Welcome to the October BfE newsletter! 🎉 | |
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Dear BfE family,
I hope this email finds you in good health!
I've been thinking a lot about finance lately, so this note will heavily touch upon that (warning: this may bore some of you). One question I find particularly pertinent to what we aim to unlock at BfE is related to social enterprise financing in emerging markets. Specifically, how do social enterprises gain access to the right types of financing to help them scale their impact? This question has been at the forefront of my mind for a while and I'm still investigating potential answers. In most markets, typical repayable investment (equity, loans) are provided on terms unamenable to social enterprises. Because of their differing impact-driven missions, it has always been clear to me that finance needs to be reinvented on entrepreneur-friendly terms so that social entrepreneurs don't have to compromise on their impact objectives just to meet investor expectations about financial returns. Too often, I see social entrepreneurs being asked to meet unrealistic growth targets to ensure their investors generate strong returns. This can have a corrosive effect on their business models, at times forcing them to alter their strategy to serve more profitable customers instead of lower income groups they aimed to serve in the first place.
How can we address this issue, then? For as much as the social enterprise movement has accelerated across the world in the last 15-20 years, the financing world still creeps along with relatively little innovation.
A few months ago, I moved to Berlin, Germany and started a new full-time job at Roots of Impact. We're a specialized impact investment firm using innovative financing to better support social enterprises in emerging markets. In a nutshell, we structure financing via loans, grants, and revenue share agreements that reward entrepreneurs for submitting data to prove their achievement of certain impact results (verified by a third-party). As a firm, we co-create impact metrics focused on vulnerable population groups, ensure the social enterprises have the capacity to measure and manage their impact data, and structure the transactions via financing provided to us by public/philanthropic funders. These deals are designed to reward social enterprises for focusing more on serving, for example, lower income customers, female customers, rural customers, or even mitigating their CO2 footprint.
For those interested, this concept is referred to as Impact-Linked Finance. While it may seem abstract, the premise is simple: tie financial rewards to achieving verifiable impact outcomes. Through this approach, it's possible to change the paradigm around social enterprise financing so that social entrepreneurs can focus on what matters most to them: serving underserved customers by selling them essential products and services that improve their lives. While still rather niche (<100 Impact-Linked Finance transactions have taken place to date), this concept, if scaled, has the power to heavily influence the social enterprise financing dilemma described above.
I wrote this note as food for thought, but perhaps there's something more here that could be explored. Is there an element of Impact-Linked Finance that could be applicable for the social enterprises we work with in BfE? Only time will tell! For now, I suppose we should continue to be critical thinkers about the social enterprise world. It's about impact, not just dollars and cents.
With lots of gratitude,
Jordan |
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We've continued to make steady progress on various initiatives at the global level. Here's what each division was up to:
📊 Incubation
- Diagnostic Phase: Richa (Global Consulting Manager) has been discussing with Jeson (Global Operations Head) on how to streamline the transition between startup recruitment interviews and consulting engagements. The discussion specifically focused on how to ensure efficient capturing and handover of interview knowledge to the Diagnostic Phase at the start of the consulting process.
- BfE Academy: Dennis (Global Academy Volunteer) has been onboarded formally to BfE Academy and is currently collecting all knowledge assets within BfE and assessing critical knowledge gaps to fill.
🤝 Outreach
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Communications: The Global Communications Division is finalising case studies of startups that worked with different chapters: New York - Alkyl Recycling (Kenya), Singapore - E&L Suppliers (Malawi).
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The Singapore (SG) case study on E&L Suppliers (Malawi) is now available on the BfE website and can be accessed here.
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🔋 Strategy & Operations
- Strategy:
- Chapter Manager Search: The Global Strategy Division is looking to onboard a Global Chapter Manager to aid with the transition to the BfE Platform Model by December 2022.
- New Chapter Handbook: The New Chapter Handbook is being finalised.
- BfE Platform Model: The BfE Platform Model is making progress, with materials being prepared by Annie (Global Strategy Head) & Erika Oshima (Global Strategy Manager)! The next progress check-in is scheduled for 19 November.
- Talent: The Global Strategy Division is also working on a chapter alumni database and outreach strategy, as well as building a framework for recruitment.
- Operations:
- Spring Application Deadline: Spring 2023 Cohort applications are now closed! We received 137 applications from 35 different countries 👏
- Startup Review Committee: The Startup Review Committee for the Spring 2023 Cohort will be held on 17 Dec, 2- 4 pm UK time. Mark your calendars! 📆
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👩💻 Impact Research
- Impact Dashboard: The Impact Research Division is working with BfE Tech to develop dashboards to visualise post-engagement feedback metrics. We hope to utilize these dashboards for future annual reports and enhanced impact reporting.
- BfE Annual Report: Although we only recently published BfE’s first-ever Annual Report, we are already beginning plans for the 2023 publication 👀
- Talent Onboarding: We have a new Global Community Manager joining the Impact Research Division - Chinelo Nnaobi! Chinelo has great experience in startup portfolio management and will be working to bolster our engagement with startup alumni. We are so excited to have her on the team 👏
⚙️ Technology
- Leadership: The BfE Tech Leadership Fellows Program is mid-way through its year-long journey. Our mentees, Abdilmajide (Global Technology Volunteer), Hua (Global Technology Head), Catherine (Singapore Technology (co-)Director), Fanzhi (Cambridge Senior Technical Advisory Associate), Si Qiang (Singapore Technology Co-Director) and Edwin (Global DataOps Manager) have been working hard. They have had multiple sessions with leadership mentors and are working towards achieving their goals to complete technical and leadership-related courses. In September, we had a networking session which allowed the Fellows to share information about the work they have been doing in BfE and allowed the group to get further acquainted. In the next half of the program, they will continue on their leadership journey, building skills and further connecting. The mentors have played a key part in providing guidance and support.
- Azure Integration: The Tech team is soon to enable Microsoft Azure integration which will allow us to use SSO, MFA and a self-service password reset capability reducing engagement with BfE Tech Support.
- Continuous updates on Azure migration progression: The BfE Tech Support team has already started the migration process of all volunteers from the BfE Tech Division, and it is halfway through so far. This stage is expected to take another half month to finish, so the final stage of migrating all BfE volunteers can potentially start at the end of November if everything goes smoothly.
- One thing to clarify on this migration (the detailed background can be found in the September Newsletter) is that it will not affect our daily use of any application, but only affect the BfE account login methods. We can still use GMail, Slack or any other application as what we are doing at the moment, so do not worry about any change in the work style. Please also feel free to reach out to the BfE Tech Support team for any questions or concerns.
- Here is a glimpse of what the Azure page would look like 👇
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🇺🇸 New York
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Incubation: All NY (New York) Chapter incubation teams are making great progress on their deliverables. Regular client and mentor check-ins have continued for the past few weeks and the teams are in the process of refining their work. Mid-engagement calls are currently being scheduled with clients and are planned to take place in November. We also completed our deck-making training.
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Outreach: Outreach teams are also making great progress on their projects. Startup Recruitment (SR) has pretty much wrapped up first-round interviews, Growth and Partnerships (G&P) has launched its mentorship program, and Communications is working on a case study.
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BfE NY Chapter Social: The team had a recent BfE social event in Central Park where you can see us all smiles outdoors 📷
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🇸🇬 Singapore
- Incubation: The incubation teams are handling their projects smoothly, with most midpoint calls completed already. We want to commend all our associates for working so hard despite busy academic schedules during this exam/presentation season! 🎉
- Growth & Partnerships: Planning and preparation for Townhall 3 are ongoing! Our Growth and Partnerships team is currently sourcing speakers for the event.
- BfE Singapore Townhall 2: The previous Townhall 2 happened in October and we welcomed a speaker from ENGIE Impact. Here's a picture of the team and the speaker at Townhall 2 📷
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🇨🇦 Vancouver
- Incubation Engagements: The Consulting and Finance Advisory teams are progressing well as they near their midpoint calls. Both teams have confirmed call dates with clients and are on track with their deliverables.
- Growth & Partnerships: On October 25, our G&P team hosted our first external event, How to Start Your Own Social Enterprise! We had a great turnout and heard inspiring entrepreneurial stories from Aaron Friedland (Simbi), Madeleine Shaw (Aisle), Nolita Kay (Solaires Enterprises Inc.), and Ziyaan Virji (For the Menstruator).
- Communications: The Vancouver Comms team has completed a draft case study from our past consulting engagement with Beyond Solid Waste Management. They are also preparing social media posts for our upcoming recruitment launch in November. Follow our IG at @bfe.van for updates!
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🇮🇳 New Delhi
- Consulting: The team had multiple meetings with Ryan Corpuz, the founder of Nanolabs (Philippines), to gather information about the nanotechnology industry and issues that Nanolabs looks to solve in the Philippines.
- Finance Advisory: The team has carried out market research regarding informal education systems in Nigeria and analysed business models of client competitors. This has helped the team to optimise their financial statements.
- Other General Updates: We are preparing to onboard freshers at the campus in the upcoming months.
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We are so grateful for the outstanding contributions made by the following BfE members this month. Thank you and well done! 👏 |
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- 🌍 From BfE Global Technology:
- Shoutout to Brenda (Global Technology Head) and Hua (Global Technology Head) for their amazing work! BfE Tech has been making great progress, has built a great community of Global Managers, and it's inspiring to work with amazing people like them who are smart and motivated to do work and deliver 🎉
- Shoutout to Tosin (Cybersecurity Volunteer), who has picked up the work very fast and is already helping a lot. He is a great asset to the team and we are looking forward to working with him more.
- 🇬🇧 From BfE Cambridge Chapter: Soniya (Cambridge Incubation Vice President) did a great job helping to run our Freshers’ Fair stall, managing to secure a considerable number of new sign-ups! 👏
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Our Startup Spotlight features E&L Suppliers, a Malawi-based social enterprise converting agricultural waste material into biomass briquettes. You can now access the E&L Suppliers Case Study by the BfE Singapore Chapter on our website! |
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There is no upcoming event update. Look out for upcoming events here next time 🚀 |
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🗞 News, Resources and Jobs | |
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News
Did you know that Social Enterprise Day is on the third Thursday in November (17th) and is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week? It is a day to raise awareness of social enterprises, which are for-profit and non-profit organisations addressing social or environmental challenges through their business models.
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