Gray Ghost Ventures & Access

Brian Cayce, vice-president of Gray Ghost Ventures, will talk about their portfolio of early stage impact investments as tools to expand access to basic services and goods in frontier markets. He will bring a few examples and also discuss how these ventures get funded.

About the Speaker

With over 20 years in impact investing, emerging markets, venture capital, technology startups and business valuations, Brian is a seasoned venture capital impact investor. Beginning in 2005, he focused on sourcing, underwriting, monitoring, managing and exiting from early stage venture investments at Gray Ghost Ventures, helping to more than double investor capital while driving significant social impact. Brian has also been a thought-leader and founding member of much of the Greater Atlanta region’s impact ecosystem. His involvement with Gray Ghost Ventures portfolio companies includes: CellBazaar (exited to Telenor), d.Light, United Villages (exited to Oxigen), ParaLife, RentBureau (exited to Experian), SourceTrace, and many more. Brian began his career as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan in the mid ‘90s, where he installed the first publicly-available ISP, allowing access to information beyond the closed confines of the state-controlled media. Later, Brian was Deputy Director for CARE's southern Balkans office. Prior to Gray Ghost Ventures, he was Benevolink’s first non-founder employee, involved in all aspects of product, technology, and business development. Brian is a Kauffman Fellow and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Georgia Honors Program, where he earned a BA summa cum laude. Brian also holds an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University.

Where is the Design Bloc?

The Design Bloc is easily accessed from Clough. Take the elevators closest to Starbucks in Clough to the 4th floor. Exit the elevators and take an immediate left, entering into the library as you keep walking. Once you've swiped your ID, you'll see a set of stairs to your left almost immediately. Keep walking until you reach the next set of stairs, walk up, and you'll find yourself in the Design Bloc.