Angel Investors Diversify Portfolios with Social Ventures

BOSTON, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- It's a commonly held misconception that any enterprise seeking to better the world has to be non-profit.  Yet Boston based startup Invested Development (www.investeddevelopment.com) is successfully pairing social entrepreneurs with the capital they need via an unexpected source, profit-driven investors.  Invested Development serves as an investment intermediary for investors and entrepreneurs seeking to alleviate poverty using a traditional for-profit business model.  These market-based approaches allow social entrepreneurs to maintain long-term sustainable impact at a much larger scale then their non-profit counterparts.

Recently Invested Development secured financing from a syndicate of investors to aid in the growth of MIT $100K Competition finalist Promethean Power Systems.  Promethean has developed a solar-powered refrigeration system for commercial use in off-grid and partially electrified areas of developing countries. This technology enables food suppliers to store and preserve perishable food items—such as milk, fruits and vegetables—without the need for expensive diesel-powered generators.  Promethean's first application is a system to store milk that will increase the livelihood of dairy farmers in rural India, where nearly thirty percent of milk spoils due to lack of cold storage.

Invested Development has also sourced funding for EGG-energy, a company that has been dubbed the "Netflix for batteries."  Comprised of a multidisciplinary team of MIT and Harvard graduates and led by Echoing Green finalist Jamie Yang, EGG-energy operates in rural and peri-urban Tanzania where 80% of the population lives within five kilometers of power, but only 10% have access to electricity. EGG-energy solves this problem by taking power at its source and packaging it into portable, rechargeable batteries.  Each battery contains sufficient energy to power lights, a radio, and a mobile phone charger for several days.  When the battery is depleted customers use deliverymen and swap it for a fully charged one, providing continuous access to electricity.

Invested Development is a fairly young company, but they have already made significant progress in shifting the flow of investment capital towards developing markets and social entrepreneurs.  Looking towards the rest of 2010, Invested Development will continue to expand on the vision laid forth by founder Miguel Granier – increasing the amount of risk capital available for market-based solutions to poverty.

For additional information please contact Invested Development by email at [email protected] or by phone at 617-245-0570.

SOURCE Invested Development