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India’s MobiKwik Raises $50M for Its Mobile Wallet Service
The increase of smartphone ownership in India is fueling the rise of mobile wallets in the country. One company leading the charge, MobiKwik, has topped up its own funds with a $50 million Series C round announced today.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Asia Funds Say Socially Responsible Investment Faces Major Hurdles
Appetite for socially responsible investments in Asia is growing but fund managers say there are still major obstacles that prevent more significant investment in such assets.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Airtel to Launch Payments Bank in India in Q2 FY17
Bharti Airtel's mobile commerce subsidiary, Airtel M Commerce Services, has been renamed Airtel Payments Bank. The company plans to launch its payments bank operations in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Twenty Crore Bank Accounts Opened: Where Does Jan Dhan Yojana Go From Here? An Explainer
Duplication of accounts, account dormancy and the financial unsustainability of the Bank Mitra model. While the Jan Dhan Yojana may be one of the most exhaustive financial inclusion processes to date, there’s still more to be done.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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A Single Call Could Reveal Health of Your Lungs
Indian-origin researchers have developed a new health sensing tool that can accurately measure lung function over a simple phone call made with any phone -- not just smartphone -- from anywhere in the world.
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- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Mobile Wallets in India to Start Offering Small Amounts on Short-Term Credit
Your mobile wallet, which has been serving your need for instant cash in an electronic form for sundry transactions, will also empower you further with companies in the business planning to add an instant loan facility to their offerings.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Want to Serve the World’s Poorest Citizens? Take Your Company Public in India
For the last 15 years or so, there has been lots of hype about “business models” that will alleviate global poverty while turning a profit. It was a premise derived from the success of the microfinance industry in providing credit to some of the poorest people in the world, who, contrary to conventional wisdom, had a higher repayment rate than the typical borrower. As the late Dr. CK Prahalad hypothesized in his landmark book, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, there are several strategies that organizations fighting global poverty need to master – and that those capabilities are in abundance in the private sector. They are better at marketing. They are better at R&D and understanding price points. And they are good at partnerships when it serves their purposes. The public and non-profit sectors, alternatively, are generally not very good at any of these things.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Half of Mobile Money Accounts Inactive in Bangladesh
More than half of mobile money accounts have gone inactive, with the number rising every month, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech
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