Sari Miller: An Angel Investor Proving the “Goodness Factor” is Good for Impact and Returns

Posted on March 31, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

As an early impact investor, Sari Miller’s strategies, experience and perspectives on angel investments offer others in the market a wealth of insight and guidance on investing with purpose in new markets. For this reason, Miller is the focus of our weekly series on social entrepreneurship with Entrepreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha.

Sari Miller, CEO of Sarjay, Inc., is ushering through some of the biggest impact investment deals currently in the market. Miller is translating the hands-on style that earned her great success during her previous career in real estate, to her approach as an early stage impact investor. She is working to drive enterprises and funds to scale in the widely untapped social benefit markets and low-income services industries. Her business acumen and commitment to the groups she funds and their social impact have helped pave the way for some early successes. Her most notable successes came from angel investments in Leapfrog Investments and Grassroots Business Fund (both organizations were profiled previously on the Entrepreneur.com Impact Investing Topic Hub).

Miller’s impact investments are not limited to a single geography, socio-economic climate or social issue. They cover a range of countries and encompass a multitude of services and sectors, including employment opportunities and job training, education, civil rights advocacy, agriculture and artisanal business development and micro-insurance. As with any pioneering investments, not all of her experiments have realized the kind of market scale and impact that Miller is seeking. She was a founding angel backer of Nexii, the first ever publicly regulated impact investing stock exchange based in South Africa. Unlike her other projects, this was not able to gain the traction it needed, and was later merged with a Singapore-based, social enterprise transaction platform, Asia IIX.

Despite this setback, Miller continues to make strides in the market. Most recently she helped Gigawatt Global’s management team get a $24 million solar field, containing more than 28,000 solar panels set in the shape of the African continent, up and running in record time. Miller supported this effort not only for the potential financial returns an under-tapped market like alternative energy can yield, but also for what she calls “the goodness factor.” As part of her due diligence, prior to investing any time or dollars, Miller confirms that the companies and founders are passionate about social impact, stating that the goodness factor is critical and without it, founders can stray from their mission.

Gigawatt Global’s solar project is going beyond clean energy benefits. To install the solar panels, Gigawatt Global is leasing land from Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV), a residential community in Rwanda for individuals who were orphaned during the Rwandan Genocide. Lease payments from this solar project will support the ASYV school while the local residents are also trained in solar technology. Gigawatt’s focus on sustainable, local impact provides the good factor that has resonated with Miller and other similarly driven investors.

For more on Africa’s solar energy project and the range of social impact investments on which Sari Miller is making big bets, read the full story at Entrepreneur.com.

Village Capital: Getting Startup Funding to Nontraditional Entrepreneurs

Posted on March 24, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

As part of our ongoing series on social entrepreneurship with Entrepreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha, this week’s spotlight is on Village Capital. This startup accelerator is banking on the idea that the best solutions to community problems come from local entrepreneurs who have firsthand knowledge of the challenges being addressed.

Village Capital is specifically focused on the difficulties facing the “unbanked” and “underbanked,” which are terms used to define an individual or household that has a bank account but also uses alternative financial services (AFS). Examples of AFS include: payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, money orders, car title loans, etc. While some AFS have been developed to help those who are underserved by traditional lending services, many are characterized by short-term repayment schedules and generally have very high interest rates. These qualities make them less than ideal lending options for entrepreneurs who are considered too risky for traditional bank loans and credit, thus leaving them with few opportunities when seeking startup capital.

To tackle this lending challenge, Village Capital is recruiting minority and women entrepreneurs from unbanked and underbanked communities. They are then exposing these entrepreneurs’ marketable ideas to venture capital funding—to which these nontraditional entrepreneurs would otherwise have limited access This allows for the development of businesses that are potentially both lucrative and effective at changing the dynamics around opportunities for people who struggle to access necessary financial services.

While many categorize these programs as impact investments, Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital, explains that his organization’s investors do not usually self-identify as impact investors. A number of those whom they invest with believe that impact investments require conceding some financial returns for social impact—and that is not the case here. Despite the obvious positive social outcomes Village Capital’s entrepreneurs deliver, its investors first, recognize the fundamental value of exciting, smart investments with the potential for consistent and/or impressive returns. Through events like the FinTech Forum, Village Capital continues to introduce investors to opportunities that generate greater outcomes with their dollars. At these forums the stage is given to nontraditional entrepreneurs, like Brian Ferguson of Start Line, who translated a wrongful imprisonment that could have destroyed his professional future, into a powerful startup that has the potential to counter recidivism issues.

For more on Village Capital and the entrepreneurial solutions to the financial and community challenges it promotes visit the Entrepreneur.com impact investing hub.

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

Posted on March 20, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

This post was written by Ross Baird on behalf of the Case Foundation:

This past Monday, I participated in the “Impact Investing Rumble” at SXSW, a, lively debate hosted by Jean Case and the Case Foundation. At the heart of the Rumble was the question: “Does ‘impact investing’ necessarily mean concessionary returns?” To some, it seems completely logical that there is a class of investors that would be willing to sacrifice a little bit of profit if it meant more impact in businesses.

But I think that argument is wrong. I believe strongly that people who invest in businesses that positively impact society will make outsized returns in the next decade. Why? On Saturday (also at SXSW), Steve Case provided an excellent framing for the panel proposing the concept of the “Third Wave” of the Internet. The “First Wave”—from 1985-2000—got people online, and Steve and Jean Case had a lot to do with that. The “Second Wave”—from 2000-2015—used the infrastructure of the Internet to connect people. Mark Zuckerberg, Google, and Twitter have evaporated the distance between us and anyone else in the world in a constant conversation. Steve proposed a “Third Wave”—sharing his predictions on how the Internet, over the next 15 years, will pervade the rest of our lives, from our health, to education, to how we power and feed ourselves as a society.

The billion-dollar companies of the next fifteen years will be found in the areas that have the highest impact on people’s lives.

As Steve outlined at SXSW, the Internet has poised to transform sectors from health to education to food/agriculture to energy to financial services. At the organization I run, Village Capital, we are seeing this every day. We have an investment in Salt Lake City called TruClinic that is powering telemedicine across the world. Another investment, Spensa, in West Lafayette Indiana, is dramatically reducing the cost of pesticide application through smart insect monitoring. eMoneyPool in Phoenix, Arizona, is targeting the billion Americans who use informal savings groups as their primary bank account worldwide to credit. And PearDeck, an Iowa City company in our current education program, is transforming how teachers interact with their classroom through real-time interaction. We’re seeing these businesses get significant traction in mainstream markets—most recently at SXSW, PearDeck won the “Rise of the Rest” pitch competition as the best startup from Steve Case and Revolution’s 2014 “Rise of the Rest” tour.

Businesses in these sectors have the ability to transform things that everybody does every day—not just build apps that make the lives of the best-off in society more convenient through live social media streaming or on-demand valet parking. And the single thing they all have in common is they are under-valued by the market. At SXSW, I met a venture capitalist from a well-known Silicon Valley venture firm and we were discussing our investments in common. When I mentioned the industries we work in—health, food/agriculture, energy, education, financial services, he said “oh, we don’t touch those—they’re regulated industries.” And when I mentioned the cities we work in, he said, “oh, we only invest close to home.”

While Silicon Valley is the most amazing entrepreneurial ecosystem on the planet, current Silicon Valley investment attitudes are undervaluing 98% of entrepreneurs worldwide. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this argument. The sectors that have the potential for the most impact on our lives, positive or negative, are usually regulated (and probably should be). And the entrepreneurs who have the most potential to transform core industries such as energy or agriculture are typically placed closest to energy and food production—and sometimes far from the most active entrepreneurial hotbeds.

The bottom line: the investors in the market who do not incorporate impact into how they invest, and look for the companies that are solving the problems faced by the most people, are missing the billion-person and billion-dollar opportunities of the “Third Wave” of the Internet. And investors who overlook entrepreneurs in industries that have the highest-impact, and in locations outside of the most developed entrepreneurial ecosystems, are ignoring 98% of businesses worldwide—and missing out on transformational opportunities.

In the Rumble, Sonal Shah, executive director of the Beeck Center for Entrepreneurship, said that regularly, entrepreneurs seeking an impact automatically relegate themselves to the “kid’s table”—looking for just philanthropy and concessionary capital. Jigar Shah, founder of SunEdison, pointed out the problem with this: real transformation (wireless power, thermal storage) requires in the hundreds of millions of capital—which only the mainstream markets can bring.

Yet the way the world is going, tremendous opportunities will only explode in the areas with the highest impact. To get there, though, impact investors—and entrepreneurs seeking an impact—have to identify, explore, and invest in the markets with the highest potential for impact—though they may be harder initially to develop. Entrepreneurs and investors will have to work at least twice as hard in more difficult to navigate sectors and ecosystems. The “train is leaving the station,” though, as Jean Case said at the end of the panel—and the payoff will be well worth the effort.

Ross Baird is the Executive Director of Village Capital.

The 5 Biggest Social Good Trends from SXSW 2015

Posted on March 19, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

For an update on social good trends in 2017, check out, “Biggest Trend in Social Good? Women in the Driver’s Seat!”

We came. We saw. We conquered.

In between the music, the parties and the Meerkat-ing, one thing was clear—SXSW was ground zero once again for new opportunities for cross-sector collaboration and innovation in the social good space. While previously left out of the festival all together just a few years ago, this year’s expanded Social Good Hub and Startup Village brought government, nonprofits, foundations, impact-driven startups and entrepreneurs front and center with a strong message: we can and should act on a level playing field with corporations and for-profit entities.

This year’s festival brought many newcomers, from impact investors to civic leaders. The DC government even hosted its own lounge—We DC House—across from the convention center. Tracks focused on industry verticals, like healthcare, fashion and education, instead of traditional skill-sets, causing a collision of cross-disciplinary attendees.

And come we did. This relatively new approach to format at SXSW has been embraced by both organizations and attendees alike, igniting several big trends that we at the Case Foundation are helping to spearhead:

1. Collaboration and Unlikely Partnerships Drive Success

 In the third wave of the Internet, big successes won’t come from isolated efforts, but rather unlikely partnerships will be required to accelerate growth and impact, said the Case Foundation’s Chairman Steve Case in his Saturday keynote. This sentiment was an undercurrent throughout SXSW. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, also speaking at SXSW discussed innovating in government as a multi-stakeholder process that can be driven by public and private sector collaboration. Even Yahoo’s Chief Information Security Officer, Alex Stamos, raised how the company was breaking down internal silos to create new partnerships between user experience and security to create new alternatives to passwords.

2. Social Returns are as Important as Profit 

It’s going to be transformative breakthrough businesses that come to the table to solve the world’s biggest problems, said CEO Jean Case at the Impact Investing Rumble, where two teams went head-to-head in a debate about whether one can earn financial and social returns on investments. This was one of many featured talks at the SXSW Social Good Hub. The concept of not only making a profit but having a purpose resounded everywhere—including startups looking to change their community through technology to energy efficient internet of things devices.

3. The Rest is Rising Through Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship provides the promise of economic mobility and the power to lift up communities. With nearly double the space devoted to entrepreneurship from last year, the startup community continues to grow in visibility at SXSW. From Colorado to Iowa, local innovators outside of Silicon Valley came out to learn, share ideas and disrupt their sectors. UP Global’s Startup Oasis was bustling with pitch competitions and community-centered happy hours.

4. Diversity and Inclusion are Still an Issue 

Diversity has been an ongoing challenge in technology, but many at SXSW are actively calling for inclusion regardless of culture, race and gender. A female founders panel on accelerators and investors noted 88 percent of venture-backed companies have no female leadership. There is a business reason to have diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship, to bring all voices to the table, said the Case Foundation’s CEO Jean Case at the Kapor Center Diversity Lunch and Pitch Competition. Entrepreneurship shouldn’t just be for the privileged. One way of policing panels for inclusion was the Gender Avenger app that allowed attendees to shame panels that didn’t have any marginalized voices represented.

5. Big Data and Measurement are Driving Innovation  

In the push for impact and transparency, data, metrics and measurement are becoming critical in aiding experimentation and rapidly assessing success. When evaluating our metrics, we see “failures” as a red badge of courage and experimentation, said Tom Nelson, president of Share Our Strength at the Case Foundation’s Be Fearless session. Many other organizations participating at SXSW such as USAID’s innovation lab, which leveraged health data to inform the fight on Ebola; and the ASPCA, which utilized adoption data and visualizations to identify gaps in their adoption programs are actively engaging on the data front as well. Increasingly, more organizations, such as Open Supporter Data Interface are working to form standards for open data and APIs to streamline integration of multiple data sets and development so measurement and evaluation can be easier and more accessible.

Did you spot any other trends from this year’s SXSW? If so, please share with us on Twitter using #CFBlog! See you at SXSW next year!

Changing the Demographics of Investments

Posted on March 17, 2015October 31, 2018 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 March 10, 2015October 31, 2018 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?

10 Can’t Miss Sessions at SXSW 2015

Posted on March 5, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

We are getting ready to head down to Austin, TX, for SXSW Interactive—a five-day festival that showcases a mix of digital creativity, emerging technology and unique networking events. From March 13 through 17, members of the Case Foundation team will be on-site learning about new trends in social good, philanthropy and technology from thought leaders in the sector… and leading three sessions on social good issues that we hope you will join us for:

How Potato Salad Killed/Saved Crowdfunding (with Allyson Burns) – Monday, March 16
Impact Investing Rumble Hosted by the Case Foundation (with Jean Case!) – Monday, March 16
Be Fearless Breakout Session (with Sarah Koch) – Tuesday, March 17 (RSVP required)

We’re also excited to take part in the many sessions that promise to stretch our minds, inspire our creativity and just have fun. We’ve compiled a list of 10 events that we’re particularly excited about below. Have another can’t miss SXSW session we should know about? Tweet us the details using @CaseFoundation and #CFBlog so we can share it with our community.

Saturday, March 14

12:30 pm: Running a Non-Profit Like a Startup! – Austin Convention Center, Room 9ABC
Do you want to learn how operating like a startup can help nonprofits overcome challenges? Join a group of social entrepreneurs for a discussion about starting and scaling a nonprofit guided by practices until recently associated with startups.
3:30 pm: City 2.0: Why Local Gov. Bets on Civic Innovation – Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB
Civic innovation is taking root in municipalities across the country. But is it effective in tackling real urban problems? Join Leaders from Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco for insights into how these cities are betting on a new era of policy-making by using open data and leveraging the talents of their citizens.

Sunday, March 15

11 am: How to Make it Rain: Impact Investors Tell All – Austin City Hall
This panel will explore ways impact investors, social entrepreneurs and traditional investment vehicles can collaborate to help create a strong impact eco-system.
5 pm: Millennials: The Unstoppable Force – Austin Convention Center, Room 10AB
During this session, participants will hear from Millennial elected officials who are putting aside partisan labels and working to change the future together

Monday, March 16

11 am: How Potato Salad Killed/Saved Crowdfunding – Austin Convention Center, Next Stage
Join our SVP of Communications, Allyson Burns, for a conversation with Gary Wolfheil of Crowdrise and some of crowdfunding’s biggest names including Zack Brown, the Potato Salad Guy and Ryan Grepper, creator of the Coolest Cooler, for an in-depth conversation about the future of crowdfunding for nonprofits, for profits and individuals.
12 pm: Impact Investing Rumble Hosted by the Case Foundation – Trinity Hall
Join the Case Foundation for a memorable Impact Investing point/counterpoint debate exploring whether or not impact investing really is the next big thing when it comes to creating change in the social sector.
3 pm: Elevate: How Businesses & Entrepreneurs are Taking Social Good to the Next Level – Trinity Hall
Come hear how three leading companies built corporate philanthropy into their culture. This panel will provide insights into the benefits of fostering a culture of corporate citizenship for both internal and external stakeholders, how to engage all employees and how to build programs that can make the world a better place.

Tuesday, March 17

10 am: Look at Me: On Ego, Hype, and Social Entrepreneurship – Trinity Hall
United Kingdom based veteran social entrepreneur and impact investor, Liam Black, cuts through the hype of social entrepreneur industry to talk honestly about what really motivates and drives entrepreneurs who want to change the world.
11:30 am: Be Fearless Breakout Session Hosted by the Case Foundation – Trinity Hall
Are you and your organization ready to make big bets that will change the world? Join the Case Foundation for working group to explore ways that you can integrate strategies and tactics to create impact and meaningful social change. Click here to sign up.
2:00 pm: Data Visualization for Social Good – Trinity Hall
During this hands-on session, participants will work with open data from the City of Austin to create prototypes that visually represent public data and invite exploration and explanation.

Not headed to SXSW this year? Follow along with the Case Foundation team members on Twitter with @CaseFoundation. We also invite you to share your own recommendations, updates or thoughts on Twitter by using the hashtag #CFBlog!

Demand for Investments That Provide Both a Financial and Social Return is Increasing

Posted on March 3, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

There is a large number of “traditional” investors whose priority is strictly earning the greatest financial return, regardless of any return in the form of positive social impact. This week the Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com, in partnership with ImpactAlpha are spotlighting MicroVest, an asset management firm that has been proving for more than a decade that investments in underserved markets are more than just charity. These impact investments can and do earn consistent and competitive financial returns, in addition to enabling local entrepreneurs to create scalable solutions that drive even greater positive outcomes.

MicroVest was founded in Bethesda, MD, in 2003, with CEO Gil Crawford’s belief that “investing in unbanked markets is the best way to reduce poverty on a global scale.” The firm does this by providing capital to low-income financial institutions that in turn make loans to micro to medium-sized businesses.

During MicroVest’s early days, micro-loans were not new, however they were not widely known or understood. This disconnect led to some early stage struggles in gathering investments for MicroVest’s first fund. Chairman Bowman Cutter explained to the Wall Street Journal that the first $15 million was more difficult to gather over three years than $15 billion for a private equity firm. However, MicroVest’s stable record for returns has helped to eliminate much of the investor trepidation and it has successfully grown the fund’s investor pool and diversified its portfolio of companies over the years.

According to Impact Investing2.0, two such examples of the diverse investments available through MicroVest are XacBank (“Hass-Bank”) in Mongolia that serves 26,000 borrowers through 34 urban and rural banks, capitalizing on the innovative microfinance structures already present in the country. Additionally, MicroVest became an important investor in a low-income finance institute in Guayaquil, Ecuador where they were able to incentivize more responsible lending practices through local banks. Through most of MicroVest’s local lenders, the majority of borrowers are women, empowering a traditionally marginalized portion of these communities.

Given the financial and social progress of micro-investments and other impact investments, many are turning toward impact investments to secure both financial and social returns. Ron Cordes, who leads the Cordes Foundation, one of Microvest’s owners, notes that MicroVest and similar firms and funds are successful because of, not despite their, social impact. To find out how MicroVest intends to continue to engage with and attract more of investors through competitive returns, check out the rest of the story on Entrepreneur.com.

Impact Investing Spotlight: A New Kind of Investment

Posted on February 24, 2015October 31, 2018 by Case Foundation

What happens when tech industry leaders put their money behind entrepreneurship serving lower-income Indians? An opportunity to build markets and drive change for the people who need it the most in India is created. This is the latest topic on impact investing explored by the Case Foundation and Entrepreneur.com magazine in partnership with ImpactAlpha in this week’s case study on Unitus Seed Fund (Unitus).

Unitus, created by Will Poole, is one of a group of investment funds attracting the attention of investors seeking both competitive financial returns and philanthropic value. Unitus is focused on providing seed stage funding – early stage investments to help entrepreneurs develop and grow their initial business models – and operational and networking support to help these early ideas grow into viable and scalable businesses. There are many influential investors from tech and business who are interested in being a part of this new investment strategy, including Bill Gates, who is an investor in Unitus.

Unitus’ proposition is based on Poole’s philosophy that, “companies that target those customers well, that know their needs and that learn how to meet those needs are going to be valuable companies.” The fund specifically looks to support businesses Bangalore, India that serve both the growing affluent market and those in the “base of the pyramid” (BoP)—individuals earning $10 per day or less.

Funds like Unitus are changing the narrative around money flows into developing economies. By making sound investments in local businesses, they are providing a vehicle that empowers local communities as consumers by improving their access to the goods and services they value, and as entrepreneurs, developing viable business solutions. This model contrasts with traditional perceptions that these dollars should be used strictly as charity. And it should come as no surprise, according to the International Finance Corporation’s report, The Next Four Billion, the four billion people who comprise the BoP are a mostly untapped $12.5 trillion market. The potential for financial returns and social impact is significant.

Read the full article about the impact of Unitus and the range of top investors Poole and his team are attracting to impact investing through their fund.

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