"Recent years have seen the rapid emergence of a new type of program aimed at seeding startup companies. These programs, often referred to as accelerators, differ from previously known seed-stage institutions such as incubators and angel groups. While proliferation of such accelerators is evident, evidence on efficacy and role of these programs is scant. Nonetheless, local governments and founders of such programs often cite the motivation for their establishment and funding as the desire to transform their local economies through the establishment of a startup technology cluster in their region. In this paper, we attempt to assess the impact that such programs can have on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the regions in which they are established, by exploring the effects of accelerators on the availability and provision of seed and early stage venture capital funding in the local region."

"The manual is targeted specifically at venture philanthropy organisations and social investors ("VPO/SI"), and more generally at impact investors, foundation and any other funders interested in generating a positive impact on society. The first objective of the manual is to create a roadmap or guidebook to help VPO/SIs navigate through the current maze of existing methodologies, databases, tools and metrics on social impact measurement. The second objective is to trigger a movement towards best practice when it comes to measuring and managing impact...The manual should be useful both for beginners in impact measurement, who are considering how to get started, and for more advanced investors who are struggling with how to better integrate an impact focus into everyday investment management decisions."

"This toolkit is designed to help entrepreneurs, investors, consultants, evaluators or other practitioners deepen their social impact measurement and management process in the impact investing sector. The toolkit is intended to be used in tandem with already existing standards and methods like the GIIN’s IRIS+, the Impact Management Project’s five dimensions of impact, and 60 Decibels Lean Data, to complement and deepen those metrics and approaches."

"USAID's Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) initiative aims to catalyze private sector investment into early-stage enterprises and help entrepreneurs bridge the pioneer gap - thus unlocking the potential of thousands of promising enterprises around the world. Working in partnership with more than 40 incubators, accelerators, and seed-stage impact investors, USAID creates public-private partnerships dedicated to testing ways to help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to growth. These partnerships are expected to leverage $145 million1 in combined public and private investments over their lifetime."

"Private equity firms play a key role in creating an enabling environment for local business development, and supports their growth objectives by implementing best practice ESG policies in portfolio companies. This survey builds on AVCA's inaugural Sustainability Study, released in 2016. In this edition, we quantify how many jobs have been created from a selection of PE-backed companies in Africa between 2009 to 2016, and evaluate the extent of ESG integration in the private equity investment process."

"The 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey is the 10th edition of the GIIN's flagship report, which provides the most comprehensive overview of the impact investing market. This edition captures data from 294 of the world's leading impact investors-the most Annual Survey respondents ever-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."

"Both private and public entities could benefit from viewing social enterprise development not only as a responsibility but as a financially or strategically valuable investment. Based on this concept, the United Nations Global Compact and The Rockefeller Foundation seek to encourage investors, corporations and policymakers to explore the potential of social enterprise. They have therefore developed this “Framework for Action” to enable the exploration process. The facets of the Framework are presented through a strategic (and often market-focused) lens, but it is important to note that the philosophy of corporate sustainability – defined as a company’s delivery of long-term value in financial, social, environmental and ethical terms – fundamentally underpins the content. The scope of a discussion centered."

"This report - a first of its kind focused on Latin America- summarizes information gathered from 48 Impact Investors and entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders in Latin America -primarily members of the ANDE network- as well as 254 firms that comprise their portfolios. It includes information from surveys and key informant interviews with 24 Impact Investors and entrepreneurial ecosystem actors. This report highlights that while it is clear that gender equality is good for business and good for development, Impact Investors in Latin America are still only in the early stages of embedding this focus in their investment process and activities."

"The GIIN conducted this pilot research study to assess the annualized impact performance of direct impact investments in clean energy access and housing, two sectors in which impact investors have a relatively long track record of activity and generally align to standardized metrics sets. At each stage of the research process, a cohort of study participants and advisors offered guidance and input."

"The study was commissioned to get a better understanding of the 'missing middle' in francophone West Africa, of which Guinea is one of the focus countries. The report describes the main factors that hamper growth of SMEs in Guinea and limit their access to growth finance, and suggests possible actions to increase their access to funding. The analysis of the ecosystem is based on six domains which are: Culture, Policy, Markets, Finance, Support, and Human Capital."