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Fintech’s Five Emerging Powerhouse Markets Are At A Crossroads
Accenture has warned local banking communities in Asia to wake up: It took just nine months for investment in the region’s non-banking fintechs to quadruple from 2014’s $880 million to $3.5 billion.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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NexThought Monday: Pay for Success … With an Important Twist
Did you ever wonder how to adapt the pay-for-success model to market-based social enterprises and inclusive businesses? How to catalyze and secure private investments that allow scaling? And how to make sure that each party involved has an incentive to outperform on impact? Roots of Impact believes they've found an answer to these questions.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Weekly Roundup: OPIC’s Big Jump with LeapFrog; the Dearth of Do-gooder Drones
With a $200 million planned investment by the U.S. government’s development finance arm, impact equity firm LeapFrog Investments has now attracted $1 billion in funds to invest in companies reaching low-income people with financial and healthcare services. This week, the board of directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved the investment, as well as eight others. LeapFrog’s announcement hailed the OPIC investment as “the largest commitment in history to any impact fund manager.” That’s not something I could independently confirm, but it is OPIC’s largest single commitment to a private equity manager.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Eight Reasons to Invest in African Tech Innovation
In Africa, the middle class is growing, populations are urbanizing, IT infrastructure is improving and cell phones and mobile payments are more widely used than in most of the world. All of this has contributed to a recent tech startup boom that has garnered growing interest from international investors. Here are eight reasons why African technological innovation is a wise investment.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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After $19M equity round, Kenya’s M-Kopa is set to deliver solar power to a million homes
This month the company closed a $19 million financing round led by Generation Investment Management, and revealed plans to reach one million homes in East Africa by the end of 2017.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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U.S.-Based eClinicalWorks to Invest $30 Million in India
U.S.-based healthcare IT firm eClinicalWorks will invest $30 million as part of its expansion plans for the digital healthcare market in India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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IFC Invests in Postal Savings Bank of China to Promote Financial Inclusion for Underserved
The FINANCIAL -- IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on December 10 announced an investment in Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC). The investment will help promote access to finance in a country, which according to World Bank Group data, is home to 12% of the world’s unbanked, some 235 million people, many of whom live in rural areas.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Omidyar Network Leads Investment in Technology that Enables Central Banks to Issue Digital Fiat Currency
Omidyar Network announced today a for-profit investment in eCurrency Mint (eCM), a Dublin-based company that has pioneered a new technology that enables central banks to issue digital fiat currency, called eCurrency. eCurrency is different from the various forms of private sector digital value available today because it is issued by a central bank and has the same legal and monetary status as notes and coins.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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