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Mobile money-saving app Qapital raises $30 million to spend on growth
Qapital, one of a slew of mobile applications trying to make it easier for users to save money (and spend it more wisely), has raised $30 million in fresh financing as it expands beyond savings to offer investment advisory services.
- Categories
- Inclusive Fintech
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Amazon’s Internet is a new lightweight browser app for emerging markets
The aptly named app is the latest product to emerge from Amazon, and it’s an Android web browser meant specifically for emerging markets. On Google Play, the full name of the app is “Internet: Fast, lite and private,” and it promises to be “lighter than the competition.”
- Categories
- Technology
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This Agricultural Guide On A Phone Helps Increase Developing-World Farmers’ Yields
“A lot of smallholder farmers are very poor and they wait until it’s too late because they don’t want to spend the money,” says Leesa Shrader, who leads work on DigiFarm for Mercy Corps, one of several groups developing the platform. “The cow dies and they’ve lost an $800 asset, which can be devastating to the families. With DigiFarm, they can pull the training when they want it.”
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How mobile loan platforms have lured Kenyans into debt trap
Just as a sluggish economy in which exports have underperformed has forced Kenya to arrange for another credit to settle a loan that was maturing, tough economic times such as poor business performance, lay-offs, or delayed salary have seen digital borrowers struggle to repay their loans.
- Categories
- Inclusive Fintech
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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In a World of 5 Billion Mobile Phone Users, ID Policy Needs to Catch Up – Fast
With a global subscriber base of over 5 billion, the mobile ecosystem has created a digital platform that is increasingly connecting everyone and everything. Yet millions risk exclusion from this network – and the social, digital and financial exclusion this implies – due to lack of proof-of-identity. A new GSMA report offers a global perspective of the trends and linkages between access to mobile and access to official identification - and explores solutions for reducing the "identity gap."
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- Inclusive Fintech, Technology
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Press release: DOCOMO Digital Partners with Safaricom to Launch the First App Store Integration with the World’s Most Popular Mobile Money Service
The integration, which is powered by DOCOMO Digital’s mobile commerce enabling platform using Google Play’s payment API, allows M-PESA customers to use the mobile money service to pay for goods and services from the app store.
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- Inclusive Fintech
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Google’s Tez payments app now lets users handle their utility bills and more
Google’s Tez payment service in India has gotten a major update that allows users to pay their utilities and other bills via the app.
- Categories
- Inclusive Fintech
- Region
- South Asia
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Inclusive Innovation: How Two Mobile Technology Startups are Changing the Game in Microfinance
Securing a bank loan is an onerous task for anyone. But for the 2.5 billion unbanked people worldwide, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. And microfinance and village savings groups both have significant limitations, particularly for people without a credit history. June Sugiyama of Vodafone Americas Foundation explains how two winners of the foundation's annual Wireless Innovation Project competition are overcoming these limitations through mobile technology.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Inclusive Fintech, Technology
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