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A Decade in, Why the Pay-As-You-Go Solar Sector is Maturing and Brightening
This month marks nine years since Jesse Moore and Nick Hughes first sketched out a plan for M-KOPA - one of the early leaders in the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar market. Since then, M-KOPA has installed PAYG solar systems in over 750,000 African homes, and now receives over 30 million customer micropayments per year, writes Moore. He estimates that PAYG solar will soon reach over 10 million customers and surpass a billion dollars in cumulative revenue – but he cautions that the industry should gird itself for a wave of consolidation as it embarks on its second decade.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Zipline’s New $190 Million Funding Means It’s the Newest Billion Dollar Contender in the Game of Drones
With a valuation of over $1 billion and $190 million in new financing, Zipline has become the latest contender to be the leader in the game of drones.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Perspective: Will Facebook Make Crypto Relevant For The Underserved?
Earlier this month, the WSJ reported that Facebook is building a team and getting its crypto ducks in a row to launch a “cryptocurrency-based payments system on the back of its gigantic social network.” Public details on the effort are thin and may have been outshone by news that one of Facebook’s co-founders is calling for the company to break up. But the fintech world is predictably aflutter about the perils and opportunities of a brand new digital coin that could allow users to hold and send money safely and securely to nearly every socially networked person on the planet.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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This Senegalese Startup Opens Amazon, Jumia Up to Mobile Money
Senegalese startup Comparez is making it possible for users in nine African countries to order goods from e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Jumia and pay for them using mobile money.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- e-commerce, mobile money
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Narrowing The Gender Gap: Meet The Women Scintillating Africa’s Tech Scene
With the emergence of many female-focused establishments such as TheBoardroom Africa (TBA) – who raised USD 2 Mn in January – and other groups delivering STEM courses to young girls, females are increasingly having a voice in Africa’s tech space.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why Data Ownership is a Bridge Across Digital Divides
Emerging markets have traditionally experienced “data poverty” – data that is inaccessible, and poorly captured, controlled and distributed. But big data sources are now serving as proxies for all kinds of information – on everything from GDP and growth to demographics and poverty. This represents a big opportunity for emerging markets to leapfrog the technical limitations faced by developed economies, writes Gavin Heaton of the company Hu-manity.co. He sees a day when lower-income citizens have the opportunity to profit from their data, rather than being subjugated by it.
- Categories
- Technology
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Microsoft Opens First $100 Million Africa Development Centre in Kenya and Nigeria
“The Africa Development Centre will be unlike any other existing investment on the continent. It will help us better listen to our customers, develop locally and scale for global impact,” Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President at Microsoft said.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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India’s Technology Sector Driving Economy
The shift is attributed to a sharp rise in hiring by existing and new global in-house centres (GCCs) due to technology innovation activities in India for their global markets.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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