Readers of nextbillion may have noticed recently that the company profiles I've been blogging on every week have taken on a new theme. This is because the New Ventures program (also part of the World Resources Institute and a partner of nextbillion) decided to make these featured articles on up and coming businesses into a series. Given the recent development, this is a good time to reiterate why we work with these emerging economy SMEs and what we mean when we call them "Rising Ventures."

The importance of SMEs (that is, small and medium size enterprises) in developing countries is hard to overstate yet they are incredibly understudied. Many operate in the informal economy and thus go unnoticed, but it is a mistake to overlook these crucial actors in development discussions because of their huge economic, environmental and social contribution. They account for over half of global employment and make up an estimated 90% of all businesses. In an era of impending climate change and rapid resource consumption, we can ill-afford to ignore the environmental impact of SMEs, as the European Commission estimates that they are responsible for 50% of pollution.