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Kenya’s New Favorite Customer: Iran
On his first trip to Iran last June, Joseph Kamau Kiminda quickly learned that Iranians care about a few things more than tea. The CEO of Kenyan tea company, Cup of Joe, spent time with everyday Iranians who, immediately after rolling out of bed, put tea to boil, leaving it on all day. His Iranian business counterparts called him most days, including Saturdays, at six in the morning to discuss tea for three to four hours. He even received a lecture on tea quality from the secretary of an Iranian tea distributor. “They know tea,” Kiminda concluded.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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MetLife Foundation Makes Significant Progress Towards $200 Million, Five Year Commitment to Financial Inclusion
Today, MetLife Foundation released its 2015 Annual Report, highlighting its activities and showcasing a broad array of partners, grantees and activities.
- Categories
- Investing
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Inside the High-Stakes World of Vaccine Development
Vaccines are widely recognized as the most effective way we’ve got to fight infectious disease, a bulwark against a staggeringly diverse array of potentially pathogenic organisms looking to circumvent our defenses. Pervasive vaccines like those for influenza, measles, or polio offer a sense of security, but it wasn’t always so, and a range of established and emerging threats continue to present real problems. Given the physical interconnectedness of even the most remote locations with the rest of the world, esoteric pathogens have a fast track to global transmission like never before.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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Grameen Foundation and ideas42 Launch Partnership to Expand Financial Inclusion in the Philippines
Grameen Foundation and ideas42 yesterday launched a new partnership to support financial inclusion in the Philippines using principles from behavioral science and innovations in digital financial services using mobile phones. The initiative, funded by JPMorgan Chase Foundation, aims to reach thousands of people identified in the low-income bracket throughout the country.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Sun Pharma Joins Hands With ICMR for Malaria Eradication Prog
In a first of its kind of public private partnership (PPP), pharmaceutical giant Sun Pharma has collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to eradicate malaria by 2030.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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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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Microlender Ujjivan Eyes $375M Valuation in IPO
Bengaluru-based microfinance firm Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd is seeking a valuation of as much as Rs 2,500 crore ($375 million) in an initial public offering that opens on April 28.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
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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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