About InVenture

InVenture is a social enterprise with a mission to provide the capital, guidance and support needed to empower micro-business owners in emerging markets to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty. To achieve its goals, InVenture has adopted a hybrid approach in which portions of operational processes have been privatized as the InVenture Capital Corporation (ICC), with remaining activities housed in the InVenture Foundation.

We became a B Corp because we created InVenture’s business model to also be part of the solution - accessible, sustainable, transparent and responsive to all our varied stakeholders - and being a B Corp is our way of embedding our commitment into the DNA of our business.

InVenture addresses the barriers to self-sufficiency and growth through its unique model of connecting emerging micro-entrepreneurs with appropriate financing through unsecured equity-like instruments, or “quasi-equity.” It bridges the gap between debt and more traditional equity instruments by allowing online supporters (also known as “InVestors”) to invest through an online platform directly to these micro-entrepreneurs. In this way, InVestors are able to achieve social gains through profit sharing and principal repayment. InVenture provides flexible financing that allows micro-businesses to pay back funds as they grow, and affords micro-entrepreneurs the opportunity to break the micro-loan cycle.

The Change We Seek™

The goal of InVenture is to complete the “missing middle” – the gap in financial services between micro-loans and the traditional banking sector.

Access to capital without management skills seldom allows small business owners to reach their full potential. InVenture recognizes the importance of proper guidance and educational support to its micro-entrepreneurs in order for them to take their business to greater heights. Hence, through a fellowship program managed in partnership with the InVenture Foundation, entrepreneurs receive business development assistance to help formulate strategy and set viable targets for financial growth.

InVenture requires all micro-entrepreneurs to re-invest a portion of their profit back into reproductive health, girls’ education and women’s vocational training initiatives in their communities. This re-investment is the catalyst for a positive feedback loop - growing a community through a business, while growing a business through a community.

InVenture

• Industry: Financial Services
• Product/Services: Online Micro-InVestments
• Location: Santa Monica, CA
• Ownership: Private
• http://www.inventure.org