This blog represents a collection of ideas and strategy, the objective of which is to stimulate discussion about the development and implementation of innovative social finance models.
It is entitled Social Venture Investment Bank since the underlying motivation is to, in time, create an investment banking model that proactively drives transactions in this space. See the Vision page for an indication of what I think is possible both at an organizational and industry level.
The question that I pose is: what do we need to do in order to scale the growth of the social finance space? In exploring this question there are three primary themes that I explore…
Unlocking Private Sector Capital
If we are to grow the class of individuals and organizations that are that are focusing their attention on saving the world, it will be essential to find ways to flow capital from traditional, financially motivated, investors to projects that provide social benefit.
This will require great ingenuity and persistence!
Financing Pre-Proof Of Concept Social Entrepreneurs
If we are to substantially increase the proportion of organizations that focus their energy on fixing the world, we will need to ensure that we provide support those at the earliest stage of the investment cycle; those that have a great idea, but are still experimenting! Currently there are virtually no capital sources for seed stage social entrepreneurs.
Collaborative/Multi-Stakeholder Approaches
Innovative social finance solutions will require the participation of all sectors of society; the private sector, public sector, foundations and the general public. We will need to find ways to, for example:
- Offset the financial risk of purely financially motivated investors through the use of public sector and/or foundation capital
- Convince financially motivated investors that have some social inclination to assume reduced levels of financial return
Social Venture Investment Bank 