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Uber rival Grab acquires Indian startup to bulk up its mobile payment platform
The deal — which is undisclosed — will see iKaaz’s engineering team join the Bangalore-based engineering office which Grab opened last year. The firm declined to say how many new recruits are moving over from iKaaz, but a spokesperson disclosed that Grab currently has 75 engineers in Bangalore with plans to grow the number to 200 before this year.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- digital payments, startups
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Cambodia Has Its Own Mobile Payment App, But Will It Catch On Beyond Phnom Penh?
Pi Pay, although little-known outside of its native Cambodia, has scaled quickly to become a ubiquitous digital wallet solution and the first e-commerce app to gain real traction in a city where many residents still refuse to trust credit cards and banks.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Fintech must serve the real economy, Chinese regulator says
In a speech at the Asian Financial Forum on Monday, Jiang Yang, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said the development of fintech should support the wider economy, instead of profiting only "a small group of people."
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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McDonald’s Philippines goes cashless with PayMaya
Over 40 McDonald’s restaurants nationwide have started accepting card payments for all types of Mastercard and Visa credit, debit, and prepaid cards, through a collaboration with PayMaya Philippines.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Growing Success of Telkom and Equitel Could Shift Kenya Mobile Money Dominance Debate
As Kenya waits for the publication of the controversial report on market dominance by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), latest data from the Telecoms regulator shows that rivals can eat into Safaricom’s market share. The total mobile subscriptions recorded by Telkom Kenya jumped by 18.5 per cent to stand at 3.4 million from 2.8 million reported in the previous period, according to the first quarter report covering July and September 2017.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Econet Wireless, Untu Capital partner to launch mobile money bond platform in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's Econet Wireless, touted by analysts as best placed to develop mobile money offerings alongside Safaricom, has opened a mobile money bond purchase platform in partnership with Untu Capital to raise US$1 million in support of local start-ups - specifically to address the low level of funding in this space.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NetOne Signs A $71 Million Deal With Huawei in Zimbabwe
NetOne has signed a deal with one of the leading tech companies in the world, Huawei Technologies International. The deal (a funding agreement to be precise) of $71 million was signed on the last day of 2017 i.e. on the 31st December.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Haiti to China: 5 Pilots Begin to Reveal Digital Credit’s Uneven Impact
Demand for digital credit is growing in emerging markets, sparking opportunities for providers – and critical questions about its impact on low-income borrowers. CEGA's Digital Credit Observatory awarded five short-term pilot grants to studies in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, India and China, which provided some intriguing answers. Alexandra Wall, Natasha Beale and Carson Christiano of CEGA explore some of the studies' takeaways.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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