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Malaysia’s Involve Asia Raises Over $10 Million in Funding Round Led by Bintang Capital Partners
Malaysia-based affiliate marketing platform Involve Asia Technologies Sdn. Bhd has raised over $10 million led by Bintang Capital Partners Berhad (Bintang).
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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We Asked Small Business Owners How Digitalization is Impacting Their Businesses: Here’s How They Responded
Digitalization has become the go-to strategy for improving the performance of Latin America’s micro and small enterprises (MSEs). But according to Daryl Collins and Maria Pia Torres at Decodis, we know little about how MSE owners themselves experience these changes. They share insights from Decodis' surveys of 114 mostly women-led MSEs in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which highlight how digital solutions have become embedded in these businesses – and where business owners see the most value in digitalization.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors
Many companies are addressing social needs by selling affordable food, hygiene and other products in developing countries. But as Rakib Hasan Rabbi and Patrick Guyer at Bopinc explain, in order to produce positive social and business impacts, these products must achieve a sufficient level of consumer satisfaction. They share results from consumer-level research in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, which reveal several key product attributes that can keep low-income consumers satisfied and motivate them to recommend products to others.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Nigeria Lost $26 Billion to Twitter Ban, Businesses Say
As a result of the Twitter ban, local Nigerian businesses lost out both on online revenues and on potential sales to mass audiences.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Avoiding Impact Washing, Hero Worship and Other Ethical Marketing Pitfalls: A Q&A with Justin Belleme
How should impact-focused businesses market what they do – without succumbing to pitfalls such as impact washing or hero worship? We posed that question to Justin Belleme, the director of strategy at JB Media Group. As one of the few marketing agencies with a B Corp certification, JB Media works with multiple impact-focused businesses and organizations, including the SOCAP conference. In this Q&A, Belleme explores how well-intentioned impact entrepreneurs and their communications teams can keep their marketing in line with their missions.
- Categories
- NextBillion Originals, Technology
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The Development Tool Nobody’s Using: Why it’s Time for the Women’s Empowerment Sector to Leverage Media and Advertising
In women’s economic empowerment circles, there’s no shortage of initiatives involving corporate partnerships with NGOs - often focused on agriculture or garment supply chains. But as Mara Bolis at Oxfam points out, this focus has led the sector to overlook other potential areas of impact – including media and advertising. Sharing some compelling examples, she argues that media could have as much – or even more – influence in shaping women’s economic opportunities as changes to global value chains.
- Categories
- Technology
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Outside the Echo Chamber: How Silence is Sabotaging Impact Investing
From individual investors to giants like Goldman Sachs and TPG, impact investing continues to gain new adherents. But despite the range of actors falling under the impact investing umbrella, the sector's narrative is largely dominated by the loudest voices in the room – a group that Bar Cudkevich of Aspectus Group argues is largely unrepresentative of the field's burgeoning diversity. She explores why a "strong, smart communications strategy" is essential for investors of all sizes.
- Categories
- Investing
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Why Focus Groups Aren’t Enough: A Surprising Lesson in Marketing Insurance in Africa
Building a customer-centric company naturally requires engagement with end users. But as digital insurance provider Inclusivity Solutions discovered, sometimes just speaking to customers is not enough. Tyler Tappendorf discusses how the company combined customer feedback with more quantitative data, after focus group input conflicted with real-world results in marketing campaigns in East Africa.
- Categories
- Finance
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