"Entrepreneurship is a fundamental element for innovation dynamics, employment generation as well as productivity generation and economic growth (van Praag & Versloot, 2007). However, women are less likely to start a business (Parker, 2009). Albeit this trend has been slowly changing in recent years (GEM, 2021), female founders seem to be losing out, particularly in the high-growth venture. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico have some of the most dynamic entrepreneurial activities in the world. However, particularly in Brazil and Chile, the rate of early-stage entrepreneurship is significantly lower for females than for males (GEM, 2021). The fact that the gap in entrepreneurship is visible not only in general but especially among ambitious and high-growth start-ups is worrisome. This report presents a diagnosis of the gender finance gap for start-ups that applied to accelerators, that is, start-ups that operate mostly in the technology sector and have high-growth ambitions. The finding of this report matters to female founders trying to grow their venture, investors who might miss out on more efficient investment opportunities by overlooking female-led ventures, and policy makers who steer macroeconomic policy decisions."

"Nos últimos anos, poucas pesquisas têm focado em investimentos de impacto na América Latina apesar de comunidades crescentes e ativas de investidores de impacto estarem presentes em muitos dos países da região. Este relatório representa um passo em direção ao preenchimento desta lacuna de conhecimento, oferecendo um panorama do setor de investimentos de impacto na América Latina. A primeira parte do relatório traz uma análise regional de tendências gerais de captação de fundos, operações e saídas, com enfoque especial no desenvolvimento de potenciais empreendimentos, assistência técnica, mensuração de impacto, talentos e gênero. Após esse resumo, encontram-se análises aprofundadas sobre investimentos de impacto em três mercados-chave nos quais essa indústria se encontra mais desenvolvida: Brasil, Colômbia e México."

"This report was published as part of an interest in expanding knowledge and contribution to create a more enabling environment for inclusive business. The intentions of this are: firstly, to illustrate how the consideration of BoP communities exclusively through their income levels is limiting and can be misleading for practitioners; and secondly, to develop a series of recommendations to governments and public institutions on how to create an enabling environment for inclusive business models."

"Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are thought to be important drivers of growth in developing economies, but entrepreneurs in these countries face many barriers, including poor access to training, finance, and business networks. In Colombia, Fundación Bavaria's "Destapa Futuro" (Open the Future) program identifies promising enterprises and provides them with a suite of financial, technical, business, and training resources. Researchers found that the trainings did not affect key business outcomes, such as sales and profits, but helped entrepreneurs to expand their business networks."

"We design a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the adoption of credit scoring with a bank that uses soft information in small businesses lending. We find that credit scores improve the productivity of credit committees, reduce managerial involvement in the loan approval process, and increase the profitability of lending.

Credit committee members' effort and output also increase when they anticipate the score becoming available, indicating that scores improve incentives to use existing information. Our results imply that credit scores improve the efficiency and decentralize decision-making in loan production, which has implications for the optimal organization of banks."

"A study from Zeppelin University and Siemens Stiftung provides for the first time data that evaluates the ability of social enterprises to satisfy the basic needs of poor populations. Focusing on Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa, the dynamics in the public, private, and third sectors were examined, and to what extent these influence the activities of social enterprises. The study includes concrete recommendations on how to increase the contribution of social enterprises to poverty alleviation."

"Esta publicación busca identificar y presentar las oportunidades de los Negocios Inclusivos como vehículo para acelerar el logro de los ODS por parte del sector privado, como agentes de cambio hacia el desarrollo sostenible en Colombia.

El documento hace parte de una serie de reportes desarrollados por la plataforma global Business Call to Action -BCtA, junto con socios locales en Colombia, Filipinas y Kenia para resaltar el potencial de mercado y de alineación con los ODS que los negocios Inclusivos tienen en diversos sectores."

"In this study, we evaluate the effect of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). The evaluation focuses on programs that provide financial incentives for research and development (R&D)-matching grants and contingent loans-and encourage the formation of linkages among firms, universities, and other public research organizations. We use longitudinal firm-level data and adopt a fixed effects identification strategy to control for potential selection biases. The findings show that COLCIENCIAS financial incentives have increased labor productivity as a result of gains in total factor productivity (TFP) due to product diversification and, to a lesser extent, of capital intensification."

"Este informe pretende captar las peculiaridades del sector de inversión de impacto en América Latina durante los dos últimos años, basándose en una muestra de los inversionistas en la región. Mediante información a nivel institucional y a nivel transacción de estos inversionistas, se ofrece un retrato de dónde y cómo se está asignando capital, e identifica los retos que enfrenta el ecosistema. Si bien abarca la región entera, el informe se enfoca en los tres mercados principales de la región: Brasil, México y Colombia."

"There is growing consensus that a key difference between the U.S. and developing economies is that the latter exhibit slower employment growth over the life cycle of the average business. At the same time, the rapid post entry growth in the U.S. is driven by an "up or out dynamic". We track manufacturing establishments in Colombia vs. the US and find that slower average life cycle growth in Colombia is driven by a less enthusiastic contribution of extraordinary growth plants and less dynamic selection of young underperforming plants. As a consequence, the size distribution of nonmicro plants exhibits more concentration in small-old plants in Colombia, both in unweighted and employment-weighted bases. These findings point to a shortage of high-growth entrepreneurship and a relatively high likelihood of long-run survival for small, likely unproductive plants, as two key elements at the heart of the development problem. An extreme concentration of resources in micro plants is the other distinguishing feature of the Colombian manufacturing sector vis a vis the US."