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Report: MFI investors have to wait a while to reap benefits of digitization in India
Investors generally tend to measure the success of their investment based on the growth of portfolio, profitability of the MFIs and consequently their return on investments.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Why Startup Accelerators Won’t Create the Global Climate Technology Revolution
Accelerators may be a great way to launch the next Pokémon Go app or even Airbnb, but they're not as suited for climate startups in low- and middle-income countries. Jean-Louis Racine, leader of the infoDev Climate Technology Program at the World Bank Group, explores several reasons why accelerators are "at best an incomplete tool for building climate tech sectors."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Control vs Ease of Use: Low-Income Customers Weigh In on Financial Services
Automated 21st century financial tools, such as bill pay, are meant to make life easier. But for low-income customers and those with uneven cash flow, the need for control of their money can outweigh these benefits. Kristen Berman and Brad Swain of Duke University's Common Cents Lab try to reconcile this seeming contradiction.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Gates Foundation to Improve Enterprise Productivity in Tanzania
The co-founder of Microsoft landed in Dar es Salaam to support Tanzania’s financial inclusion agenda. The project has been launched by Gates and other joining leaders from government, financial service providers, mobile network operators and digital financial service providers.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Transforming Waste Management, and Waste-Pickers’ Prospects, in Bengaluru
In February, Ennovent Global's Impact Investment Holding invested in Hasiru Dala Innovations, a Bengaluru-based company offering waste management services. The firm's initiatives, centered on the circular economy principle, provide waste management and urban gardening services and products, and also help ensure the livelihoods of waste-pickers, improve facilities for Bengaluru residents and divert over 90 percent of waste from landfills.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing, WASH
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Enhancing Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs – What Should Financial Institutions Do?
IFC determined that 70 percent of women entrepreneurs are un(der)served and face a USD $300 billion annual credit deficit. Anup Singh and Christine Wanjiru Gachui of MicroSave make the case for banks extending credit to women, who end up being roughly twice as profitable for them as men.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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How this social entrepreneur is bringing banks to the fingertips of the unbanked
Humaniq was launched in 2016 with a vision to build a world where the unbanked and underbanked around the world also have access to the banking and financial transactions. An estimated 2 billion people can be brought under the umbrella of financial inclusion with Humaniq’s services.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- North America
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Responsible Finance: Moving Money from Mattresses to Mobiles
Technology has made it possible for lower-income people living in developing countries to access financial services that were previously beyond their reach. FINCA Impact Finance CEO Andrée Simon says her firm's new smartphone app, SimSim, which recently emerged from its pilot phase and already has 35,000 users, strikes a balance between the personal touch and modern fintech automation.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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