-
Liquid Eyes Africa’s Largest Tech Markets After $250-Million Boost From IFC
IFC’s equity and debt investments in Liquid, which to date total approximately $250-million, will support the company to grow its hyperscale data center capacity in Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa through its subsidiary, Africa Data Centres.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- data, partnerships
-
Verizon Business and Visionable Join Forces To Make Connected Healthcare a Reality
Verizon Business and Visionable have partnered to deliver a single secure infrastructure for healthcare providers across the APAC and EMEA regions
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Global
-
Pismo Raises $108 Million Series B Led by Softbank, Amazon and Accel To Enable Cloud-native Financial Services Globally
Pismo, the cloud-native core banking and payments platform, announced the signing of a $108 million Series B fundraising round.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- data, fintech, infrastructure, innovation
-
How Blockchain Can Support Social Impact: Three Innovative Use Cases that Highlight its Potential
When it comes to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin seem to dominate the headlines, whereas blockchain itself – cryptocurrencies’ underlying technology – often gets overlooked. But according to Raj Jain at the Social Finance Fund, blockchain may actually have a more compelling future than cryptocurrency – and the technology is flourishing in a variety of different spaces, including the social impact sector. He highlights three organizations that are putting blockchain to innovative use in social impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
-
Four Insights for Better Measurement: What Businesses Can Learn from the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
In the public and nonprofit sectors, comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches are increasingly common – but many small and growing businesses (SGBs) lack the time and resources for these practices. Heather Esper, director of the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute, shares four key data collection and measurement insights from the public and nonprofit worlds that businesses — particularly SGBs — can leverage to improve their decision-making and maximize the social and financial value of their data.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Rethinking Community Connectivity: As the Pandemic Wears On, NGOs Turn to Technology for Information Dissemination and Behaviour Change
Behavior change and information dissemination initiatives face many challenges in emerging economies, and COVID-19 has made their work even more difficult. But according to Abhishek Sharma at Glific, these efforts remain essential – whether they're focused on raising awareness of government programs or sharing accurate information about the pandemic. He explores how a growing movement of NGOs, governments and social enterprises are turning to digital communications channels to reach marginalized communities, and discusses Glific's WhatsApp-based approach.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Tags
- COVID-19, data, digital inclusion, NGOs, nonprofits
-
Dear Big Tech Leaders: Instead of Harvesting Our Data and Launching Yourselves Into Space, How About Making Life Better on Earth?
As Big Tech's data practices come under greater scrutiny and its leaders indulge in an ego-driven space race, Steve Hollingworth of Grameen Foundation says it’s time to have a hard conversation with the industry. It can start with the question of why its core companies are focusing their talents and technologies on accumulating ever-greater amounts of money, while the world struggles with long-standing and quickly escalating challenges that could be greatly improved by the data and other resources the tech industry commands.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Tags
- corporations, data, NGOs
-
Research that Embraces the Messiness of Real Life: How an Innovative, Tech-Enabled Survey Method is Revealing the True Feelings of the Bottom Billion
Of any population in the world, the poor are the least likely to feel free to speak their minds, which makes it difficult to use surveys to understand and meet their unique needs. Daryl Collins, and Carolina de Miranda and Laura Morínigo of Fundación Capital, explore how tech-enabled research methods can provide a solution to this dilemma. They share how a unique, WhatsApp-based survey approach has helped Fundación Capital understand the nuanced meaning behind the responses of women who participated in a gender norms-focused messaging campaign in Paraguay.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.