It is healthy and expected for any growing trend or endeavor to receive critique and microfinance is no exception. I’ve decided to do a mini-round up of some recent critiques for those of you who might not have seen them. The New Yorker Article The New Yorker recently published an article by James Surowiecki called… Continue reading Critiquing microfinance, Part I
Well-run microfinance banks are now starting to attract new and interesting sources of growth capital from investors including Legatum, Unitus Equity Fund, AAvishkaar Goodwell, Vinod Khosla, Accion Investments, Sequoia Capital and many others. This is great news as the “elephant in the room” issue for microfinance is that globally microfinance is currently serving at most… Continue reading The funding gap for BOP businesses
I am increasingly convinced that businesses focused on serving the world’s poorest 4 billion citizens are a very good investment whether you are looking for financial return and/or positive social impact return. That is, for those of us who seek to end poverty, the scale and sustainability potential of businesses focused on this “market segment”… Continue reading Businesses focused on the world’s poorest
There is a growing interest in a new kind of business that is now being referred to as a “social business” or “social enterprise” (I am going to use the former terminology.) I’d like to explain and unpackage this idea a bit and contrast different definitions/perspectives. The key difference between a social business and a… Continue reading Social business model
Creating a World Without Poverty: How Social Businesses Can Transform Our Lives by Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has recently released his second book, Creating a World Without Poverty. The centerpiece of this book is Yunus proposal for a new kind of institution called a “social business” which is a for-profit… Continue reading Creating a World Without Poverty book review
I just ordered two laptop computers … for a total of $399 plus $25 shipping. One gets shipped to me and one gets delivered to an impoverished child. NOTE: This is a special offer which started today and goes through Nov 26th only. So, if you’re interested in seeing (and supporting) what is an amazing… Continue reading One Laptop per Child offer
On Tuesday, I participated in a dinner event sponsored by the Seattle International Foundation featuring Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and author of Banker to the Poor. Professor Yunus shared a number of updates and answered questions. Here are some of my notes… On Grameen Bank in Bangladesh: Now serving 7.5 million… Continue reading Grameen update
