Presentation by the AltFin Lab

The Maker Hub at Lauinger Library and the Gelardin New Media Center cordially invite you to Georgetown University for an afternoon of conversation, socializing, and workshops with the UN Development Programme's Alternative Finance Lab, from UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub.

Alternative Finance Lab (AltFin Lab) is an internal startup, run out of UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub for Europe and CIS. It is a mechanism for exploring and tapping into new financial technologies and mechanisms to access investment for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since their establishment in 2016, they have been working to provide hands on technical expertise, advisory support and market intelligence to over 30 UNDP offices, national partners and governments around the world to revolutionize development finance and tap into new sources of capital, mobilizing over 3.2M USD.

Their activities include crowdfunding, crowdlending and crowdinvesting - where they helped to mobilize more than USD 600,000 and where they are putting the special focus on renewable energy and SMEs. They participated with some of the leading crowdfunding partners in creation of a trip advisor for green energy www.Citizenergy.eu where investments in green energy in 2016 exceeded 35 mil EUR.

Currently they are supporting two Social Impact Bonds projects (in Serbia and Belarus), Forecast Based Financing for floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Blockchain technology where they are working with leading companies in the sector (AIDTech, Blockchain.com, BitSpark) and international partners (EU's Joint Research Center) to investigate its full potential for development: for transferring money from diaspora and remittances using bitcoins and smart vouchers, and revolutionizing e-governance services with blockchain.

The lab seeks to support (in)formal citizen and other groups, government partners, business and others who are willing to experiment with emerging finance mechanisms to access new sources of capital to generate public outcomes and achieve SDGs. In managing the portfolio of over 40 prototypes exploring a range of new financial mechanisms and technologies, the Lab is helping its clients gain better understanding to what extent, under what circumstances, and with what type of support these mechanisms can help various citizen and other groups access capital, find investment in their social good projects, and extend financial services to the poorest of the poor.

This presentation will be followed by a reception in the Murray Room, where you can meet the team and other attendees.

2:00pm - 4:00pm
Murray Room, Fifth Floor, Lauinger Library