S.E.VEN Fund (Cambridge)
5 November 2008
SPONSOR WIRE
Cambridge, MA — The Social Equity Venture Fund - S.E.VEN - (www.sevenfund.org) recently announced the VINE (Virtual Integrated Networking Experience) Project. The unique competition, open to all, merges the world of commercial financial investment with open innovation to promote investment in emerging markets. The $50,000 prize will be shared among all those who contribute to the winning idea, starting with the originator and continuing to contributors or nodes along the two-phased "vine." The winning idea will be announced in January 2009.
Entrepreneurs in emerging markets frequently cite a lack of access to investment capital as a barrier to starting and growing their businesses. The VINE Project is an ideal opportunity to think differently about new ways to approach investment in emerging market SMEs to ultimately promote further investment. The five-month long online competition invites anyone with ideas to submit, collaborate, and refine them. Once complete, S.E.VEN hopes to evaluate and release a set of metrics that can be used to help improve investor confidence and stimulate investment.
To participate, contributors may submit their ideas at http://www.sevenfund.org/vine/ until November 30. The second phase of wiki-based collaboration takes place between December 1, 2008 - January 7, 2009. The online VINE community will select finalists and a jury of experts will award the grand prize.
"S.E.VEN is inviting the general public; the people who are actually closest to the issue to propose their ideas, " says Andreas Widmer co-founder of the S.E.VEN Fund.
This competition was funded through a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation. For additional information about the S.E.VEN Fund, please visit www.sevenfund.org.
About the S.E.VEN Fund
S.E.VEN (Social Equity Venture Fund – www.sevenfund.org) is a virtual non-profit entity run by entrepreneurs Michael Fairbanks and Andreas Widmer whose strategy is to markedly increase the rate of diffusion of enterprise-based solutions to poverty.
The Social Equity Venture Fund
Elizabeth Hooper
http://www.sevenfund.org/vine/
Copyright © 2008 S.E.VEN Fund. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
