IIX Asia

Social Enterprise in Asia: Context and Opportunities

Asia is the birthplace of several successful and large Social Enterprises (SEs) such as Grameen Bank, BRAC and PDA. While extensively covered in the media, these entities are the exception rather than the norm. These SEs were, and some remain, lucky to receive unquestioned government and donor support. Not all the SEs in Asia is in the same position. Unfortunately most of the SEs are mid-sized; with neither have the unlimited access to capital nor the required recognition of their impactful work. At the same time, SEs in Asia operate within contexts that, while impossible to generalise across the whole region, provide some unique opportunities for growth.

Read more

Rockefeller Foundation Awards Grant to Impact Investment Exchange (Asia)

SINGAPORE – Jan. 18, 2010 – The Rockefeller Foundation has awarded a US$495,000 project support grant to Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (Asia) Pte. Ltd. (IIX), which is creating Asia’s first social stock exchange.  The grant will support research and proof-of-concept analysis that IIX will undertake prior to launch of its exchange.

The Foundation made the grant as part of its Impact Investing work to help facilitate the development of necessary infrastructure for the social capital markets and to promote the availability of capital for Social Enterprises.

Read more

WhartonConnect Interviews IIX Founder Durreeen Shahnaz

Durreen Shahnaz, WG’95

As Wharton’s first Bangladeshi alumna, Durreen Shahnaz, WG’95, strives to make her alma mater proud – and to make an impact as a social entrepreneur and professor.

What is your occupation?
I wear two hats: one as a social entrepreneur and the other as a professor. I am the Founder and Chairperson of Impact Investment Exchange—a social stock exchange in Asia. Additionally, I am Associate Professor and Head of Programme on Social Innovation and Change at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Read more

IIX in the News in Italy

http://novareview.ilsole24ore.com/articoli/35594

economia della conoscenza

Un mercato di buone idee

Una crescita economica responsabile

di Giorgio Fiorentini e Cesare Vitali*

La Social Stock Exchange o Borsa Sociale è un mercato azionario ed obbligazionario per la quotazione di imprese sociali siano esse profit che non profit. Per creare un beneficio sociale ed economico rilevante per qualsiasi territorio e sistema paese.

Read more

IIX Founder Delivers Keynote Address at India’s Stree Shakti Awards

Durreen Shahnaz, founder and chairperson of Impact Investment Exchange Asia, was the keynote speaker on December 12 at the Annual Stree Shakti Awards and book launch by Minister of Tourism Kumari Selja in New Delhi, India.

Stree Shakti-The Parallel Force, is a platform for the convergence of grassroots efforts, scientific research, creative ideas and enterprise and a collective voice of women seeking justice and equality.

Read more

IIX Founder Durreen Shahnaz Selected as TED Fellow

Durreen Shahnaz, the founder and chairperson of Impact Investment Exchange Asia, was named a 2010 TED Fellow  in recognition of her work with IIX. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Shahnaz is among the 25 global TED Fellows who will participate in TED2010, the annual conference Feb. 9-13, in Long Beach, California, which invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak and then makes their talks available at TED.com.

Read more

Programme on Social Innovation and Change Presents “Measuring Social Impact” Research Project

The Programme on Social Innovation and Change (PSIC), headed by Professor Durreen Shahnaz, introduced a research project on “Measuring Social Impact” on October 7, 2009. The workshop included  the ecosystem of social investing — a group of investors, lawyers, government officials, academics, and representatives from rating agencies and social enterprises.

Read more

A place in society

Sep 25th 2009 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition

You might suppose that financial innovation had done enough damage. But bankers, investors and philanthropists believe it can help the world’s poor

MANY nodded when Lord Turner, the City of London’s chief regulator, said recently that the financial industry had grown “beyond its socially useful size”. The idea that devices such as collateralised debt obligations and credit-default swaps have been a blessing, not least by allowing the less well-off to buy houses, is in tatters: lots of those new homeowners have lost their houses as well as their jobs. It is remarkable, then, that the crisis should have given fresh impetus to “social finance”, a movement based on the belief that financial innovation can be used directly to help society’s neediest people.

Read more

IIX Asia Presents Plans for Asian Social Stock Exchange at SoCap09

Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX) introduced its plans to create Asia’s first social stock exchange at SoCap09, the pioneering global conference for the social capital markets held September 1-3 in San Francisco.

More than 800 delegates representing all aspects of the emerging social capital markets attended the conference. They included social venture capitalists, foundations, investment advisors, social enterprises, community organizations and government agencies. Sonal Shah, who was appointed this year by US President Barack Obama as director of the newly created White House Office of Social Innovation, gave the keynote address.

Read more