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Japanese VCs Launch USD $20 Million Early-Stage Startup Fund for Africa & MENA
The fund will invest in four key sectors: finance, mobility, distribution, and sustainability. Furthermore, it will focus on areas such as mobile payments, microlending, digital retail, logistics, and agri-tech.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Degas Limited Pledges $100 Million to Make Ghana Africa’s First AI-Powered Agricultural Hub
Degas’ platform combines AI-driven satellite monitoring and agriculture techniques. The results, according to Makiura, are drawing strong interest from Japanese investors.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Women, Wealth and Climate Resilience: The Transformative Power of Asset Creation in Africa
Climate vulnerability is a key factor behind the challenges facing women and girls in Africa. Yet as Jo Opot at Gather Ventures explains, the impact of investments aimed at building their climate resilience often fades too quickly, as poverty and tradition pull them back into household and caregiving duties. She argues that this problem represents a failure to address underlying power dynamics, and proposes a critical yet often overlooked solution — asset creation — exploring how it can advance both climate resilience and the quality of life for women and girls.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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500 Global and UNDP Launch New Innovation Programs to Boost Africa’s Ecosystem
The launch is the latest in a series of firm actions to reinforce support for the African venture ecosystem.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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54 Collective, Formerly Founders Factory Africa, Shuts Down Venture Studio Amid Mastercard Foundation Dispute
54 Collective, the venture firm formerly known as Founders Factory Africa, has shut down its venture studio operations as its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation ended in legal action.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Miller Center Capital Supports Altitud to Expand Economic Opportunities for Women in Mexico
For more than a decade, Altitud has provided affordable credit to women who are starting sewing enterprises, which is often their first step toward financial independence.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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British International Investment Anchors CRDB Bank’s Landmark Islamic Bond to Promote Financial Inclusion in Tanzania
Tanzania’s first large-scale Islamic bond issued by a private sector institution marks a major milestone in the country’s financial landscape.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Building Smarter Data Practices in Entrepreneurship Support Ecosystems: How Entrepreneurs, Investors and Other Stakeholders Can Drive Systemic Change
Entrepreneurship support ecosystems include a diverse range of actors, from incubators and accelerators to policymakers, impact investors and other funders. But though strengthening these ecosystems is a growing priority in emerging markets, monitoring, evaluation and learning remains a persistent challenge, due in part to a lack of data sharing. Heather Esper at the William Davidson Institute and Keith Obade and Moses Waweru at Villgro Africa explore the reasons various stakeholders collect data, the obstacles that keep this data fragmented and underutilized, and the ways these ecosystems can improve their data practices.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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