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Tazapay Raises $36 Million in Total Series B Funding to Scale Next-Generation Payment Rails Globally; Circle Ventures Leads Extension
The extension reflects investor alignment around Tazapay's regulated, last-mile infrastructure, which harnesses modern digital settlement technology to power cross-border payments for businesses operating across emerging markets — replacing legacy banking rails with faster, more capital-efficient alternatives.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Global Water Crisis Aggravated by Gender Inequalities According to New UN Report
Despite decades of progress, inequalities continue to compromise global water security, disproportionally impacting women and girls, who despite of being the main collectors of water, continue to be excluded from water management and leadership roles.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Global
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Addressing the Communications Breakdown in Global Development: How AI-Enabled Assessment Tools Can Reach Excluded Communities
Development work can only be effective if it’s based on the actual needs and lived experiences of the communities it aims to serve. But as Talía Jiménez Romero at Fortell Impact explains, in many of the remote, under-resourced areas where this work is most needed, the voices of local people are often the hardest to hear, due to barriers related to language, education, and lack of access to the internet and other technologies. She explores how AI can be leveraged to facilitate data collection and needs assessments in these multilingual and low-connectivity contexts, while complementing the work of local teams on the ground.
- Categories
- Technology
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India Doesn’t Need Borrowed Solutions; It Needs Local Problem-Solvers: Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap
Sankalp Bharat seeks to spotlight entrepreneurs from India’s tier II and III cities as the country’s next growth engine, says Vikas Bali.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2025: Announcing the Winners of Our Annual Contest
We've counted the votes in NextBillion’s “Most Influential Articles of the Year” contest, an annual tradition since 2012. The three winners are listed in this article. Congratulations to these guest writers, and to the other contestants in the contest, whose insights have clearly resonated with our readers this past year. And thank you to everyone who voted — and everyone who read and wrote for NextBillion in 2025. Best wishes for the new year!
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology, Telecommunications
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A New Model for Rural Water Infrastructure in Kenya: Why Sustainability Lies Not in Building More, But in Maintaining Better
In Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands, water is more than a basic need: It is a lifeline. Yet according to Cecilia Gamba at LeFil Consulting, despite billions in donor investments in water infrastructure over the past two decades, much of rural Kenya remains underserved. As she explains, one reason for this lack of progress is that rural water systems routinely collapse due to a chronic failure to fund and manage operations and maintenance. She shares learnings from a pilot program that tested an innovative market-based approach to managing rural water systems, exploring their implications for other water-focused businesses and initiatives serving rural communities.
- Categories
- WASH
- Tags
- governance, rural development, water
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Launch of the MSME Strategic Plan and MSME Database
The launch underscored the Government’s commitment to placing MSMEs at the centre of Fiji’s economic transformation, supported by strong partnerships and a clear focus on delivery.
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Miller Center Capital Funds E-Hands Energy to Expand Rural Solar Access in India
Founded in 2009, E-Hands Energy delivers solar and hybrid systems that replace costly diesel generators and unreliable grid power in underserved regions.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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