Tag: social entrepreneurship

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Senior Investment Analyst


Senior Investment Analyst

Overview
Title: Senior Investment Analyst
Start Date: Immediately
Location: Boston, MA
Schedule: Full Time/20% travel possible
Pay: Salary commensurate with experience

Invested Development is looking for a highly motivated individual with experience in start-ups, investment analysis, or business lending to serve as our Senior Investment Analyst. This is a senior position in a small, exciting, young firm. Candidates should have a keen interest in international development, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and technology. The … read more

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Opportunity in Egypt

Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the Revolution via Wikimedia Commons

After the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, a man named his daughter “Facebook” in honor of the site’s mobile app and the role it played. On Twitter, #jan25 was trending for weeks, as Egyptians tweeted from their phones to report on the protests. Despite the government’s best efforts to cut off communications, protesters were able to organize through mobile technology. It’s clear that few places in the world … read more

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Weekly Review July 4-8

Tomorrow, South Sudan becomes the newest country with their declaration of independence. At ID, the newfound independence sparked a conversation. We discussed social enterprise in post-conflict areas, and found that social enterprise will be and has been effective in South Sudan and throughout other conflicted areas in the world.

Recently, we’ve watched public uprisings unfold in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya over
… read more
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Weekly Review June 20-24

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This week at ID, we read about progress and developments in mobile technology around the world. 



“SlimTrader Lets Africans Shop via Text” by Ciara Byrne of Venture Beat via The New York Times
Our portfolio company SlimTrader was featured in The New York Times. Byrne used SlimTrader as an example of a company working in developing countries to facilitate customer transactions via SMS text messages. Founder and CEO Femi Akinde experienced firsthand
… read more
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Weekly Review June 6-10

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Lately at ID, we’ve been talking a lot about impact investing and what it really means. Since SOCAP/Europe, the industry as a whole has been buzzing about the future development of impact investing and social entrepreneurship.  
“Launch of social investment exchange set to raise activity” by Cosmas Butunyi
The Kenya Social Investment Exchange is a newly launched platform for “brokering deals between entrepreneurs and foreign investors,” which is promising for Kenyan
… read more
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Weekly Review May 23-27

In honor of the upcoming SOCAP/Europe conference, this Weekly Review focuses on social entrepreneurs and the challenges they face in the industry, most prominently the task of finding a balance between financial and social returns. 
SOCAP Social Entrepreneur Spotlight Series from Social Capital Markets

SOCAP/Europe (at the intersection of money and meaning) is in on in Amsterdam next week: May 30, May 31, and June 1. Our own Femi Akinde of SlimTrader and Sam White
… read more
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Weekly Review May 9-13

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“What Investors Want” by Abby Callard of Beyond Profit
Beyond Profit interviewed seed-stage impact investor, Ben Powell of Agora Partnerships. Powell says that the most important thing to look for in a social enterprise is the impact entrepreneur. The entrepreneur, Powell says, is more important than the business model itself. It’s much easier to change a business model than it is to change an entrepreneur. Also, the simplest plans can make the biggest
… read more
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Weekly Review May 2 – 6

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This week’s Weekly Review contains articles on mobile technology in emerging markets. Articles include mobile money success stories, challenges, and ways to develop the industry by offering more services, addressing key issues, and expanding access to Internet.  
Before the articles, we’d like to acknowledge the Sankalp Forum in Mumbai, India that ended today. Working to enable the flow of capital between impact investors and social entrepreneurs, Sankalp Forum focuses on five high impact
… read more
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Introducing BETA


WHAT?
BETA offers funding BETA offers funding and support for exceptional innovators each year. As a precursor to seed-capital, BETA support is intended to push each innovator from idea to enterprise.
WHO?
Exceptional mobile tech and alternative energy innovators with creative technological solutions for the underserved in emerging markets.
WHY?
Innovators selected by BETA will spend six months prototyping their innovations and co-creating the new enterprises with Invested Development (ID). ID manages a successful seed-stage
… read more
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“Impact” Investor and “Social” Ventures

by: Miguel Granier

There has been a lot of talk recently about what makes a “social” entrepreneur or an “impact” investor. It’s an appropriate conversation at this stage of the game. Neither term is well defined. Unfortunately, ID has neither the resources nor the clout to move the needle on the bigger debate, but we can (and do) define both for ourselves.  More importantly, we put our money where our mouth is. 

We invest in … read more

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Weekly Review April 4 – 8

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Every week at ID, we read about what we do and what we like. This week we read a lot about bringing alternative energy solutions to those who need them the most.  
“The Models That Work” by Abby Callard
Entrepreneurs are working to bring products and services to the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). Social entrepreneurs aim to make real social change there and to eradicate poverty. Beyond Profit looks at
… read more
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The Professionalization of Impact Investing

A long-time impact Angel Investor recently told us that he thought firms like ID and First Light Ventures are helping professionalize the field of seed-stage impact investing. His comment was based on the more systematic diligence and portfolio management that comes with paid investment management. In his experience, the only people funding high impact start-ups where individuals that lack the time, focus, and (let’s face it) personal motivation to make sure each investment has real … read more

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The Power at the Base of the Pyramid

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by Christina Tamer

We recently talked about the softer side of impact investing in our Weekly Review. This post is inspired by Booz&Co’s report “Understanding the Forgotten Billions: Meeting the World’s Least Advantaged Consumers Where They Live,” by Sudipta Bhattacharya, Ganesh Panneer, Vikas Sehgal, and Edward Tse (2010). The report discusses the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) – a segment with underestimated buying power and the dire need for social
… read more
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How App Developers Can Change the World

>by Sean Smith

There is no longer any doubt that mobile phones are a groundbreaking tool in the fight against poverty. Today, mobile phones are enabling credit and financial transactions for the unbanked, increasing the efficacy of HIV medicines, providing access to markets and enabling long-distance communications from previously unconnected rural areas.

Yet most of these solutions are currently focused on utilizing traditional cell phone technology to bring about social change: namely SMS and … read more

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Weekly Review for January 31-February 4

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Every week at Invested Development we scan the web for articles that relate to what we do and what we like. This week we read a lot about mobile technology in emerging markets, new applications for homeowners to monitor energy use, solar energy, and social entrepreneurship. 

“Using Mobile Manners” by Abby Callard
In their latest post, Beyond Profit discusses the ways entrepreneurs are using the growing number of mobile phone users to
… read more
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The Unreasonable Institute Empowers the Public to Choose the Next Wave of High‐Impact Social Entrepreneurs

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Unreasonable Institute Empowers the Public to Choose the Next Wave of High‐Impact Social Entrepreneurs

Global donations will determine which entrepreneurs gain admission to esteemed mentorship program
BOULDER, Colo. –– Starting Jan. 20, 45 social entrepreneurs will showcase their ventures in an online platform called the Unreasonable Finalist Marketplace (http://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org/). For 50 days, people from around the world are invited to vote with their wallets on the most viable ventures. The first … read more

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Weekly Review for January 24-28

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Every week at Invested Development we scan the web for articles that relate to what we do and what we like. This week we read a lot about… well, we read a lot.  

“Greetings from Davos, Switzerland” by Neal Keny-Guyer
This week the World Economic Forum is meeting for the annual discussion of the world’s economy in Davos, Switzerland. There are a lot of issues on the agenda this year, but
… read more