"A broad literature has found that the misallocation of entrepreneurial talent has strong effects on productivity. To investigate whether the government can improve entrepreneurial activity, we analyze a policy aimed at promoting innovative startups through the provision of funding and technical assistance to potential entrepreneurs in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We conduct a survey and use regression discontinuity methods to identify the effects of the policy. We find significant effects on enterprise creation and survival as well as on employment. Overall, we show that small-scale public policy can help entrepreneurs overcome a wide variety of barriers to firm entry and improve the allocation of their entrepreneurial talent."

"Produced by Vital Voices Global Partnership in cooperation with IFC and the MENA Businesswomen’s Network, this report surveyed 431 women business owners across 8 economies in the Middle East and North Africa to understand their needs, the critical obstacles they face in accessing finance, and identify real solutions to increase the economic contributions of women-owned SMEs."

"This document answers questions through a practical self-assessment tool built from the collective knowledge of practitioners who have been engaged in scaling social businesses. It is a simple checklist that enables practitioners to quickly assess their organization's readiness for scale and to clearly identify areas for improvement in four distinct areas: Social Impact, Financial Viability, Internal Capacity, and External Enablers.

The tool also offers a collection of best practices gathered from the experiences of social enterprises who are presently scaling inclusive business solutions in nutrition, water, health, agriculture, and energy. The best practices are illustrated by concrete lessons learned from these organizations along their scaling journeys."

"Most impact investors see their primary goal as finding and investing in enterprises that yield strong financial and social returns-a goal we share and support. But we worry this singular focus may miss the forest for the trees. In this discussion paper, we argue for a shift in focus-toward the goal of scaling entire industry sectors, in addition to individual firms."

"The Guide was developed by CDC and IFC with support from the Government of Canada. It is a practical "how to" step by step guide for fund managers on how to strengthen gender diversity within their own firms and incorporate a gender focus into investment operations. It combines learnings from CDC and IFC's experience with over 160 Fund Managers and draws on best practices with a series of case studies from stakeholders across the industry."

"O Panorama do setor de Investimento de Impacto no Brasil é um desdobramento do estudo lançado pelas duas organizações sobre investimento de impacto na América Latina, lançado pela Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) e da Associação para o Capital Privado na América Latina (LAVCA), em outubro de 2018. Os resultados do estudo brasileiro ressaltam que o investimento de impacto é uma indústria em crescimento no país e tem se mantido resiliente apesar do cenário político e econômico. O Brasil foi um dos países que apresentou os maiores números em termos de atividade de investimento de impacto na região. O relatório apresenta dados de investimento de impacto com base em características como setor, tamanho e estágio de negócios, e também compara a atividade de investimento com a de 2014-2015, antes de concluir com recomendações para o desenvolvimento da indústria no futuro."

"This guide aims to help early-stage innovators develop business models and partnership approaches that align with the development of their product, and envision potential pathways for bringing products to scale. While many concepts and insights in this guide apply to all global health innovations, our focus is on medical devices and products, rather than drugs, commodities, or service-delivery models."

"This note provides a popular overview of why and how GIF forecasts and measures impact. GIF’s unique Practical Impact methodology is central to the way GIF pursues its mission. We hope this introduction to Practical Impact will help donors, investees, and the public to better understand how we work. We hope also that other development financiers and impact investors may be interested in learning how GIF has addressed the challenge of investing for impact in innovations."

"In search for new models to provide risk capital, mezzanine finance blends elements from traditional Private Equity (PE) and debt financing into a unique product. Its an additional offering in the SME finance ecosystem for missing middle entrepreneurs.

As a relatively young and rather complex segment in the impact investing space, this commissioned study provides an understanding of the specificities, diversity (and complexities) of Mezzanine Financing, critical to spurring innovative thinking on both the fund manager- and investor-sides, so products may be improved and models may be more scalable.

This study is the first of its kind and represents a first step into building small cap SME mezzanine finance as an asset class on its own."

"The landscape for entrepreneurial finance has changed strongly over the last years. Many new players have entered the arena. This editorial introduces and describes the new players and compares them along the four dimensions: debt or equity, investment goal, investment approach, and investment target. Following this, we discuss the factors explaining the emergence of the new players and group them into supply- and demand-side factors. The editorial gives researchers and practitioners orientation about recent developments in entrepreneurial finance and provides avenues for relevant and fruitful further research."