The business case for financial inclusion is clear. How to capture the opportunity is less so. — The business case for bringing two billion more people and 200 million small businesses in emerging markets into the formal financial system through digital financial products and services is becoming familiar: New loan volume could top $2.1 trillion annually. Annual balance sheets of banks, mobile network operators, and other third-party…

Convergence design grants help fund managers mobilize private capital with public and philanthropic funding — As we say at ImpactAlpha: to get to the trillions needed to bridge the gap in funding for the Sustainable Development Goals, you first need to get to the billions. Early efforts to do just that are showing promise. A tally last year put total funds mobilized by 187 blended…

Village Capital Innovations helps corporates seeking new markets connect to startups solving social and environmental challenges — The hunt for new customers and new innovations is drawing corporate multinationals toward entrepreneurs who are driving impact on the ground with banking services, farm technology, mobile clinics and off-grid energy sources for the billions of people around the world that still lack those services.

The Climate Finance Lab and Power Africa have both mobilized more than $1 billion — New commitments from the Green Climate Fund pushed the total capital mobilized by the Climate Finance Lab above the $1 billion mark. Among the funded projects was the expansion of Energy Savings Insurance to Paraguay and Argentina. …

Markets are under-weighted women. Here are 10 reasons to rebalance them. — Markets are under-weighted women. And that’s a big problem for the global economy. From fund management teams and board teams to venture capital disbursements and startup founders, the global economy is over-weighted men. We’re leaving talent, profits, economic opportunity, and yes…impact, on the table. We’re heightening levels of risk.

Investment strategies that end harmful labor practices are growing as risks become clear — Working to end forced labor and poor conditions in global supply chains in not new. What’s new are the growing number of “labor-lens” investors betting on strategies for ending exploitative working practices. Disrupting the $51 billion in profits reaped from goods made with forced labor, including about 25 million people…

‘Better Leadership, Better World,’ and ‘Powering Potential’ suggest women are the key to economic outperformance — If you’re looking to tap the next big global growth markets, you’d better be a woman, or at least be sitting next to one. Last year, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission outlined the $12 trillion “economic prize” in delivering on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty…

Urgency on climate action, emerging tech and new business models are creating opportunities to restore forests and farmland — More than three dozen governments around the world have committed to restoring more than 150 million hectares of land by 2020. That’s an area bigger than South Africa. By 2030, that commitment rises to 350 million hectares. The commitments are long overdue. More than a third of agricultural landscapes are…

Project 500 is recruiting and training 500 entrepreneurs of color east of the river that divides the nation’s capital — New Revivalists is a series from ImpactAlpha and Village Capital profiling the people, places and policies reviving entrepreneurship — and the American Dream. New Revivalist: Melissa Bradley, managing director at Project 500 Place: Washington DC Mission: Melissa Bradley and Project 500 are creating pathways to business ownership for Washington D.C. founders…