Alliance Showcases Clean Cooking at SOCAP13
I just came back from my first Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) experience and I have to say, I am exhilarated and exhausted. SOCAP, an annual conference dedicated towards increasing the flow of capital towards social good, took place from September 3-6th in San Francisco and featured a full week of meetings, panels, and networking.
This was a big year for the Alliance's markets team, releasing our strategy to increase investment and implementing a number of initiatives to catalyze investment in the sector. We partnered with SOCAP to showcase the sector's progress by hosting an innovation showcase all day Thursday, September 5th featuring seven promising companies in the sector:
• Envirofit
• Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise
• SMEFunds
• Inyenyeri
• Burn Manufacturing
• Greenway Grameen Infra
• Invested Development
It is a great testament to the diversity of the sector to have a variety of stoves and fuels companies showcasing their technologies for conference participants who had not been previously exposed to clean cooking solutions. Entrepreneurs spent the day talking to conference participants about their technologies and unique distribution models, often darting off to have quick meetings with potential investors, while the Alliance team spent the day talking about our investment strategy and linking up with strategic partners. In addition to making new friends and connections such as Carbon Roots International and I-Dev International, we were able to link up with partners like Deutsche Bank, Invested Development, and the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI).
As a follow up to our week at SOCAP, we are releasing the second round of Spark,selecting finalists for the deal rooms at our 3rd Anniversary event in New York, and preparing to launch more exciting market development and access to finance interventions. As always, we encourage you to join the Entrepreneurs and Investors community and watch our Funding Opportunities page. Many thanks to our partners and the wonderful team at SOCAP for a successful event!