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Transforming How Financial Service Providers and Fintechs Leverage Data: A New Free Tool Aims to Separate the Signal from the Noise
In today’s digital finance landscape, data is one of the most valuable assets. Yet as Sarah Corley at AllianceDFA and Mallory Sheff at DataKind explain, data remains siloed, fragmented and underutilized across the sector — and this challenge is particularly acute in emerging markets. They argue that this isn’t just a missed opportunity, but a structural barrier to inclusion and innovation, and share a free, open-access learning platform designed to help fintechs and other financial service providers turn data into action to fuel customer growth and retention.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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M-KOPA-Branded Smartphones Surpass 1 Million Sales in First Year in Kenya
Leading fintech company M-KOPA has achieved a remarkable milestone, surpassing 1 million sales of its branded smartphones within just 12 months of launch.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Brazil’s Neon Raises $129 Million in Series E Extension Round
Founded in 2016, Neon provides digital accounts, credit cards, personal loans, and investment products to customers in Brazil.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Ecobank Group and Google Cloud Announce Partnership to Accelerate Financial Inclusion and Innovation Across Africa
Google Cloud technologies aims to strengthen Ecobank’s platform for enhanced digital banking, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) support, and economic development on the continent.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Paymenow Bags $22.4 Million to Expand On-Demand Salary Services Across Africa
The funding, structured under a sustainable finance format, is one of the largest institutional bets to date on the earned wages access (EWA) model in the region.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- financial inclusion, fintech, lending, scale, startups
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dLocal Launches The 2025 Emerging Markets Payments Handbook: The Blueprint to Lead Across the Global South
dLocal’s 2025 Emerging Markets Payments Handbook is the essential guide to the future of payments, combining data-driven insights with local expertise.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Inside the Fall of Okra: How Africa’s Most Promising Open Banking Startup Shut Down at Its Peak
Back in 2020, Okra had all the makings of a breakout African tech story: visionary founders, Silicon Valley backing, explosive revenue growth, and a product that was powering the future of finance on the continent.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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African Remittance Startup LemFi buys UK Card Issuer
Remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries rose nearly 6% last year to $685 billion, according to a World Bank estimate.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Global
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