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What We’re Learning Every Step of the Energy Ladder
We spent the last year at Acumen collecting impact data on companies across our portfolio using our Lean Data approach, which harnesses the power of technology to give voice to low-income customers and allows us to provide quality customer feedback to drive business decisions for our investees. From these surveys, our entrepreneurs will get real insight into their customers: who they are, how and where they utilize energy, how much energy they use, and what they spend on a weekly or monthly basis, among other valuable feedback.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Google Plans to Develop Website to Help Indians With Financial Planning
Google wants to help you save more and invest better. The US-headquartered technology company with a large India presence is planning to develop a website, Bharat Saves, which will offer information on financial planning.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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How Your Social Media Reputation Could Secure You a Loan
Traditional banking in Africa has failed - 80% of the continent's 1.2 billion people do not have a bank account or access to formal financial services. So mobiles and web-based services are stepping in to fill the gap. But there is much more to Africa's financial services story than M-Pesa, the wildly successful mobile banking platform launched in Kenya and Tanzania in 2007.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- credit scoring
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Nigerian Regulator Restores WorldRemit, 10 Other Money Transfer Operators
The Central Bank of Nigeria has given new operating licenses to 11 International Money Transfer (IMTOs) service providers, in efforts to open up the market and make foreign exchange readily available to the nation’s low income earners.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Bank Fight Telcos Over Mobile Money Dominance in Ghana
The Central Bank announced a new set of guidelines for the service about a year ago to improve money transfer via mobile phones. The new regulatory regime among others empowered telecom companies to also own and run the electronic money business like banks. However, it appears the banks are rather concerned about the threat posed by mobile money services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mark Zuckerberg has made a surprise visit to Nairobi to learn about mobile money
On his surprise tour of tech hubs in Africa, Mark Zuckerberg has made a pit stop in Nairobi. Announcing his arrival on Facebook, he described talking with entrepreneurs working out of the tech space, the iHub, and dining on ugali and tilapia with Kenya’s cabinet secretary of information and communications.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Today’s SpaceX explosion is a major setback for Facebook’s free internet ambitions
This morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad, completely destroying the rocket and its payload two days before the scheduled launch. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but anyone counting on this weekend’s launch to deliver equipment into orbit is now left scrambling for a replacement.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Interest Payment on Mobile Money Wallets to Begin on Sept. 11 in Ghana
Mobile telecom operators with mobile money service have clinched a deal with their partner banks for them to pay interest on customers’ balances in their wallets.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa