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PayPal Participates in $30m Round in Acorns Micro-Investing App
Acorns, the micro-investing app that allows users to invest their ‘spare change’ or ‘acorns’ in an automated manner, has today announced a $30 million round of financing. It was obtained from PayPal and with participation from the Rakuten Tech Fund and existing investors e.ventures and Greycroft Partners to help the company expand its partnerships and automated investment features, according to a company press release.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Tags
- fintech
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Tanzania Deploys the First Mobile Money Monitoring Solution for Regulatory Authorities in the World
As Mobile Money services continue to grow in popularity in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has had the foresight to implement a technological platform to enable the monitoring of mobile money services in the country. The Mobile Money Monitoring (M3) platform provided through the joint efforts of SGS-Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) and Global Voice Group (GVG) and inaugurated in 2015 by the Hon Prof Makame M. Mbarawa, Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, is making this possible. Tanzania is now the first country—in the East African region, and also in the entire world—to implement a Mobile Money monitoring solution.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, regulations
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NexThought Monday: The Role of STEM Professionals in Global Sustainable Development
The science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) community is changing. Many passionate, hardworking students are not as excited about taking up well-paying, but arguably monotonous, jobs in large corporations. Their big question is: what do we do next? To answer this question, Khanjan Mehta of Penn State spent over three years interacting with hundreds of innovators to find new pathways toward careers in social innovation and global sustainable development.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Tags
- employment, innovation
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Republic of Georgia to Pilot Land Titling on Blockchain With Economist Hernando De Soto, BitFury
In a signing ceremony at the Georgian Ministry of Justice. Bitcoin mining company BitFury, the Republic of Georgia’s National Agency of Public Registry and renowned Peruvian economist Hernando DeSoto announced Friday a partnership to design and pilot a blockchain land titling project.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Ethiopia Banks on Mobile Money for Financial Growth
Outside a small store on a dirt track in the remote Ethiopian town of Doni, long queues wait for government cash handouts by the most modern of methods: mobile phone.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Paytm Launches Wi-Fi Pilot in India; Enables Free Internet for a Limited Duration
Underlining its digital-first approach, Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform, has announced the launch of its ambitious pilot project to enable seamless internet connectivity for users. Under this initiative, Paytm is enabling limited-duration free Wi-Fi for its users in partnership with a licensed ISP. The first such Wi-Fi initiative is already underway near the Noida-18 metro station in partnership with a licensed ISP.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Philippines’ Tax Bureau Taps Mobile Payment for Tax Collection
The Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has partnered with Globe Telecom's GCash mobile money service for its tax collection effort.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech, infrastructure
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MasterCard Drives New P2P Solution in Bangladesh
In a quartet joining forces to bring mobile cross-border payments to 22 million Bangladeshis, MasterCard is linking up with Western Union, bKash and BRAC bank.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech, remittances