What do Merar, Linked-In and the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics have in common?

The answer is all three present solutions for reducing friction in the search for information.

The Nobel Prize was awarded earlier in October for research on why unoccupied jobs exist even when there are unemployed people. To a large extent this boils down to the high cost of gathering information on available jobs. (The Economist, Oct 14th, 2010, Search and employ, http://www.economist.com/node/17249486?story_id=17249486).

The same phenomenon exists in capital markets. Private equity firms have around $456 billion in unspent capital (The Economist, Oct 21st 2010, Are private-equity firms able to escape their past?, http://www.economist.com/node/17314604?story_id=17314604) and at the same time millions of companies are looking for equity investors.

Here steps in Merar Investment Network. Our network greatly reduces the cost of gathering information on who has capital to spare and who has investment opportunities to offer. By creating a virtual dating platform for investors and entrepreneurs, Merar removes the friction that holds back the free flow of information, thus helping match supply of capital with supply of relevant investment opportunities.

Linked-in does something similar but in a wider field: it makes matching business contacts and partners much easier.

So, to end on an optimistic note, expect in 2020 the launch of the Merar Nobel Prize in Network Economics. Merar will undoubtedly be a strong contender for the 2020 prize for its role in reducing friction in the exchange of investment information to, hmm, zero.