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Optimizing Results-Based Financing for Off-Grid Energy: Why Localization Can Provide a Pathway to More Effective Investment
Leading investors across the energy access sector have embraced results-based financing (RBF) as a key mechanism to unlock private capital for small-scale solar and mini-grid businesses, and to advance the world toward universal electrification. But according to Audrey Desiderato at SunFunder and Martijn Veen at SNV, the remote design and management of RBF programs increases the risk that these funds will exclude local actors and innovation. They share findings from a recent white paper exploring the need for more localization in results-based financing for off-grid energy.
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Investors From Silicon Valley to China Catch the African Fintech Bug
With the banking emphasis now squarely on mobile money and digital transactions, exciting opportunities are attracting investors from across the globe to Africa's fintech space.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press Release: 54gene Closes $25 Million Series B to Advance Global Drug Discovery Capabilities
Cathay Africinvest Innovation leads round as company expands precision medicine capabilities across the African continent.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Global
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Mexican Neobroker Flink Raises $57 Million To Boost Financial Inclusion in Latin America
Flink, a Mexico City-based neobroker, has raised $57 million in a Series B round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Building Back Boldly: How Decisive Government Action Can Support Entrepreneurship in a Post-COVID-19 Economy
COVID-19 caused a global economic contraction of 3.5% last year, inflicting particular damage on emerging economies and pushing approximately 120 million individuals back into extreme poverty. Consultants Kate Collins and Bar Pereg argue that disruption of this magnitude demands large-scale government investment – not only to address the pandemic's economic damage, but also to support the growth of innovative companies in an economy re-shaped by the crisis. They explore the impacts government interventions can have on entrepreneurship, and the importance of taking an ecosystem-wide approach.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Egyptian Social E-Commerce Startup Taager Closes $6.4 Million Seed Round
Egyptian social e-commerce startup Taager has raised a US$6.4 million seed funding round to help it scale its platform and expand across the Middle East.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- e-commerce, investing, scale, social impact, startups
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Africa’s Fintech Gold Rush: Why Banks Must Adapt to Survive
These are exciting times in the fintech startup ecosystem in Africa, as direct investment activity is growing at a dizzying pace. But according to Osahon Akpata at Ecobank Group, this influx of capital is also raising challenges for startups and investors – and particularly for traditional banks, which have to adjust to the emergence of these innovative and well-funded new competitors. He discusses the implications of Africa's ongoing fintech revolution for both startups and banks, and explores why partnerships between them can provide a way forward.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Scaling Biodigesters: How Appropriate Financing Can Help This Undervalued Technology Deliver Social and Environmental Impact
Biodigesters break down organic material to produce biogas for cooking and heating, along with fertilizer. But though these applications are extremely useful for farming households, uptake remains limited: In Africa alone, the technology could be adopted by almost 33 million households, but market penetration is less than 1% of that. Tanya Kothari of the Catalysing Agriculture by Scaling Energy Ecosystems program shares a recent study from the Shell Foundation exploring the impact biodigesters can make, while identifying the kinds of financing that could support growth in the market.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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