The Global Social Venture Competition - Global Finals

I'm blogging live at the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC), a business plan competition founded in 1999 is an effort to "realize an economy in which every business values, generates and measures social impact." With a record 311 entrants this year, today's presentations highlight 10 Global Finalists that hail from around the world--from India to Thailand to across the United States.

Some highlights:

• EcoFaeBrick, an Indonesian venture that utilizes cow dung to create a lighter, stronger, low-cost building material alternative while in the process mobilizing the labor in rural villages.
  
• Three groups seeking to transform rural healthcare by making it easier for low-income people to access the quality of service provided in urban centers using such technologies as telemedicine and mobile devices.
• Solarcycle, a company that uses low-cost reflective material made from used plastic bags and the interior of metallized chip bags to create a material that replaces mirrors in social concentrating applications. They've developed two products--a solar cooker and a water pasteurization system.
• A Google-powered search engine that uses its profits to plant trees in tropical countries--thereby allowing people to transform every day habits (what the company calls "small actions"), such as internet browsing/searching, into benefits for environmental good.
  

A group of 9 experienced social venture professionals and investors asked tough questions of each finalist, ranging from issues over barriers to adoption to profit models to the experience of team members.

The winner of GSVC 2009 will be announced later this evening at the Global Final Awards Dinner.