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NexThought Monday: The Future of Crowdfunding Depends on Avoiding Past Missteps
For small and growing businesses that have the potential to create social and environmental change, financing is not easy to come by. Impact investing is on the rise, but the cost of doing risky deals in faraway lands remains prohibitive for investors, especially when deal sizes are small and returns remain minimal. As investors and thought leaders wrestle with these issues, a new potential solution has arisen: crowdfunding.
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- Technology
- Tags
- impact investing
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How the Aakash tablet bounced back
Internet-connected tablets, as I’ve explained before, have the potential to positively impact billions. Cell phones improved commerce and changed society by allowing, among other things, the poorest villagers in the developing world to connect with one another. The Internet will catalyze the next leap forward by providing those in the developing world access to the same ocean of knowledge as those in wealthier societies. This will transform education and revolutionize commerce.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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- product design
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LendmeMula introduces ZimSwitch enabled MulaConnect card
One of the issues with the LendmeMula micro-credit service that we have covered here before, is that so far borrowers have had to wait for up to 24 hours before they could access the borrowed money in their bank accounts. The money had to be transferred by Lendme to their bank accounts. This made the process somewhat slow, and where a borrower did not have a bank ATM card, they had to pray they could access their money before the banks closed their doors.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Weekly Roundup: ‘Is There One Perfect Web Platform for Social Entrepreneurs?’
This genuinely guileless question was posted on NextBillion’s LinkedIn group earlier this week.
I can only guess, but I’ll bet this person has been bombarded with options on which platform, database, or network he should use. It feels like every day a new platform developed by social entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs and/or by entrepreneurs, emerges. T- Categories
- Technology
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FEATURED EVENT: Adapting Scalable Clean Technologies for Bottom of the Pyramid Markets: It’s one of many key discussions at Columbia Business School’s 2012 Social Enterprise Conference
Despite the massive increases in capacity and subsequent subsidy cuts driving solar module prices down they’re still not cheap enough for developing countries. But with innovative business solutions these new technologies can become economically viable in BoP markets.
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- Energy, Technology
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How a Mobile Airtime Vendor Became Zimbabwe’s Fastest-Growing Bank: EcoCash has reached a million subscribers in less than 6 months
Money is whizzing through the airwaves and cell towers of Zimbabwe, as a mobile cash transfer system is on track to become the country’s biggest bank. EcoCash, a mobile money transfer service operated by telecommunications company EcoNet Wireless Zimbabwe, has reached a million subscribers in under six months since its launch.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Esource: Cycling solution to gadget recycling
Our desire to buy the latest must-have gadget comes at huge cost to the countries and people who deal with our electronic waste. But could pedal power offer a solution?
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- Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Initiative for Global Development teams with Accenture to develop electricity, connectivity in Uganda
The University of Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (IGD) and Accenture — a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company — are taking the lead to empower disconnected communities in northern Uganda by harnessing solar energy to generate electricity for Internet and communications technologies, education and training centers, and new locally developed ventures.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa