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Coronavirus, Employment and Data: Announcing NextBillion’s 2020 Special Series
NextBillion is pleased to announce the topics of our 2020 special series. These three year-long series will cover innovations and challenges in employment, the "untold stories" of social entrepreneurs, and the risks and opportunities of Big Data. Each will be managed by a different member of our editorial team. Check out the descriptions here, and email the appropriate editor if you’d like to discuss a potential guest article. We’re looking forward to following the discussion!
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- Social Enterprise, Technology
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$2.5 Million Initiative to Support Clean Energy-Based Livelihood Solutions in Tamil Nadu
The Council on Energy, Environment and Water and Villgro Innovation Foundation will support at least five enterprises to undertake large-scale commercial deployments.
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- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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Navigating Risks as Private Equity Moves into Impact Investing: Examples from Kenya
It's no surprise that impact investing has been adopted by development-focused organizations – but it has increasingly also attracted the attention of more profit-driven institutions, including some leading private equity firms. While this represents a milestone in the sector's march toward the mainstream, Julio De Souza and Gianluca Storchi at StratLink Advisory Group discuss some persistent concerns – illustrated with examples from their home base in Kenya.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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The World’s First 3D-Printed Neighborhood Is Being Built in Mexico for Families Living on $3 a Day
New Story is a nonprofit that helps families in need of shelter. It has built more than 2,700 homes in South America and Mexico since it was founded in 2014. This is the first homebuilding project it's done with 3D printing.
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- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Managing the Managers: Nine Tips to Help Social Enterprises Build Outstanding Management Teams
Startups can fail for many reasons, but research shows that having the wrong team is a leading cause of failure. And while finding talented managers is a critical challenge for entrepreneurs everywhere, it is especially difficult in emerging markets. Mark Horoszowski, the co-founder and CEO at MovingWorlds.org, shares nine essential lessons to help social enterprises build effective management teams that will take their great ideas to scale.
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- Social Enterprise
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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.
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- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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These Villages in Thailand Are Part of the Global Economy. Go to Ikea to Find Out.
At a time when international corporations look to project images of social responsibility, projects like Doi Tung are picking up clients seeking more than the usual matchup of quality and price. That is one reason major companies — including Ikea, Japan Airlines and the Japanese retailer Muji — are buying Doi Tung products and produce.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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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, Social Enterprise
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