2.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This class will thus focus on the intersection of venture capital and impact investing, on this newer asset class for emerging markets, and its specific application in the service of consciously creating impact. Given the roots of the early success stories in impact investing in the financial services sector, this class will focus primarily (although not exclusively) on financial inclusion, as it helps to demonstrate the progression of one impact investment sector that has had both early stage VC support and multiple exits. Financial inclusion also offers an ideal laboratory because it offers a service typically provided by private sector entities (albeit to fewer people than it should) and has been the source of entrepreneurs pursuing pro-poor innovations for decades, led and supported by Grameen, Accion, Women’s World Banking, Opportunity International, and many others who pioneered microcredit. But the course will go well beyond the field’s microcredit roots and explore what is happening on the frontier in the fintech revolution, as significant portions of the financial services sector begin to digitize and financial services increasingly are delivered via mobile phones. As such, this focus on financial inclusion will, in turn, highlight the power of investing and value creation in many of the newest pro-poor sectors. <a href="http://bit.ly/1bebp5s" target="_blank">Click here to see evaluations, syllabi, and faculty bios</a>