Happy Friday, ImpactAlpha readers!
#Featured: The Brief’s Big Ten
1. Five-dozen venture capital funds are betting on women around the world. The team at Wharton Social Impact Initiative found funds that have raised $1.3 billion to invest with a “gender lens” — including 21 funds launched in 2017 alone. Read more.
Meet 58 venture capital funds that are betting on women around the world
2. Why invest in women? Take a look at India. From farmers and artisans in rural India to urban entrepreneurs and advocates, India’s 650 million women are powering gains in education, health, livelihoods and social equity. Read more.
Meeting women who are leading India from what’s wrong to what’s working
3. Unlikely entrepreneurs, India’s women farmers are leading a rural revival. As men and young people leave their villages and migrate to India’s cities, women are not letting their farms slide into neglect. The feminization of agriculture could mean healthier soil and forests, organic produce for urban markets and higher incomes for rural families. Read more.
Women farmers are leading northern India from subsistence to regeneration
4. Women artisans in India are reviving ancient crafts…and modern livelihoods. A growing ecosystem of organizations are supporting the development of women-led artisan businesses. Connected to the global market, pottery makers and weavers are raising incomes — and the status of women. Read more.
How women artisans are reviving ancient crafts and modern livelihoods in rural India
5. Which is why we’re scratching our heads over the disconnect between two McKinsey reports. Two years ago, McKinsey reported that achieving gender parity in India by 2025 would have a greater economic impact than in any other region in the world. So it is surprising that McKinsey’s recent report on impact investing in India makes no mention of gender equity, gender-lens investment, women entrepreneurs — or women at all. Read more.
Investing in women in India: A tale of two McKinsey reports
6. Over in Mexico, investors are looking to social ventures for competitive returns. Mexican family office Auria Capital wanted to invest in a new crop of companies serious about serving Mexico’s emerging middle market. So it backed Adobe Capital’s new social venture fund as a repeat investor. Read more.
For Adobe Capital, competitive returns in Mexico run through social ventures
7. Central American social ventures will be on display in Antigua next month. More than 300 investors, entrepreneurs and other ecosystem builders are descending on Antigua, Guatemala on Nov. 8 and 9 for the third edition of the Latin America Impact Investing Forum Central America and the Caribbean hosted by Alterna Impact. Plan to join? Use code IMPACTALPHA_NETWORK_50 to save 50%. Register here.
8. Do you run a social venture? Here’s where to find the right accelerator. A new accelerator selection tool from Conveners.org, Sphaera, and ImpactSpace (yes, that’s us!) has aggregated and organized more than 750 social-enterprise support programs around the world. Social-venture founders can sort by region, impact focus, stage and other criteria to select the right program. Check out — and add to — the tool here.
Accelerator Selection Tool – Conveners.org
9. Oh…and watch this list of financial supertankers shifting course. They are the opposite of day-traders. They hold the sovereign wealth of their countries, the life savings of their pensioners. They are entrusted to manage the capital for their stakeholders, for the long-term. Here are the 25 most “responsible” asset allocators, with a whopping $4.9 trillion in assets under management. Read more.
25 universal assets owners that could put a dent in the SDG financing gap
10. And the beat goes on…which is why we’re ramping up. As the scope and scale and, uh, impact of impact investing expands, ImpactAlpha is scrambling to cover more news beats and cover them better. That’s why we’re joining The Information’s accelerator to drive revenue growth. Read more.
ImpactAlpha joins The Information Accelerator to drive revenue growth
That’s a wrap. Have a great weekend! Please send news and comments to [email protected].
