Publication database

This case study presents a business model of the Indonesian company Rajawali, which integrates Indonesian taxi drivers as Business Partners in the core activities of its subsidiary Express Taxi. By providing access to capital and training Express Taxi redefined the traditional business model between large transport companies and drivers’ groups. The case examines the challenges and opportunities of such a partnership in the context of income generation for the poor and reliability and safety for the general public.

This article describes and ranks 10 lessons that Acumen has learned while working to tackle global poverty. The lessons learned include: 'dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth'; and that 'neither grants nor markets alone will solve the problems of poverty'.

This report details the impact of the Bamboo Finance portfolio of 46 companies across 30 countries. Bamboo Finance is a commercial private equity firm specialising in investing in business models that benefit low-income communities in emerging markets.

This annual survey provides the latest insight into investor perceptions and a number of key market variables such as types of investors, the number and size of investments made, target returns, and impact measurement practices. This “State of the Market” analysis explores how investments continue to be made across different geographies, a range of sectors, and multiple asset classes, signalling continued market growth and an increasing interest in impact investing opportunities.

The 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey provides a comprehensive overview of the impact investing market. This edition captures data from 294 of the world’s leading impact investors who collectively manage USD 404 billion of impact investing assets, representing an important subset of the USD 715 billion global impact investing market. The report looks at respondents’ investment activity during 2019 and their plans for 2020, market developments over the past decade, and challenges facing the market going forward. Respondents also shared insights on how Covid-19 might affect their activities.

IIC releases an annual “Year in Retrospect" publication that throws light on investment trends and emerging market developments across key impact sectors such as Financial Inclusion, Agriculture, Healthcare, Technology for Development and Climate-tech. Their research highlights that 2021 has proven to be a strong year for the Indian impact sector, with more than 300 impact focussed enterprises raising $7 Bn in capital. While investment activity was robust across sectors as well as the stage of development of the enterprise, several late-stage companies have raised significant amounts of capital leading to a 135% growth in overall capital raised in 2021 vis a vis 2020.

Produced by Magnitt, Wa’ed sponsors the 2021 MENA VC Impact Investment Report, which tries to shed some light on the VC impact investment ecosystem in MENA since 2016. The report reveals that $444m was invested across 403 deals by impact-driven startups across the region since 2016. This accounts for 7% of all venture capital (VC) deployed in MENA startups between 2016 and the third quarter of 2021. The information gathered in the report aims to enable a more informed conversation on this space between stakeholders, and to attract greater investment and support for impact-driven sectors and startups.

Between November 2018 and November 2019, Gates Foundation and Mars Edge discussed collaboration opportunities to accelerate the urban go-to-market strategy of Mars Edge’s nutritious savory snack GoMo™, specifically designed to help address nutritional deficiencies of 6-18 year olds in India, with a focus on reaching low-income consumers. The Growth for Growth (G4G) network of service providers set up by the Foundation’s PSP program co-designed this strategy to reach lower-income urban areas. In December 2019, the PSP approved a grant to assess and adapt the model during a market test. As part of the grant, the collaboration between G4G and Mars then continued until December 2020. This case study aims to share the lessons learned throughout this journey, in terms of public-private collaboration and innovation process.

The report draws on Financial Diaries data from India, Kenya, and Mexico. It explores why women in emerging economies don’t access and use formal financial services to the extent of their male counterparts. It offers a more nuanced view of women’s financial behavior and comes up with product design recommendations for financial services providers.

Is there a business case for microinsurance? Under what circumstances can insurance companies generate profits from microinsurance? These are important questions because insurers are increasingly interested to expand into the low-income market. To encourage this expansion, microinsurance initiatives need to demonstrate that they are commercially viable and sustainable over time. Briefing Note #9 assesses the business case for microinsurance through case studies of five microinsurance initiatives.