leap-africa
Africa | February 10, 2017
Double impact for new crop of Nigerian social enterprises
Twenty social entrepreneurs are part of the fourth Social Innovators Program & Awards (SIPA) in Lagos. Backed by LEAP Africa and Union Bank of …
Catalyzing new markets with early-stage impact investments. Economists have long understood that individual firms come and go, but the markets they help spawn continue to grow and evolve. Impact investors from the Gates and MacArthur foundations to Omidyar Network have a long history of investing to “build markets” in sectors and geographies that commercial capital has been hesitant to enter. Today’s market-building catalytic investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Generation Capital’s Just Climate fund. “By providing early-stage capital, the impact investor enables a promising firm to demonstrate the financial potential that attracts follow-on capital from commercial investors,” explains Matt Bannick, the former managing partner of Omidyar Network. “As the firm scales, it attracts additional innovative competitors, accelerating a flywheel of innovation and market creation.” Bannick’s guest post is the latest in ImpactAlpha’s series, “Frontiers in Social Innovation,” with the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Cera Care rakes in $320 million to deliver home health services to the elderly. The home-health industry could reach $383 billion by 2030, driven by aging populations. London-based health tech startup Cera Care provides prescriptions, at-home and telehealth consultations, and other health services. Cera currently serves 15,000 elderly and other vulnerable patients in the U.K. and Germany; its platform provides more than one million at-home appointments per week for 2,000 businesses. Cera claims its alternative is 10x cheaper than hospital services and can cut hospitalization rates by more than half.
David Mathewson, ex- of Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, joins Quona Capital as partner and COO… Mekaelia Davis, ex- of Surdna Foundation, will join Ballmer Group as director of Black Family Economic Mobility... Benjamin Downing, consultant and former Massachusetts governor candidate, joins The Engine as vice president of public affairs… Third Sphere’s Stonly Baptiste joins Impact Capital Managers’ board of directors… Kerry Constable, ex-of Google, joins Standard Chartered to lead its net-zero and sustainability strategy.
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Twenty social entrepreneurs are part of the fourth Social Innovators Program & Awards (SIPA) in Lagos. Backed by LEAP Africa and Union Bank of …