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Cathay Innovation and AfricInvest to Raise $168m Africa VC Fund
Barrier could not say when the fund would be closed, but did confirm investments could come as early as summer 2019. He expects to see strong local showing for startups from across Africinvest’s 10 country offices in Abidjan, Algiers, Cairo, Casablanca, Dubai, Lagos, Nairobi, Paris, Port Louis and Tunis. The firm will open an office in Johannesburg in the near future, according to a company release.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Climate change is a disruptor. Here’s how to harness it for innovation
The need to act on climate change is the greatest potential cause of disruption faced by new and established businesses alike, and is also the greatest catalyst for innovation for those willing to harness it.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, Technology
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Social Innovation Needs Data, This Free Platform Provides It
New social innovations are exciting, but there’s also great value in scaling existing solutions that show promise. There’s just one problem with this approach, says Sweta Govani: The information about these innovations is incomplete, complicated and fragmented, making it hard to determine which ones deserve support. She discusses a new solution called Global Innovation Exchange, a free, data-driven technology platform that gives funders, social entrepreneurs and others easy access to high-quality, up-to-date information about existing global development innovations.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations
Over 4 billion people around the world lack necessities like food, water, energy, health care and housing. This represents not only a major social challenge but a major market, as low-income consumers have an annual purchasing capacity of US $5 trillion. Rajat Chabba and Sheena Raikundalia at Intellecap explore how entrepreneurs are developing innovative, frugal products to meet these customers’ needs – and why an ecosystem approach is needed to help them scale their solutions.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Affordable, Scalable, Overlooked: Evaporative Cooling Can Fight Food Loss – Why isn’t the Development Sector Embracing It?
Food loss due to lack of effective storage is a global problem: In sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 23 percent of available food is lost or wasted. There’s increasing interest in an innovative yet old-school solution to the problem: evaporative cooling. But though the technology can be adopted with minimal training, low up-front costs and no electricity, it is not widely used. MIT D-Lab research engineer Eric Verploegen explores five ways to increase the effective production, dissemination and usage of this technology.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Technology
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The Blockchain Experiments Have Begun: Here’s What They Could Yield for Business and Development
The buzz around blockchain is loud. But despite the widespread attention the tech has generated, it has yet to live up to its potential to make a major impact in low- and middle-income countries, according to Akhtar Badshah of Catalytic Innovators Group. Badshah profiles blockchain success stories from the for-profit, social enterprise and development sectors alike, arguing that if more organizations would give the tech a chance, they (and their beneficiaries) could tap into its great potential.
- Categories
- Technology
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Report: Innovating our way to a better life
A look at the leaders in global innovation and how gaps in economic and technological capacity is creating inequality.
- Categories
- Technology
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Press release: The African Tech Hubs pioneering innovation: How digital transformation can drive growth and job creation across emerging economies
Innovation and entrepreneurship play an ever-increasing role in growing Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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