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Businesses Serving the Poor Need to Get Over Their Unease About Profit

Harvard Business Review

cents for a sachet that could purify 10 liters, Pur achieved penetration rates of 5% to 10% in its test markets — strong by almost any yardstick — but in 2005 the company gave up on Pur as a business, because the numbers simply hadn't worked. The microfinance industry is a rare D and E success story.

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Give Impact Investing Time and Space to Develop

Harvard Business Review

An estimated 250 funds are actively raising capital in a market that the Global Impact Investing Network estimates at $25 billion. As the sector grows through this period of creative destruction, models that don’t work will die out, models that survive will attract copycats, operating costs will go down, and winners will rise to the top.