Along with seven others on a photographic trip through Myanmar, I recently received a first-hand lesson in “bottom of the economic pyramid” (or “BoP”) family finances and life. The experience was informative to my continued efforts in thinking through what is needed to improve the lives of those at the…
Dick Richards is one of the founding investors in Unitus Ventures. A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Mr. Richards immigrated to Canada before attending the University of British Columbia. He sold his own real estate company to Colliers in 1984 whereupon he took charge of the Real Estate Management Services Canadian…
In a study involving more than 50 social entrepreneurs, Endeavor Insight discovered that some of their businesses have been far more successful at scaling both their financial success and their social impact than others. Authors Rottenberg and Morris offer an excellent report of the findings. Those findings are summarized below. A…
Norm Bontje is one of the founding investors in Unitus Ventures, our new seed-stage venture fund investing in BoP Startups primarily in India. Norm Bontje is a graduate of the University of Washington and worked in the finance and investment community for 20 years, most recently serving as the Chief…
Sanjay Anandaram joins up as a venture advisor with Unitus Ventures to help mentor CEOs of Unitus Ventures portfolio companies operating in India. Sanjay Anandaram is an executive turned investor, educator and mentor. In the 1980s at Wipro (NYSE: WIT) he began his career in IT sales in Eastern India. …
Mohandas Pai, founder of one of India’s largest tech companies, Infosys, and Chairman of Aarin Capital Partners. He is also a founding investor in the Unitus Ventures (USF). The interview below is republished from a 4 January 2013 post by SOCAP that covered the USF announcement of $8M raised for…
Michael “Luni” Libes, founder of startup ‘conscious company’ incubator, Fledge, shares his thoughts on options that all businesses — large and small — have for how they operate. Is your business focused only on profit maximization with no regard for negative impacts, or do you have a mission built into…
At Unitus Ventures, we get a LOT of inquiries for seed investments. Here are some tips for what gets our attention and interest. 1. Great Team. What is your team’s experience and how is that relevant to your business? Remember, as a seed investor, we are heavily betting on the team…
A growing number of the best entrepreneurs are choosing to create (for-profit) businesses (rather than non-profits) because they believe that they can realize more sustainable and scalable impact on those living at the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) Stanford Social Innovation Review has just published an article called “In…
There is no doubt that there is new wave of entrepreneurship brewing in India. Venture Intelligence estimates that nearly $787 million was invested across 210 venture capital investments in 2011 growing from 137 in 2010 and 112 in 2009. The social enterprise sector has attracted several venture investments as well…
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Unitus Ventures, a leading venture capital firm in India, is joining forces with its US affiliate Capria Ventures, a Global South specialist, to operate with a unified global strategy under a single brand, Capria Ventures.
