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Jumia’s IPO filing shows just how costly it is to crack e-commerce across Africa
Being upfront and extensive about possible business risks are routine when filing for initial public offerings. And while some the 23 “risk factors” Jumia lists in its filing can be seen as generic business risks (political instability, regulatory uncertainty and active competitors), others offer an insight into the difficulties of achieving e-commerce in some of the continent’s markets.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- e-commerce
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Preparing Students to Launch: What Needs to Happen on the Ground to Get Social Enterprises Off the Ground?
Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new field that’s attracting a new type of business leader, and educational approaches to it need to be nimble and inventive. Amy Gillett, Vice President of the Education sector at the William Davidson Institute, chronicles a different type of immersive education – one that brought together more than 400 students in the U.S. and Middle East/North Africa through a “virtual exchange.” The students designed more than 70 businesses - many of which will not be virtual - to tackle real-world challenges.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Businesses ‘doing good’? Prove it
“It is a bit of a dark art, measuring impact,” Jessi Baker, founder and chief executive of Provenance, a British social enterprise that uses blockchain technology to make supply chains more transparent, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- blockchain
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Press release: SoftBank Group Corp. Announces Launch of New $5 Billion Technology Growth Fund for Latin America
The unique traits and rapid economic development of the Latin American market, coupled with the fact that it represents 10% of the world’s population and 8% of the world’s GDP (two times the GDP of India and half that of China), present significant growth opportunities for rapid technology deployment at scale and disruptive innovation.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- impact investing
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Paypal to invest $750M, and Dragoneer $100m, into MercadoLibre, Argentina’s e-commerce powerhouse
“Digital commerce in Latin America is experiencing tremendous growth and MercadoLibre is well-positioned for continued leadership,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO, PayPal, in a statement. “We’ve been impressed with the digital commerce and payments ecosystem Marcos and his team have built.”
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Safaricom increases e-commerce stakes after Alibaba Group deal
“This partnership seeks to connect Kenyans to even more business opportunities by enabling them to seamlessly source, purchase and import goods from the world’s leading manufacturers,” Safaricom Chief customer officer Sylvia Mulinge said.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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AI-Powered Robot Maker TartanSense Raises $2 Mn From Omnivore, Blume
TartanSense has planned to use this fresh funding to scale up its first product, BrijBot. Which is an artificial intelligence backed robot, designed to assist small cotton farmers in the weeding process.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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From Credit Cards to the ATM: Why Interoperability is the Critical Next Step for Mobile Payments
One of the first modern disruptors to established payment methods was the credit card, which allowed people to simply sign for their purchases and be billed later. Then came the ATM, which helped to establish a web of bank networks. Mobile money systems are the latest disruptor, particularly in low-income markets where banking systems have not always served customers. But to grow and be financially inclusive, mobile money will need to replicate many of the same factors that drove the popularity of credit cards and ATMs, argues Vahid Monadjem, CEO of Nomanini.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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