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Are the days of the African unicorn numbered?
Hopes of seeing an African unicorn on the horizon have been floated around for years, but increasingly, investors are changing their focus. The emerging consensus is that Africa needs to forget about “mythical” unicorns, and focus on building more successful local companies.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- startups
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Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations
Over 4 billion people around the world lack necessities like food, water, energy, health care and housing. This represents not only a major social challenge but a major market, as low-income consumers have an annual purchasing capacity of US $5 trillion. Rajat Chabba and Sheena Raikundalia at Intellecap explore how entrepreneurs are developing innovative, frugal products to meet these customers’ needs – and why an ecosystem approach is needed to help them scale their solutions.
- Categories
- Technology
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Nigeria’s Central Bank could hamstring local fintech startups with costly new regulation
In a draft policy document, CBN recognized products by fintech companies are “gaining acceptance” but argued their emergence would heighten existing risks in the financial system.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech, public policy, regulations, startups
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Press release: Alipay Teams with NUS Enterprise to Launch Social Innovation Challenge
The Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge aims to identify and support the growth of start-ups in Southeast Asia that are using digital technology to build a more inclusive society.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- startups
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India prime minister says financial tech needs to be a ‘movement’ — not a ‘mechanism’
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that development of financial technology, or fintech, should be a movement that can improve the lives of the world's most marginalized people.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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Billion-dollar tech startups hold promise for China’s economy
Chinese tech companies listed in China and Hong Kong have seen their shares plunge this year, amid a market shakeout. But while the Shanghai Composite Index is down about 20% since the beginning of 2018, analysts say that there is still appetite for good startups.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Kenya sets aside funds to develop domestic mobile phone industry
Kenya’s minister of information, communication and technology said on Tuesday that the government had set aside 1 billion shillings ($9.90 million) to help local start-ups in the mobile telephone software and hardware segments to grow.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mauritius-based startup works on first Africa-developed blockchain
A Mauritius-based startup is working on the first highly-efficient mobile blockchain developed in Africa, which it says is set to see large-scale consumer adoption by 2021.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- blockchain, fintech, startups
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