Financing the Digital Humanitarian Shift

In Episode 6, Chris Hoffman is joined by Kenneth Kou (Head of Venture Lab / Crypto for Good Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures) and Simon Meldrum (Innovative Finance, IFRC; Executive Director, Humanitarian Finance Forum) to unpack what “innovative humanitarian finance” actually means—beyond the buzzwords.

This is a wide-ranging, practical conversation about where capital can (and can’t) move the needle: why the sector is shifting from narrative to delivery details, what’s broken about the hype around social impact bonds (and why the data matters), and how instruments like insurance, risk-sharing, and capital markets tools can help close the humanitarian funding gap—if they’re designed for real constraints. We also connect the dots between emerging tech + finance, including how venture-style approaches are testing new models for financially underserved and climate-vulnerable communities.

What we cover:

• Social impact bonds: market reality vs. storytelling
• Insurance, risk, and “doing less with less”
• The role of Humanitarian Finance Forum in unlocking private capital

Links:

• Mercy Corps Ventures: https://www.mercycorps.org/what-we-do/ventures
• Humanitarian Finance Forum: https://hfforum.org/
• Brookings “Impact Bonds by the Numbers”: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/social-and-development-impact-bonds-by-the-numbers/

LinkedIn (quick find):

• Kenneth Kou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethkou/
• Simon Meldrum: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonmeldrum/

keywords: humanitarian finance, innovative financing, social impact bonds, blended finance, insurance and risk, capital markets for good, IFRC, Humanitarian Finance Forum, climate resilience, financial inclusion.