Check out the "SoCap" Index

Recently launched by Xigi with support of Good Capital, is a tool they call the SoCap Index, or for those not so much in the know, Social Capital Index (SCI). SCI was launched to track all kinds of investments that are happening in the broadly defined social capital market. Within the Index, and of particular interest to companies looking for funding of this nature, or investors looking for somewhere "good" to put their money to work, is the DealSpace.

In their words, "the DealSpace portion of the SoCap Index is a timely tracking of investments in the social capital market, including social enterprise (health, education, and workforce development), fair trade, digital inclusion, and some clean tech and microfinance investments. It includes investments into social funds and syndicates as well as investments gathered from angel investors and relevant foundations by social entrepreneurs." It's a non-searchable PDF report at this point but they intent to make more interactive in the future. Regardless of format, they strive to become a reliable, objective third-party database of both money in and money out in the space and track both equity and non-equity (debt, grants, etc.) investments. In the future, they also hope to list companies who are seeking investment but who have not yet closed.

I for one am no only glad to find these tools but am also encouraged that more SoCap deals are actually getting done!

Good thing International Women's Day isn't March 20th!

International Women's Day is March 8 and countries around the world will be celebrating by honoring women in many different ways. In Turkmenistan, the president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, approved a measure to grant every woman in the country 200,000 manat ($10) as a "sign of respect." Women's Day had gone unrecognized under the former president because he saw it as a tie to the the old Soviet regime, so this new approach is definitely a step in the right direction. Concerning, however, is the second part of Berdymukhamedov's plan which rewards women who give birth to eight or more children! Eight seemed like a pretty random number so I am guessing it ties to the fact that Women's Day is the 8th - good thing it's not the 20th!

The so-called reward for having all these children is a one time $250 payment and lifetime access to free utilities, public transportation and dental care. Since most utilities are already subsidized and transportation is extremely inexpensive (gas is about $0.08/gallon), this pretty much equates to $250 and dental care. Given an overall population of about 5-6mm people, we can estimate about half are female. Assuming only a third come forward for their $10 and many fewer for the one time payment we can assume that about $1B will be spent on this plan. That's a lot of money that could be invested in education, women's health, micro businesses, and the like. From what I've seen from my short visit, that sort of investment would do a lot more for the development of the country and trying to spur a baby boom.