Publications

February 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

The International Finance Corporation's Grassroots Business Initiative

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Grassroots Business Initiative was set up to financially assist small enterprises engaged in creating social value. Three years later, Harold Rosen, its creator, wished to explore an alternative funding model to provide it with scale and sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Investment Funds; Social Enterprise

Find at Harvard

January 2018 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Financial Inclusion at Omidyar Network

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Lindsay Reimers Brumme and James Barnett

A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Micro Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Microfinance; Africa; Philippines

01 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 1, 2008

b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=808112 SKS Microfinance Harvard Business School Case 208-137 Vikram Akula, CEO of SKS Microfinance, seeks a venture capital investment to fund his firm. SKS, one of the largest and fastest growing View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 22, 2018

this tool to optimize impact and financial performance going forward. This case was designed to be taught alongside Root Capital’s Efficient Impact Frontier Simulation exercise. Purchase this case:https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/218084-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

July 2019
Supplement

Omidyar Network's Investment Decisions: MicroEnsure and Lenddo

By: Vikram S Gandhi

A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Micro Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Microfinance; Decision Choices and Conditions; India; Philippines

October 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

YES BANK: Mainstreaming Development into Indian Banking

By: Michael Chu and Namrata Arora

YES BANK, founded in 2003 and highly successful, has consistently been profitable meeting the Indian government's Priority Sector Lending (PSL) requirements, unlike virtually all other private sector banks, which view PSL activity as a necessary but loss-making part of... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Private Equity; Microfinance; Investment; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Expansion; Banking Industry; India

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=807145 Micro Insurance Agency: Helping the Poor Manage Risk Harvard Business School Case 307-089 The notable success of insurance products for low-income clients of its View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, February 27, 2018

Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51919 Harvard Business School Case 918-014 La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A) This case follows the program director of La Ceiba, a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 23

Course MaterialsBANEX and the ,,No Pago" Movement (A) Shawn Cole and Baily Blair KempnerHarvard Business School Case 211-092 This case examines Grassroots Capital's decision of whether or not to continue investing in a Bolivian View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2018
Op-Ed

How to Heed BlackRock's Call for Corporate Social Responsibility

renowned for their social responsibility still struggle to overcome this challenge. The focus of my research has been social enterprises, which provide laboratories to learn about the joint pursuit of social and commercial objectives in organizations. In the arenas of... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Battilana

January 2011
Teaching Note

Banco Compartamos: Life after the IPO (TN)

By: Michael Chu

Teaching Note for 308-094. View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Initial Public Offering; Investment Return; Financial Institutions; Microfinance; Capital Markets; Competition; Decisions; Banking Industry; Mexico

30 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 30, 2007

Course MaterialsBASIX Harvard Business School Case 207-099 BASIX, an Indian microfinance corporation, must decide whether to continue to sell weather insurance to its clients. A brand-new financial product, weather insurance pays if... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details