EMPEA identified a need for the organization and its community to support the global private capital ecosystem beyond the boundaries of the membership association. In response, they will soon be launching the EMPEA Institute, a new research and education platform wholly-controlled by EMPEA, which aims to accelerate the use of private capital in support of entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging markets, for the benefit of future generations. The EMPEA Institute will be funded through grants and tax-deductible donations from industry visionaries.
Looking over the horizon, increasingly returns in their industry will have to be generated through value creation and through innovation in business models, cost models, science and technology. These innovations will either be homegrown in emerging markets, or will have been specifically designed with their unique needs in mind. The EMPEA Institute will seek to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in their markets, identify and foster the most disruptive and scalable ideas and practices, and aim to build capacity around them, since these ideas and practices will drive the future opportunity set for their Members.
The Institute will also engage with emerging markets public sector policy-makers and regulators, to drive awareness as to how to support sustainable economic development by fostering the important interaction between entrepreneurship and innovation on the one hand and private equity, private credit and venture capital on the other hand. It will play an active role in establishing and fostering eco-systems conducive to private equity, private credit and venture capital. Without the appropriate enabling environment, entrepreneurship, innovation and private markets cannot thrive.
Last but not least, the EMPEA Institute will also engage with existing and new pools of local institutional capital in their markets and seek to catalyze their support for emerging market entrepreneurs and innovations. The EMPEA Institute will fit under the umbrella of EMPEA, their global brand, their industry-driven mission and their shared belief with their Members that private capital is a highly suited investment strategy in emerging markets, delivering attractive long-term investment returns and promoting the sustainable growth of companies and economies. It will be co-located with the EMPEA headquarters and its work will run in parallel with the industry association; in addition, its governance body will be comprised of some of EMPEA’s existing Board Members and most active leaders.
The EMPEA Institute will be organized as a research and education non-profit entity under U.S. IRS tax rules, which will allow it to receive grants and other funding from a broad array of institutions, foundations, endowments, U.S. government agencies and development institutions, as well as make it eligible to receive tax-deductible donations from supporting visionaries. Prior to the launch of the Institute, EMPEA, as a member association under U.S. tax regulation, can only receive grant funding on a limited basis and cannot benefit from individual tax-deductible donations. Now, via the EMPEA Institute, other non-profit institutions with shared goals in their markets as well as individual donors in their network, who are wholeheartedly dedicated to the work they do, will be able to contribute to new research and education to advance entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging economies and their industry.
