Entrepreneur

Changing the Demographics of Investments

Posted on by Case Foundation

Recent developments in international aid, education and business development are creating significantly positive outcomes for disadvantage women in less economically developed countries and regions. During the last few years in particular, large-scale human rights campaigns and commitments to do more, including: The Millennium Development Goal – Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women; Girl Up; and the US government’s initiative, “Let Girls Learn” have dramatically helped to bolster attention on this issue and increase investments in opportunities for women.

Root Capital is one such investor that has thrown its cap into this arena in a big way, and is the focus of this week’s Spotlight on Social Enterprise from the Case Foundation and Entrpreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha. This nonprofit is proving the business case for gender equity by capitalizing on loans to farmers associations and agricultural businesses in Africa and Latin America—that empower and promote women in roles traditionally held only by men.

Root Capital directs its investments according to its “gender scorecard,” which uses eight different metrics to measure a borrower’s gender inclusiveness. This organization is also doubling down on returns, both through improved female representation and empowerment in the farming cooperates where they invest and through improved loan repayment rates and more innovation. This nonprofit impact investor values the potential for sizable financial returns in untapped industries and markets that are designed to empower women.

The loans made by Root Capital in farming co-ops and associations are effectively empowering women to take greater ownership over their work and earned income, and allowing them to take over work traditionally assigned to men. However, social and cultural barriers continue to hold these women back, and therefore Root Capital is increasing investments in education programs. The goal here is to ultimately increase female representation in tangential work, including accounting, agrodealing and field inspecting.

The kind of barriers that are supported by tradition can be very difficult to break down or mitigate. One woman, who is making the case for greater gender parity in small farming is Odalis Noeme Guerrero, featured in this week’s Entrepreneur case study. After convincing her father to break tradition and give her a plot of the family’s least productive land, she earned a degree in agronomics and put it to good use first on her slice of land and then eventually on the entire family farm. Guerrero’s agronomics degree helped her family’s coffee farm increase production by approximately 900 percent.

For more on how Root Capital is changing the demographic of agricultural associations and co-ops to empower more women through nontraditional roles, to the betterment of crop yields and investment prospects, see the full case study on Entrepreneur.com.

When a B Corp Goes Public, Can Social Outcomes Keep Pace with Profits?

Posted on by Case Foundation

Etsy is the online marketplace where independent artisans and consumers come together to buy and sell unique goods, and connect over shared tastes and visual inspiration. This B Corporation promotes both the virtues of individuality and positive social outcomes and is the focus of this week’s spotlight on Social Enterprise from the Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha.

What’s so special about this company? Founded in Brooklyn, NY, in 2005, Etsy is an online network that connects entrpreneurs with customers whom they otherwise would not be able to access. As noted on its website:

“The heart and soul of Etsy is [their] global community: the creative entrepreneurs who use Etsy to sell what they make or curate, the shoppers looking for things they can’t find anywhere else, the manufacturers who partner with Etsy sellers to help them grow and the Etsy employees who maintain and nurture our marketplace.”

Over the last 10 years, Etsy has grown to become a global force with nearly 700 employees and nearly 30 million items currently available to purchase. It has a network of,19.8 million active buyers—representing nearly every country in the world, and 1.4 million active sellers, of which approximately 88 percent are women. All of these figures add up to a company that earned nearly $200 million in revenue in 2014. Although Etsy has yet to become profitable, the company has not stopped from pushing itself to achieve greater growth. In fact, on March 4, 2015, Etsy became the second B Corp to file for an initial public offering (IPO).

Through its IPO, Etsy will be able to raise up to $100 million in investments, creating an opportunity through which they will hopefully establish profitability. Of the more than 1,200 B Corps, they will be only the fourth with publicly traded stock and only the second to file as a current B Corp.

In considering all of the implications of Etsy’s IPO announcement and similar moves from social enterprises, one question has surfaced: “Will these corporate evolutions undermine companies’ social benefit objectives and vice versa, will commitments to better social outcomes undermine current shareholder profits?”

Hopefully companies like Etsy are the beginning of a larger trend that will continue to expand. As consumer interests align with social and environmental concerns, and large corporations are rewarded for committing to improving their impact while turning competitive profits for shareholders, we could see a greater number of large corporations join the B Corp movement. Similarly, it is exciting to see more B Corps like Etsy, Rally Software and Warby Parker experience the kind of growth that allows them to mature and seek greater profits and influence.

In this week’s article on Entrepreneur.com, we explore the potentially conflicting priorities that face impact companies like Etsy. What does it mean for a social enterprise to have the dual pressures of competing to attract investors through profit seeking and maintaining their social commitments? Will they prove that their social good mission doesn’t detract from profit but can actually boost revenues by driving marketing and customer loyalty?

Spotlight on Social Enterprises: Jigar Shah

Posted on by Case Foundation

There is an emerging giant in the energy industry, solar. One key individual who has helped to pave the way for the growing investment in solar energy and other clean-tech industries is Jigar Shah, president and co-founder of Generate Capital. Shah aims to demonstrate the huge monetary potential of investment opportunities and the impact of proven approaches in renewable energy, energy storage and energy efficiency. Shah’s innovative approaches are the focus of this week’s spotlight on social enterprise, from the Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha.

Through his work leading Generate Capital, and previously SunEdison and other solar and clean-tech companies, Shah found that one critical barrier for growth in these industries is the high startup cost. Shah’s no-money-down, pay-as-you-save model triggered a massive upshot in financial support for solar companies, leaving the U.S. with four times the solar capacity. His efforts are proving that markets with positive environmental impact have the potential to generate trillion dollar returns. In fact, last year, solar and wind together accounted for more than half of new U.S. electrical generating capacity.

Read the full story HERE on Shah and how he is changing perspectives on the relationship between huge wealth creation and better climate outcomes.

Spotlight on Social Enterprises: Sevamob

Posted on by Case Foundation

Here’s another exciting new social enterprise to start off your week! The Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com magazine, in partnership with ImpactAlpha, highlight Sevamob for this week’s Spotlight on Social Enterprises.

Sevamob targets the lack of adequate primary healthcare in poor, rural areas of India by providing low-cost health services to low- and lower-middle income individuals. Services are packaged in bundles that can include primary care, dental checkups, prescription medications and health insurance. Sevamob’s founder and CEO, Shelley Saxena’s tech roots are apparent, given the company’s modern, online appointment scheduling systems and comprehensive patient health data repository, designed to easily connect patients and healthcare providers. With their unique approach, Sevamob is already serving more than 7,000 individuals.

You can learn more about this enterprise that successfully channels the power of technology to bridge to health services gap while focusing on high growth at Entrepreneur.com.

Spotlight on Social Enterprises: KZ Noir

Posted on by Case Foundation

This week the Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com magazine, in partnership with ImpactAlpha, are spotlighting KZ Noir on the Entrepreneur.com Impact Investing topic hub.

As coffee culture continues to demand high quality, exotic coffee flavors, consumers are also increasingly driven by environmental and social concerns. There is a high demand for coffee that is sustainably grown and fairly sourced. One company in particular, Rwanda-based KZ Noir, has produced positive returns on all fronts: consistent profits in a volatile industry, high quality coffee that is sold across the globe and positive social benefits that go beyond fair pay and environmental sustainability. It may come as a surprise, but if you enjoy fair trade, robust coffee, your favorite morning cup may just come from KZ Noir beans.

Learn the full story on their commitment to social impact and quality here.

Spotlight on Social Enterprises with Entrepreneur.com

Posted on by Case Foundation

The Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com magazine, in partnership with ImpactAlpha launched a series titled, “Profiles of Impact” in an effort to spotlight the growing number of social enterprises that deliver both financial and social returns. The proliferation of impact investing opportunities has sparked a burgeoning movement with great potential. Every Tuesday we will feature new companies and funds providing profits with a purpose in fresh and innovative ways. These entities are paving the way for a market that is more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

This week, Entrepreneur.com features Ecologic, whose mission is to create a more sustainable world through better packaging choices. In the face of staggering statistics, “71% of today’s plastic milk and laundry bottles are sent to landfills where they sit for centuries.” Julie Corbett, founder of Ecologic, is driven by the belief that consumers deserved a better, more ecologically sustainable option. Corbett and her team are expanding Ecologic to help diminish the amount of waste created by the production and disposal of plastic bottles and containers in communities around the world.

Visit Entrepreneur.com to read the full story and check out past posts from the series.

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