Vote for these panels at SOCAP16!

SOCAP16, held in San Francisco on September 13-16, will unite innovators in impact investing and social enterprise. Help shape this year’s conference – comment and vote on our submissions (see links and descriptions below)! Voting ends June 15th.

• Innovative Solutions for Changing Lives at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Leading Edge in India: According to a recently released GIIN study of 156 impact investors, impact investing assets reached USD 77.4 billion in 2015. Impact investors are increasingly looking at their investment portfolios as one of the more powerful instruments at their disposal to engage with major challenges facing those at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), including climate, poverty, economic and gender inequality, and health. This panel will introduce initiatives that increase the BOP’s access to high quality essential services and remunerative markets through investments in small and medium sized enterprises.
• Taking Innovation to Scale: How Digital Tech is Unlocking Financing and Boosting Productivity for Africa’s Smallholder Farmers: According to CGAP, an estimated 500 million smallholder farming households (representing 2.5 billion people) rely to varying degrees on agricultural production for their livelihoods. However, smallholder agriculture remains an immensely underserved sector. Market failures obstruct access to appropriate, timely and affordable financial services and extension services for smallholders. As a result, smallholder farmers (household with less than 2 hectares of agricultural land) have yields and income far below full potential. Leveraging digital financial services coupled with technical assistance can reduce risks and lower transaction costs, increasing penetration in rural and remote areas. Hear from industry innovators leading the expansion of financial access through digital technology.
• How ‘social’ is an IPO: Hear from the Insiders: Recent IPOs of Indian microlenders Equitas Holdings Ltd and Ujjivan Financial Services were very successful, demonstrating the maturation of the financial inclusion sectors in India and that impact investors can achieve both their social and financial return targets. These IPOs bring new visibility to the financial inclusion agenda and the broader impact investing sector, but they are not the first IPOs in Indian or global impact investing. The panelists will discuss the recent Indian IPOs, how to maintain mission-alignment pre and post IPO, and what these IPOs mean for impact investing.

To register for SOCAP16, click here.