Grameen Foundation Selected for ImpactAssets 50 2013

"IA 50" Showcase Features Experienced Impact Investment Fund Managers  

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Grameen Foundation has been selected for the ImpactAssets 50 2013, a free, online resource for impact investors and their advisors. The IA 50, now in its third year, is the first publically available database of private debt and equity impact investment fund managers.  

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The IA 50 serves as a gateway for those interested in achieving social and/or environmental, as well as financial, returns on their investments.  Fund managers included in the IA 50 2013 manage a combined $10.8 billion in assets within the impact investing market.

"We are pleased to receive this recognition from ImpactAssets for the second consecutive year. Grameen Foundation's work over the past 15 years has shown that investing in the poor can help them transform their lives and achieve their full potential. We are committed to expanding access to critical and appropriate financial services, especially in underserved communities," said Alex Counts, president and CEO of Grameen Foundation.

Grameen Foundation invests in early stage, innovative and scalable social enterprises that improve the economic livelihoods of the world's poor in rural and difficult to reach markets. Its portfolio includes social enterprises engaged in industries ranging from mobile payment networks and microfinance to honey production.  It invests throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

The IA 50 includes a broad range of organizations spanning domestic and international geographies, sectors, asset classes and impact areas. Firms were chosen based on experience, impact, and with an eye toward reflecting the diversity of impact investment opportunities. The selection committee was chaired by ImpactAssets' Chief Impact Strategist, Jed Emerson, and included experts from the CAPROCK Group, Eirene, Haas Business School, Labrador Ventures, Toniic, and UBS. 

The IA 50 2013, along with additional details on the selection process, are available at: http://www.impactassets.org/impactassets-50.

About Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation is a global nonprofit organization that helps the world's poorest people achieve their full potential by providing access to essential financial services and information on health and agriculture that can transform their lives. Founded in 1997, it delivers solutions that respond to the needs of the poor, as well as tools that help poverty-focused organizations become more effective. It focuses on initiatives that can achieve widespread impact and uses an open-source approach that makes it easy for other organizations to adopt them broadly. Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and the Grameen family of companies, is an inaugural member of its Board of Directors, and now serves as director emeritus. Grameen Foundation is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in the U.S., Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information, please visit www.grameenfoundation.org or follow us on Twitter @GrameenFdn.

About ImpactAssets
ImpactAssets is a nonprofit financial services firm that increases the flow of capital into investments that deliver financial, social, and environmental returns.  ImpactAssets' donor advised fund ("The Giving Fund"), impact investment notes, and field building initiatives enable philanthropists, other asset owners, and their wealth advisors to advance social or environmental change through investment.

CONTACT: Liselle Yorke
202-628-3560, ext. 128
[email protected]

SOURCE Grameen Foundation