For-Profit Makes a Difference
Novogratz’s experiences eventually developed into the Acumen Fund>, a venture capital firm for aid. The idea is to invest *patient capital* in *scalable,* *for-profit* businesses that deliver services to the poor. The fund, for example, has invested in a firm producing drip irrigation systems in Pakistan, a Tanzanian firm that produces mosquito nets and an Indian firm producing internet-telephone kiosks in small villages.The fact that the businesses have been *for-profit* has been critical. In selling bed nets for example the Tanzanian firm learned that talking about malaria doesn’t sell. What sells, in the words of one of their top salespersons is, “The color is beautiful, and you can hang the nets in your windows so that your neighbors know how much you care about your family.”
- Marginal Revolution
