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Can a for-profit company bring connectivity to ultra-remote villages?
An additional 4 million people will soon be able to make and receive calls, send messages and access basic internet services as a result of the multi-million dollar investment in Africa Mobile Networks — a commercial company that builds solar-powered mobile network base stations in ultra-rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Android Pay now used for international P2P transfers, courtesy of WorldRemit
This is a first for Android Pay, which up to now has been used for in-app and contactless payments and to make P2P transfers to people in the same country, but never international P2P money transfers.
- Categories
- Technology
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Inclusive Fintech: Four Lessons for Optimizing Customer and Tech Journeys
Catalyst Fund – a unique accelerator model that provides direct and tailored technical assistance to complement a startup’s skill sets – spent the past year working directly with early-stage fintech businesses in emerging markets. Here are some of the lessons they gathered, both on the tech side and the customer side. A key takeaway: Trust is slowly built but easily destroyed.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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How innovations in AI, virtual reality are advancing healthcare in India to new frontiers
After a few more interactions, Ravikumar’s apprehensions began to wear out. Screening by AI, she sensed, could help her examine more samples in less time as the algorithm would allow her to concentrate on the ones that require her expertise. “In the hands of clinicians, it will become a force multiplier, it will make them supermen,” said Adarsh Natarajan, cofounder of AIndra.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Thailand’s Largest Bank Launches $30 Million FinTech Fund ‘Beacon’
As Thailand’s largest bank by revenue, Kasikorn’s foray to back and invest in FinTech startups underlines the growing appetite for digital banking in the country. Between April and September 2016, the Bank of Thailand – the country’s central bank – revealed a marked 26% uptick in commercial mobile and internet banking transactions.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- fintech
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How ‘Designing Under the Mango Tree’ Can Prevent Digital Solution Hiccups
Like an off-road vehicle, when you build a digital solution, you want to build with the most challenging environments in mind. Why? So the digital solution can scale with fewer hiccups, as it grows outward. Mobile services company Dimagi calls it “designing under the mango tree,” and it requires working in partnership with a variety of end users. It's hard work, Kathryn M. Clifton writes, but worth it.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- data, partnerships, product design
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New investment initiative for African startups
Orange Digital Ventures Africa is the Group’s investment vehicle for early-stage innovation projects in Africa in areas such as new connectivities, FinTech, the Internet of Things, energy and e-health.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, innovation
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Safaricom Plans Mobile-Money Roll-Out After Vodafone Stake Sale
“Before the end of the year, I would expect to have something to roll out,” Collymore said June 8. Safaricom may seek to agree to platform-sharing deals with competitors such as MTN Group Ltd. to expand M-Pesa rather than set up in new countries, he said.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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