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Backed by Greycroft, Klasha Gets $2.4 Million To Improve Cross-border Commerce in Africa
Klasha, a Lagos and San Francisco-based startup, sees a niche in cross-border commerce and provides multiple integrations and APIs to facilitate transactions in that space.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Optimizing Results-Based Financing for Off-Grid Energy: Why Localization Can Provide a Pathway to More Effective Investment
Leading investors across the energy access sector have embraced results-based financing (RBF) as a key mechanism to unlock private capital for small-scale solar and mini-grid businesses, and to advance the world toward universal electrification. But according to Audrey Desiderato at SunFunder and Martijn Veen at SNV, the remote design and management of RBF programs increases the risk that these funds will exclude local actors and innovation. They share findings from a recent white paper exploring the need for more localization in results-based financing for off-grid energy.
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Analysis: Zimbabwe Cracks Down on Currency Dealers on Social Media and Mobile Money Platforms
With the government cracking down on mobile money, the country’s financial woes may just worsen.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mexican Fintech Konfio Says Now Worth $1.3 Billion With New Capital
Konfio, which helps small businesses secure loans, said the funds will be used to broaden its reach in Latin America’s second-largest economy.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Analysis: The Precarious State of MSMEs: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 and Opportunities To Support Their Recovery
In May 2020, The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), as part of our partnership with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, launched a six-wave, longitudinal survey examining the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs in four countries: Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- financial inclusion, MSMEs
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Aspire Raises $158 Million Series B To Build a Full-Stack “Financial Operating System” for Southeast Asian Businesses
Aspire also operates in Indonesia and Vietnam and is laying the groundwork, including regulatory, to expand into other Southeast Asian markets,
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Mexico’s Kavak Drives Away With $700 Million in New Funding, Doubling Its Valuation to $8.7 Billion
Kavak, a Mexico City-based startup that operates a pre-owned car marketplace in Latin America, announced it has raised a massive Series E round that more than doubles the company’s valuation.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Transportation
- Region
- Latin America
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Mastercard Launches Strive: a Global Small Business Initiative to Accelerate Economic Recovery
This program builds on lessons learned and a body of work developed as part of Mastercard’s long-term focus on financial inclusion”
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Global