Root Capital have pioneered financing for smallholder producers of export crops like coffee, cocoa, and tea. Now, Root is seeking to help build agricultural businesses that serve local staple crop markets as well — a financing market that may be 10 times as big. Root, together with Germany’s KfW Development Bank and agriculture […]

Goldman Sachs’ move to buy San Francisco-based Imprint Capital has the small community of impact investment asset managers and dealmakers buzzing about who might next be asked to dance by a Wall Street suitor Goldman’s move to buy, rather than build, its impact investing capacity for high-net-worth and institutional clients may prod other wealth-management giants […]

Green bonds have grown into a more than $40 billion annual market, while social-impact bonds have had trouble getting out of the starting gate. It doesn’t help when early and high-profile offerings not only fail to deliver returns to investors, but fail to deliver the social impact that the bonds were designed to finance in the first […]