"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."

"While business accelerators remain understudied in the academic literature, there is growing interest in understanding how accelerators work and where they provide value to entrepreneurs. In this paper, we focus exactly on this question – we examine how mentorship and investor ties, two key aspects observed across accelerators in general lead to positive accelerator outcomes and through them, to longterm firm success outcomes for the start-ups participating in accelerators. Using the full cohort (n=105) of an international accelerator, we follow the progress of the startups during the accelerated period and continue to follow these startups for 15 months. We find that startups that participate more in mentorship events have higher likelihood of achieving short-term outcomes during the accelerator, such as the release of a prototype and generating revenue for the first time. Similarly, startups that develop more investor ties during the accelerator survive and raise capital at a higher rate. Finally, we find evidence that certain short-term accelerator outcomes also increase the chances of survival and investment. On the basis of these results, we provide practical implications for start-ups as well as managers of accelerator programs, in addition to theoretical contributions to entrepreneurship research."

"NTF4Ag: Emerging Lessons and New Frontiers brings together key results, insights from the case studies, pilots and crosscutting research conducted by MEDA and its partners over the last three years. The report is framed around INNOVATE's four learning themes, which emerged in an iterative manner from the research portfolio along with engagement with key stakeholders through events, conferences, and ongoing dialogue.

This report is aimed at a diverse set of actors in the smallholder finance landscape including the private sector, research organizations, implementing agencies, funders, and policymakers."

"This new report, Measuring Impact, aligns with existing best practices, and includes seven practical guidelines for good impact measurement, as well as five case studies of impact investment organisations that have successfully put these guidelines to use. In writing the report, the Working Group went through a six-month consultative and research process, which included a review of over 60 industry publications and 45 interviews with experts and practitioners in impact measurement."

"The aim of this study was to deepen the understanding of the specific practices and methodologies that established impact investors are using to measure the social impact generated by their investments, and to analyze the conditions under which each measurement method is most relevant. The intended audience for our analysis is impact investors themselves, as well as social sector organizations, traditional funders, and evaluators."

"This paper argues that the time is right for banks to step up their efforts to serve micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets. There are three reasons for our optimism. First, an estimated 60 per cent of global banking revenue growth over the next decade will lie in emerging markets. Second, more and more banks in emerging markets are finding ways to overcome the difficulties of serving the important MSME segment. Third, innovations in technology, risk assessment and business models are increasingly facilitating their effort. It is not just banks in emerging markets that should grab the opportunity. Western banks will find innovative practices that they can use to refresh and adapt their traditional banking models back home."

"G7 countries now have a strategic opportunity to scale up green and sustainable finance for SMEs. This could help support and strengthen the role that SMEs can play in connecting business growth, innovation strategies and entrepreneurial efforts with climate action and sustainable development. Mobilizing Sustainable Finance for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. To this end, a Sustainable Finance Toolbox for SMEs has been developed which contains a range of options for G7 countries to implement on a voluntary basis in partnership with key stakeholders such as financial institutions, SME business associations, public financial institutions, as well as central banks and regulators."

"This document describes our development of an impact management approach, which we define as the management of assets in order to meet explicit impact goals (alongside financial goals). It is primarily intended for existing or prospective impact investors – although we hope the logic can also be relevant for other practitioners engaged in philanthropy and sustainability, in the interests of coordinating the various approaches to creating societal impact."

"Investments designed specifically to promote development are not new, but their application across a broad range of sectors-from moderate-income housing, to health care, water and sanitation, and rural development-is recent. And they raise several critical questions for development policy. Are they an effective new tool for long-term development? Are they likely to reach the scale necessary to be part of an overall development strategy?

This report offers an important survey and analysis of the field. Impact investing has the potential to spur development in regions and sectors that traditional foreign direct investment does not target, but it faces many challenges, notably market fragmentation and a lack of infrastructure. The authors, former executive vice president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and former CGD visiting fellow, John Simon, and Julia Barmeier suggest concrete steps that will help the market mature and grow, with separate and specific recommendations for practitioners, development finance institutions, and regulators."

"Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are uniquely positioned to address the troubling trend of rising wealth and income inequality in the United States by focusing on the creation of higher quality jobs. To move toward a reality where quality jobs are the standard- not the exception-CDFIs must build consensus around a common definition of a quality job, undertake practical efforts to foster the creation of quality jobs, and measure results to understand what works.

This discussion paper seeks to answer two important questions at the center of Community Development Financial Institutions' (CDFIs) efforts to create quality jobs: what is a quality job, and how can CDFIs measure job quality?"