The Economic Times: A group of high profile UK and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, including the like of James Caan , panellist on BBC’s high profile VC funding show Dragon’s Den, Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute.com, Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Hummer , one of the early investors in Napsters among others have come together to set up a not for profit microfinance fund, Shanti, aimed at financing and also providing entrepreneurial support to would-be slumdog millionaires in India.The project aims to raise close to half a million pounds in donations towards the capital. Shanti is the brainchild of Sheetal Mehta Walsh, formerly director of Venture Capital Relations at Microsoft, who now consults with UK government trade departments.
This activity is aimed to counter some of the bad effects of abusive microfinance activities (here and here) which have tainted the otherwise thriving and beneficial enterprise. Read more…..
Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni.
