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MercadoLibre to Expand Electric Fleet After $1.1 Billion Bond Sale
Latin American eCommerce giant MercadoLibre has sold $1.1 billion in bonds to expand its fleet of electric-powered delivery vehicles.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Surveying the Landscape for Social Investments in Africa: A Major New Study Assesses the Current State of Play on the Continent
The social investment sector in Africa is dynamic and growing – but it’s struggling to close the enormous Sustainable Development Goals financing gap. The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) explored the opportunities and obstacles facing social investors on the continent in an ambitious new study, “The Landscape for Social Investments in Africa.” NextBillion interviewed AVPA’s CEO, Frank Aswani, to discuss the study’s findings, and what they say about the current state of social investment in Africa.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Innovation for Adaptation: How a New Fund Is Helping Service Providers Navigate the Challenges of COVID-19
The impact of COVID-19 has been amplified at the local level in Kenya and Rwanda, where non-profit service providers working with vulnerable populations are finding it more difficult to support their beneficiaries. Michael Kiema and Linda Ndungu Wambua at Instiglio explore learnings from the COVID-19 Adaptation Fund, which is providing funding to nine qualifying service providers to help them implement innovations that will support their efforts to serve beneficiaries during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Doing Good by Doing Business: How B1G1’s Innovative Giving Model Is Mobilizing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to Make a Social Impact
B1G1 (Buy1Give1) is a global business giving initiative that makes it easy for enterprises – particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – to support charitable causes around the world. NextBillion spoke with founder and CEO Masami Sato to discuss how B1G1 developed its innovative model, how its approach differs from the model popularized by companies like TOMS Shoes, and why it’s important to mobilize the power of SMEs to build upon the impact of traditional charitable giving.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, NextBillion Originals
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Bayer Steps up Its Commitments to Support Smallholder Farmers in Asia
The Better Life Farming Alliance (BLFA), Bayer’s global, multi-stakeholder partnership model that provides holistic and innovative solutions for smallholder farmers in developing economies, has launched in Bangladesh and Indonesia.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Post-Harvest Food Loss Is a Key Driver of Malnutrition: These Innovations Are Tackling the Problem in Indonesia’s Fish Value Chain
Food loss is a major challenge in Indonesia, and loss of fresh fish is a particular problem. An estimated 20 – 29% of fish is lost annually in the domestic supply chain, contributing to high rates of malnutrition and harming livelihoods in the country. As Rahmi Kasri at I-PLAN, GAIN Indonesia explains, inadequate cold chain infrastructure and poor handling practices lie at the heart of this issue. She discusses some promising cold chain, processing and product innovations that are addressing the challenge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Press Release: AgTech Company SeeTree Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding Round to Scale Globally and Expand into New Crops
SeeTree, an AI-powered, end-to-end service that provides growers with intelligence on trees and tree clusters, announced today that it has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. This third round of funding, one of the largest investment rounds for an Israeli Agtech company, will allow SeeTree to scale globally, grow the R&D and customer-facing teams and broaden services to cover new crops.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Analysis: Remittances Show Promise in the Face of the Ongoing Global COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed catastrophic consequences across the world, with a disproportionate effect on Latin America and the Caribbean. With a projected 9 percent contraction in regional gross domestic product (GDP) for this year, experts fear that the heightened economic uncertainty and lower foreign demand brought on by the health crisis might signify yet another lost decade for Latin America. There is one factor, however, that paints a particularly promising picture for the outlook of the region: remittances.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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