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One Village at a Time: A Women-Led Model for Bringing Digital Services and Financial Inclusion to Rural Bangladesh
Women customers constitute a huge market in rural Bangladesh, where many men have migrated to cities or foreign lands in search of work. Garima Singh at FinValue Advisors explores how the Bangladeshi financial services company Zaytoon Business Solutions is expanding access to digital financial and government services in rural communities — while boosting women's empowerment and employment — by extending its agent network to include "village digital booths" staffed by local women.
- Categories
- Finance
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Elon Musk’s Starlink Shakes up Competition in Africa
Starlink’s satellite internet rollout across Africa is sparking complaints of unfair competition from telecommunications companies and internet service providers.
- Categories
- Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Send App by Flutterwave Extends Remittance Reach to 49 U.S. States With Mainstreet Bank Partnership
Remittances to Africa have doubled over the last decade, reaching an estimated $100 billion in 2022.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Senegalese Fintech Startup Rubyx Secures $440,000 Loan From Proparco
Rubyx has developed a cloud-native, API-driven digital lending platform that enables service providers to rapidly launch innovative loan products and meet the evolved expectations of borrowers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Nigerian Investment Fintech Rise Completes Acquisition of Kenya’s Hisa
Rise, a Nigerian fintech that gives customers access to selected global investments, has acquired Hisa, a Kenyan investment startup.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kredete Raises $2.25 Million to Help African Immigrants Build Credit Score and Make Low-Cost Remittances
Kredete leverages blockchain technology to enable African immigrants to build credit and send money home with low fees, offering a dual benefit that addresses significant financial integration challenges for immigrants.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Solving the Funding Challenges of Indian MSMEs: The Advantages of Founder-Friendly Non-Dilutive Financing
About 30% of India’s GDP is generated by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which provide jobs for more than 110 million people and account for around 50% of the country’s exports. But as Bhavik Vasa at GetVantage points out, a drop in private equity and venture capital investments has led many of these entrepreneurs to shift towards more founder-friendly types of non-dilutive capital. He discusses the funding challenges facing Indian MSMEs, and why alternative forms of non-dilutive financing are uniquely suited to these businesses' needs.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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Egypt-Born FlapKap Raises $34 Million Pre-Series A to Scale SME Financing Across MENA
FlapKap aims to continue to address a major challenge in the MENA region, where the SME financing gap is estimated at $180 billion, per the International Finance Corporation.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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