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Viewpoint: Responsible Investing: PE impact investors should target SMEs in Southeast Asia
There is a concentration of investments in a few sectors such as financial services and energy. Agriculture and micro-SMEs are two areas with high potential in the region.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- microfinance
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Kiva’s Crowdfunding Platform Transforms Into Hub for Impact Investing and Financial Inclusion
“One of the things that goes unnoticed about Kiva is our quiet but continued pursuit of the impact being achieved,” says Premal Shah, who until 2018 was president and the only remaining cofounder still with Kiva. “This is hard to do and hard to measure. But it is critical.”
- Categories
- Finance
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M-Pesa Remains Primarily a Payments Tool, a 2019 CGAP Survey Reveals
The survey has revealed that an average M-PESA net balance is less than KES 1,000 ($10) and this figure remains constant whether the user has a bank account or not. These balances were the same across employment types and income levels.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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PayPal-Backed Money Lender Tala Raises $110M to Enter India
Tala looks at a customer’s texts and calls logs, merchant transactions, overall app usage and other behavioral data through its Android app to build their credit profile.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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In Sierra Leone, New Kiva Protocol Uses Blockchain to Benefit Unbanked
The National Civil Registration Commission developed the national digital identity platform with support from Kiva, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that allows people to lend money to low-income people around the world, as well as the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the United Nations Development Programme.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WhatsApp in Talks to Launch Mobile Payments in Indonesia
Indonesia could become the second country worldwide where WhatsApp introduces such services, as it awaits regulatory approval from India, its biggest market by users, that has been delayed due to local data storage rules.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Solutions to Five Key Barriers to Women’s Financial Inclusion
In developing countries, only 59% of women have a bank account – an issue VisionFund is addressing through its Women’s Empowerment Fund. But though the fund has supported thousands of female-led businesses, it has also faced persistent challenges – many of which are unique to women. Johanna Ryan, VisionFund's Global Director of Impact, discusses five obstacles the fund has encountered, and how they've responded.
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Fintech Deals in Indian Startups Surpass China Despite a Lending Slowdown
China saw deals drop to five-quarter low of 15 deals, down 81% from Q2 of calendar year 2018. However, broader deal-making across the globe has been relatively flat this year.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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