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How PayPal is Moving Beyond Payments: An Interview with Tyler Spalding
Many people know PayPal primarily through its ubiquitous buttons enabling online donations to nonprofits, blogs and other websites and causes. But it also has a significant presence in the world of social business – something that represents a growing priority for the payments provider. We discussed this evolving focus with Tyler Spalding, lead manager on PayPal's Social Innovation team.
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How Entrepreneurship Unlocked Workplace Daycare for the Children of Garment Workers
With Bangladesh reigning as the cheapest place to produce clothing in the world, the government and the multinational businesses that depend on low-cost labour have yet to tackle the root of poor working conditions. One social entrepreneur, however, has steadily made progress partnering with communities and factories to improve the lives of women workers and their children. Ashoka Fellow Suraiya Haque founded Phulki in 1991, and today the organisation operates nearly 90 community-based and 25 factory-based daycare centres in Dhaka.
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Perspective: Social Entrepreneurship by the Billions
Only a decade ago, some 400 million people in India lacked any type of formal documentation. Most were impoverished and, without even basic identification such as a birth certificate, they were marginalized and unable to alter their societal status. This condition made them, in effect, noncitizens, with no influence on or ability to participate in their country’s economic and legal systems.
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- South Asia
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India’s banks take the battle to mobile wallet players
Banks are taking the battle to mobile wallet companies, armed with their readymade payment systems, wide merchant network and an on tap customer base, attempting to reclaim a turf which just a couple of years ago was their fiefdom.
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NexThought Monday: Sprinters vs. Limpers – Three Critical Success Factors for Digital Finance Deployments
According to the GSMA, there are 271 mobile money services in operation across 93 countries, and digital financial services are now available in over 60 percent of developing markets. An increasing number of services are reaching scale, as 30 services now have more than one million active accounts. But 241 have failed to do so. So what separates these 30 “sprinters” from those deployments that are merely limping along?
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A Holistic Approach: Three keys to helping small businesses access the finance they need
Among the many obstacles to the growth faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, the inability to access credit tops the list. How can intermediaries, such as nonprofit organizations supporting SMEs, help them access the credit that they need? There is room for a more holistic approach to supporting SMEs in search of financing. Here are three key lessons drawn from TechnoServe’s projects to support entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
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Momo, a Mobile Payment Firm in Vietnam, Lands $28M Led by Standard Chartered Bank
Vietnam is emerging as a technology market of note in Asia. Weeks after U.S. VC firm 500 Startups announced a fund for the country, Vietnam-based fintech company Momo has landed a $28 million investment round from banking giants Standard Chartered (SCB) and Goldman Sachs.
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- digital payments, fintech
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Study: Micro-financing Impoverished Communities ‘Can Lead to Increased Debt Levels and Suicide’
Micro-financing "led to a higher level of debt among already impoverished communities" in the developing world, instead of kickstarting jobs, according to new study. After months of research in Bangladesh, Dr Laurel Jackson has warned that the practice of providing small loans to poor families is dramatically increasing stress and debt levels.
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- microfinance, research
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