Established in 2009, AgDevCo’s vision is a thriving commercial African agriculture sector that benefits people, economies, and the environment. The organisation contributes to this goal by providing investment capital and technical assistance to grow sustainable and impactful businesses across the agricultural value chain. In doing so, it aims to promote resilience, gender equality and the production of better-quality, more nutritious food.

This new funding builds on the original endowment funding provided by the UK government which helped establish AgDevCo over the past decade. This endowment has provided capital to agribusinesses that have directly created or sustained more than 15,000 jobs and to work with 750,000 smallholder farmers to help increase their income and improve their resilience to climate change. It has also allowed AgDevCo to build a capability and track record to the point where it can secure external investment capital.

In welcoming the investment, Keith Palmer, AgDevCo’s founder and Chairman, said: “Securing investment from CDC, Norfund and DFC is a major milestone in AgDevCo’s history. It is a strong endorsement of AgDevCo’s team and our strategy. We are excited that our vision is shared by our new funders, who recognise the important contribution that AgDevCo investments can make to productivity, sustainability, and inclusivity in Africa. Their funding marks the beginning of a partnership in which AgDevCo will use its sector specialism, drawing on our new funders’ networks and resources, to increase the number of impactful investments in African agriculture.”

UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, said: “I am proud to see how AgDevCo’s investing has boosted sustainable agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 10 years, including deepening impact on smallholder farmers and SMEs. This new investment will bring continued growth, by enabling agribusiness SMEs to expand, improve farmer incomes, create new jobs and strengthen climate resilience across Africa.”

Tenbite Ermias, CDC’s Managing Director for Africa, said: “This investment reinforces our long-term commitment to investing in key sectors in Africa including agriculture, which is critical for creating jobs, promoting gender equality and supporting people to build a better life for themselves and their families. Furthermore, it reflects our continued focus on climate finance which is central to our new strategy over the next five-year period, to support emerging economies that are most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate emergency.”

Ellen Cathrine Rasmussen, Executive Vice President of Scalable Enterprises in Norfund, said: “Norfund is very pleased to partner with AgDevCo to deliver on our joint mission: to create jobs and improve lives by investing in businesses that drive sustainable development. A thriving commercial African agriculture sector is vital for economic growth and job creation. More than half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population work in agriculture, yet Africa does not produce enough food to feed the continent. The investment in AgDevCo will create jobs, increase food production, improve climate change resilience, and promote gender equality. The AgDevCo team’s skills, networks and achievements are impressive – and we look forward to working with them.”

Algene Sajery, DFC’s Vice President of External Affairs and Head of Global Gender Equity Initiatives, said: “DFC is thrilled to support AgDevCo with a $20 million loan to bring additional capital to smallholder farmers and agricultural businesses in Africa, promoting food security for lower-income communities across the continent. DFC’s loan, alongside financing from our partner DFIs, will enable AgDevCo to link more farmers to markets and create jobs for underserved populations, with a focus on women farmers.”

· Seeking an innovative and passionate individual who has a strong track record of delivering results
· Must have experience of leading multi-functional teams within a consumer sales environment across sales, distribution and supply chain functions
· You will ideally have worked in both the private and the public sector
· Must be passionate about community healthcare and the impact this can have
· Field based sales is a major focus for this organisation (min team size of 50 therefore required)
· Exceptional organisational skills with an art for developing systems to gather and analyse data from the field to help drive performance
· Lead by example to capability build within the team
· This role will be based in Kampala and will provide critical operational leadership to the organisation locally

This exciting role presents a clear opportunity for someone who takes pride in building a robust and sustainable business and is passionate about having the opportunity to make a key contribution to the success of this high impact social enterprise which is changing lives across Uganda.

If you are interested, please send your CV in word format to Sarah Fitzgerald, MD at Executives in Africa at: sf@executivesinafrica.com

SoFi

The financial market has been going though many changes thanks to the growth of the digital economy and availability of app-based mobile devices. Mobile payments are one obvious area in which the financial industry is evolving. Square is a clear leader in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Australia, while companies, such as Ezetap in India, are cornering the market in developing nations.

Another emerging sector turning traditional banking on its head is online financing. San Francisco-based SoFi (which stands for Social Finance) is set to disrupt the banking sector through its unique approach to lending and wealth management. What launched in 2011 as a financial services company to refinance student loans has expanded to mortgages, mortgage refinancing, personal loans and wealth management. The company touts its proprietary technology, customer service and products, while marketing itself as a “non-bank.” Instead of going to a local bank branch to obtain a loan, SoFi allows members to apply online or over a mobile device—making it particularly appealing to Millennials.

What Sets SoFi Apart? There are other companies that offer online financing and wealth management, but SoFi’s management team and their ability to partner with major financial institutions give them strength and credibility. Japan-based SoftBank Group was so impressed with SoFi that they provided $1 billion in funding to help the company charge lower rates on student, personal and home loans, as well as help fund plans to expand into wealth management and deposits.

23andMe

I recently went to my doctor for a yearly physical. As part of the process, I underwent several blood tests and had a heart stress test. What if, in addition to these tests, my doctor could also analyze my DNA to better understand my genetic mix and its relationship with my health? He might be able to predict and help prevent certain hereditary diseases. That is the potential behind 23andMe.

For the last ten years, the company has been developing a suite of genetics tests to provide customers information on health, ancestry and traits. The company claims more than 1 million customers and says it has built one of the world’s largest databases of individual genetic information. Though not currently cleared to use genetic information to predict the likelihood of a disease, the potential is there and investors have taken note. The potential revenue of an FDA-approved test for diseases is so significant, the company could be well on its way to an IPO.

What Sets 23andMe Apart? The company’s success is tied to the persistency of founder and CEO, Anne Wojcicki, who spent a decade in healthcare investing, primarily in biotechnology companies, before co-founding 23andMe. She understands the market and has been able to navigate some major hurdles, including gaining FDA approval for the company’s direct-to-consumer genetic testing business. Though the company had to regroup a bit, 23andMe relaunched in early 2015 with guns blazing—and hasn’t looked back since.

Udacity 

Online education is making it easier for many people to learn new things or brush up on skills to help advance their careers. While many e-learning platforms, such as Courseraand Khan Academy, offer courses across a wide variety of topics, Udacity is focused on technology. Its mission is to “bring accessible, affordable, engaging and highly effective higher education to the world.”

Udacity was created almost by accident. Co-founder, Chairman and President, Sebastian Thrun, and Peter Norvig (currently the Director of Research at Google Inc.) offered an “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course online to anyone, for free. Some 160,000 students from more than 190 countries enrolled. Not long afterward Udacity was born.

Today the company focuses on teaching skills that industry employers need and delivering credentials endorsed by these employers—at a fraction of the cost of most traditional schools. One of those employers is Google. The company recently announced a partnership with Udacity to offer a Google Android Basics Nanodegree designed for people with no programming experience.

What Sets Udacity Apart? The Co-founder, Chairman and President, Sebastian Thrun, recognized the opportunity to monetize courses teaching the skills employers are looking for—and he seized it. He brought in the right team to make it work, including CEO Vish Makhijani who has years of executive leadership experience working with companies including Zynga and Yahoo. The market has taken notice. Udacity has received funding from major investors, including Bertelsmann, Charles River Venturesand Andreessen Horowitz. It is currently valued at $1.1 billion and is set to become a leading provider of educations services.

Oscar 

If you are confused about your health insurance policy and bills, you aren’t alone. The insurance market in U.S. is not working well, especially when compared to most other developed nations. We pay huge premiums and still have expensive medical bills—and that’s just for the insured.

Enter Oscar Health Insurance. The company was created in 2012 partially because co-founder Josh Kushner was frustrated over trying to make sense of a health insurance bill. He and fellow co-founders, Mario Schosser and Kevin Nazemi, wanted to use technology to improve how customers find health care. According to its website, Oscar is “reinventing how to manage care, process medical claims, control healthcare costs and provide transparency. With all the complexity hidden behind an easy experience for our members.”

What Sets Oscar Apart? Oscar is changing a broken industry by offering a common sense solution to health insurance. It uses sophisticated technology to make it easy for customers to find information and be able to make decisions. Though currently only offering plans in parts of New York, New Jersey, California and Texas, the company is growing rapidly. It currently has more than 145,000 customers and is valued at $2.7 billion. Investors include Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners and Goldman Sachs.

WeWork

Great ideas don’t have to be all about technology, but they should be about the market and customer needs. If you can identify and solve a market challenge, you can win.Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey did just that when they founded WeWork back in 2010. Both were independently employed and were working out of a partially vacant office building. They convinced the landlord to let them rent out the empty parts as shared workspace—and WeWork was born.

Today the New York City-based company fills the need among entrepreneurs for a work space that won’t cost an arm and a leg. It currently serves close to 50,000 people in cities across the U.S. and around the globe. Part of the appeal of WeWork is that it doesn’t just provide an empty desk. Membership includes access to a number of perks, from free coffee and craft beer on tap to Wi-Fi, printing and even meeting rooms with ping pong tables. Just the type of hip appeal that many of today’s entrepreneurs and independently employed persons are looking for.

What Sets WeWork Apart? The company recognized that technology is not always the path to success – marketing is. It’s not just enough to offer office space for rent—it has to appeal to the mindset of the self-employed generation. Though this startup is not tech-based and has a pure and simple business plan, it’s attracted the attention of Benchmark, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, who have funneled $1.4 billion into the company—putting it at a valuation of $10.2 billion.

These five companies have all approached business a little differently and, in so doing, have made their way into the “billion dollar club.” One size does not fit all when it comes to building a company, but studying the approach of these success cases is a good way to find inspiration for your own business plan. Strong partnerships, a good leadership team, persistency, common sense solutions and a solid marketing plan can make the difference between an average company and one that takes the market by storm.

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So, why has bettering the world become a mantra for a new generation of entrepreneurs?

More than ever, today’s entrepreneurs are striving to build businesses that make a difference in the world. Businesses that make money — but pursue a path greater than just profit. Call it altruistic-capitalism, or, as I prefer, “impact entrepreneurship.”

Impact entrepreneurs are driven by a desire to disrupt the status quo. Doing their bit to push the world forward is what gets them out of bed in the morning. They believe in creating businesses that are more ethical and transparent, dislodging the dinosaurs that give the consumer a bad deal. They believe in starting businesses that make people’s lives easier, removing unnecessary complexity. Simply put, they don’t believe in selling — they believe in solving problems.

Impact entrepreneurs embody the George Bernard Shaw quote, “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

So, what is the importance of wealth to the “unreasonable man”? If impact entrepreneurs happen to become overnight millionaires, then the cause doesn’t stop; it just becomes more viable. PayPal founder Elon Musk made enough money by the time he was 30 to retire for the rest of his life. Instead of Ferraris and desert islands, he used his newfound funds to launch electric car manufacturer Tesla, disrupting the automotive industry forever. However, acknowledging that Tesla alone cannot save the planet from heavy emission vehicles, Musk is making public all of their patents for the advancement of the industry. The enemy is the carbon crisis, not rival car manufacturers.

Facebook has a higher market cap than the GDP of Qatar, but like Musk, Mark Zuckerberg knows that money can only bring so much happiness — and that you can’t take it with you to the grave. Despite being one of youngest billionaires in the world, he has already committed to giving away at least half of his wealth. Additionally, he is spending much of his efforts leading Internet.org, the organization to help bring the internet to the two-thirds of the planet that are not yet connected. Impact entrepreneurs do what they do for legacy, not for places on rich lists.

The late Apple founder Steve Jobs, was one of the earliest impact entrepreneurs. In Apple’s 1997 “Here’s to the crazy ones” ad (above) — undoubtedly one of the greatest commercials of all time — like-minded pioneers are described as “pushing the human race forward,” accompanied with the dialogue, “while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

It’s no coincidence that in “pushing the human race forward”, Jobs created one of the world’s most valuable companies. Dreaming big is big business.

Among the “crazy ones” featured was Virgin founder Richard Branson. Since the 1970s Branson has been the champion of the “better alternative.” From health clubs to airlines, Branson has disrupted the old guard and won the hearts, minds — and importantly — loyalty of customers by guaranteeing a better way of doing things. His philosophy is embedded firmly in the DNA of the 400+ Virgin companies operating across the globe.

Furthermore, as Branson has stepped back from running his empire, he has become a prolific ambassador for what he calls “business as a force for good.” Whether this is leveraging entrepreneurial tenacity to tackle problems that governments have failed to solve, or by launching The B Team, a not-for profit that encourages businesses to be of “social, environmental and economic benefit,” Branson is paving the way for impact entrepreneurs everywhere.

With this new approach to entrepreneurship rapidly shaping business in the 21st century, we’re on our way to business success being judged not by just profit, but through cultural impact. Subsequently, business is becoming more responsible, more transparent, more rewarding, more interesting and ultimately more fun.

Things are looking up. But please, for all our sakes, don’t put “making the world a better place” in your mission statement.

By Adam Levene is SVP at the mobile innovation + design studio Monitise Create.

I like that Graham is sparking dialog on this important topic. He puts himself “out there”, even if it means being exposed to some withering critiques.

His essay caused me to step back and reflect on the fact that I am seeing more entrepreneurs inspired to harness the power of some of the forces he describes – entrepreneurship, technology, innovation and shockingly fast productivity – to make a positive societal impact. I would like to see this trend continue. I’d like to see more Impact Entrepreneurs (a concept I first saw coined in an article in Wired Magazine by Adam Levene) not just wealth-creating entrepreneurs. Impact entrepreneurs are inspired to direct their entrepreneurial energy and skill to make a difference, help a group in society, right a wrong or turn around an injustice. Not just build the next Candy Crush Saga.

Don’t get me wrong – I love wealth-focused entrepreneurs, too. As a venture capitalist, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs focused on turning Flybridge’s seed and Series A investments into something very valuable is my day job. But if we want to unleash the full power of entrepreneurship and technological innovation to better society, more entrepreneurs need to direct their energy to truly making an impact. This effort can take a few forms. Some examples and trends are:

• Mission-Driven, Double Bottom Line – Double bottom line companies measure their success on both financial performance and social impact. They are typically mission-driven companies with founders who are passionate about the mission for its own sake rather than financially driven where the company’s focus is a means to an end. One of our portfolio companies (sprung out of Paul Graham’s Y-Combinator), Codecademy, aspires to teach the world to code for free. The founders are focused on helping millions of people learn to code so that they can improve their job prospects and move up the income ladder. A company I co-founded back in 2000, Upromise, is focused on helping families save money for college, a necessary ticket to the American Dream. At its peak, Upromise helped over 10 million families save over30 billion. Both of these companies are mission-driven, bottom-line for profit companies that raised lots of venture capital money, hired great people and built businesses focused on generating profits. There are many others like them, particularly in the world of education, health care and financial services.

• Impact Investing – A new class of investors is emerging at the intersection of financially-driven investments and social initiatives called impact investing. I am seeing impact investing funds popping up all over the world (e.g., one from Israel came into my inbox this morning). Deval Patrick, former Governor of Massachusetts, recently joined Bain Capital to start a new impact investing fund to find a sustainable, middle ground between profitable investments and social responsibility. The field is still unproven and there are many questions to be sorted out (e.g., should the investment return target be similar to “regular” investing or consciously lower?), but this notion has led folks to talk about “triple bottom lines” for firms: financial, social, and environmental.

• Public Entrepreneurship – Another powerful trend is directing entrepreneurial skills and efforts to innovate in the public sector. At Harvard Business School, Professor Mitch Weiss teaches a class called Public Entrepreneurship that focuses on this area. The notion is that entrepreneurs can work with civic leaders to make a difference in the world through technology, social change, and/or political transparency. Public Entrepreneurship can be for profit or not for profit. Not for profit examples include President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, which has included making massive amounts of government data available to the public in machine readable form. Google’s ambitious Sidewalk Labs is a for profit effort in this area, focused on applying technology to solve urban problems. The thesis of many public entrepreneurial efforts is that if both the government and the private sector can cooperate across silos, sharing information and tools to innovate together, we can materially improve the infrastructure and welfare of our communities.

• Social Entrepreneurship (aka Non-Profits That Act Like For Profits) – Social entrepreneurs are non-profits that draw on business techniques to address social issues, but explicitly in a not-for-profit structure. EdX, an ambitious joint venture created by MIT and Harvard, is an an example of a non-profit that acts like a for profit. EdX hires top engineers and marketers focused on building an online learning platform that teaches college-level courses worldwide for free, radically expanding global accessibility to high quality education. Another example isGoogle.org, whose mission is to develop products that give nonprofits the technology or the funds they need to implement change. Since 2010, they have raised over20 million to fight human trafficking and child abuse, which was given to multiple organizations that are ready to use the money quickly and effectively.

Each of these examples represents relatively new models for blending innovation, technology and entrepreneurship to achieve a social good. There are really interesting hybrid models forming, which is why Mark Zuckerberg did not create a charitable fund when he created his multi-billion dollar initiative, directing his wealth to social impact.

To further this trend, perhaps Y Combinator, Techstars and other accelerators should be creating a social entrepreneurship track. And more business schools should be creating public/social entrepreneurship courses to inspire young entrepreneurs to take their passion for social change and find ways to create scalable, positive impact.

Human progress is often the result of multi-disciplinarian efforts. I am optimistic that the trends Paul Graham points to – and is in the midst of helping accelerate – are going to ultimately have a very positive impact on society at all levels. But it will take some inspired entrepreneurs to get us there.

By Jeff Bussgang