In another sign of the continuing maturation of microfinance investment vehicles, MicroVest announced a $300,000 investment from Meritas Jantzi Social Index F

und based in Canada. This is MicroVest’s first investment from a mutual fund and marked the end of a very successful year during which the investment firm’s assets grew by 60%. This […]

UC Berkeley is mourning the loss of Professor A. Richard Newton, the dean of the College of Engineering, who passed away last Tuesday at the young age of 55. Professor Newton was a visionary for harnessing the power of engineering and technology to benefit society and was instrumental in establishing the Center for Information Technology […]

In an article that first appeared in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart announced that it is exploring the use of software to optimize employee scheduling at their stores. The software will analyze store traffic patterns and schedule accordingly so there are more employees present during peak hours and fewer during slow periods. While […]

We’ve spent the last six weeks identifying compelling social enterprises to consider for our first investment fund.  Through various sources, we identified and reached out to a total of 64 organizations that passed our initial screen – US based, at least two years of operating history, meaningful revenue recognition, compelling growth opportunities and strong management […]

It’s probably common knowledge that the organic food industry in the US is growing rapidly.  Last week, I read an Associated Press article that quantified just how fast this growth has been.  According to the Organic Trade Association, sales growth of organic food has ranged from 15-21% each year over the last decade.  This compares […]

Over the past few weeks, I have been researching organizations to identify compelling social enterprises that may be a good fit for our first investment fund. I’ve discovered that this process is more difficult than it initially sounded because there are so many different definitions of a social enterprise. In fact, I was just reading […]