Catalyzing Innovations that Matter
We’re always looking for entrepreneurs who are willing to tackle the challenge of making alternative energy affordable. This week, we’re sharing news on others also looking for ways to make the cost of energy affordable around the world.
“Powering Up: Innovating to Solve the Cost of Energy in Africa” by Will Mutua on Afrinnovator
Despite the discovery and availability of oil and gas across Africa, nations are still struggling to meet their populations’ … read more
This week in the blogosphere, we found several stories that evidence exactly what makes Kenya so unique.
“Connected tech communities and competitive advantage: the Kenyan way” by Erik Hersman on White African
Erik Hersman, one of the leaders in the Nairobi technology community, writes on the differences among the major technology hubs in Africa: Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Each region is unique in its own way: Nigeria has the most people while … read more
Since we are always on the lookout for our next investment for the BSP Fund, we stay up-to-date on innovations, regulations, and investment (both public and private) in the alternative energy sector. Here’s what piqued our interest this week in alternative energy.
“The next generation of air energy storage players” by Katie Fehrenbacher on GigaOM
Given how important energy storage is in both developed and developing markets, we’re always interested in new storage … read more
Technology innovation is emerging from all corners of the world, aided by an increasingly connected and growing youthful demographic. Read on for highlights on the latest opinions and news on technology innovation for development.
“What will it take to unearth Africa’s next great innovator?” by Stuart Thomas on Memeburn
We know that Africa is full of eager entrepreneurs and innovators. To find them is often the hard part. We also know that the … read more
Several energy startups and entrepreneurial initiatives caught our attention this week. Here’s the round up of what we found intriguing and exciting.
“Peter Thiel, Khosla, Bill Gates back air energy storage startup LightSail” by Katie Fehrenbacher on GigaOM
Several investors have backed LightSail in a $37.3 million series D round. LightSail has designed a next-gen compressed air energy storage technology, which is essentially an air-based battery with twice the efficiency of its predecessors. … read more
The growing adoption of mobile phones continues to spur innovation throughout Africa.
“CCK Sector Statistics Report – 4th Quarter 2012” on iHub
The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) releases quarterly reports on the use and growth of information and communication technologies. iHub provides a short summary of the key statistics relating to mobile phone subscriptions and data and internet use. Now 75% of Kenyans have a mobile phone subscription; 36% have Internet … read more
The industry is still buzzing after the fifth annual Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) Conference in San Francisco. In addition, there was big news this week on a key impact investment and updates from the unexpected players that have entered the market.… read more
This week’s headlines on energy are particularly exciting: we love to learn about innovative energy technologies. Even better, we’re glad to see that they’re earning support in the markets that will benefit the most from the innovation.… read more
Telecoms and mobile phones have changed the way organizations interact with customers at the base of the economic pyramid. This week, we’re sharing stories on the impact they’ve had on common challenges across sectors in emerging markets.… read more
By now, many of our readers are familiar with the Impact Factoring Fund (IFF). When we first introduced it, we knew it would solve a common problem for many startups in emerging markets. Since then, we have discovered that there is a range of applications for the IFF across a variety of sectors, including tablet sales, pay-as-you-go energy sales, and even carbon credits. The common thread is the working capital constraint that businesses face when … read more
The fifth annual SOCAP conference convened this week, and the impact investing stories are reverberating around the world. Here are some of our favorites from the week.
Did you miss the SOCAP hype? You can catch up by reading the most popular tweets from the week (here) and watching the videos (here).
Innovative applications of sustainable energy can solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. This week’s stories focus on the innovators and leaders working to make the vision a reality.… read more
Since we first announced the Impact Factoring Fund, we’ve been working hard to help our portfolio companies take advantage of the opportunity to access working capital. One of our portfolio companies, Frogtek, is particularly excited to apply the IFF to its efforts of financing tablets for their customers in Mexico and Colombia.
Frogtek’s innovative technology is an application, Tiendatek, which allows micro shopkeepers to manage sales and inventory on their smartphone or tablet. … read more
From mobile developers to telecoms to the hardware itself, the mobile technology sector continues to make exciting progress in India, Africa, and Latin America.… read more
As we introduced in our last post on this topic, Kenya is using several policy tools to stimulate renewable energy development and grow its national energy supply. With rapidly growing demand, the government has clearly identified renewable energy, such as solar, wind, and geothermal, as a reliable and sustainable way to increase energy supply.
Renewable energy production presents the potential for income and employment generation. It also encourages private investment while minimizing environmental harm. … read more
The impact investing industry is preparing new programs, insights, and, most importantly, entrepreneurs to live up to the big predictions for 2013, which has already been claimed as “the year of impact investing.”… read more
The Economist, the International Energy Agency, and the World Economic Forum, and the Indian government each advocated for innovation in alternative energy technologies this week. Continue reading to find out what they said.… read more
Earlier this year, our blog post Africa’s Big Three discussed the impact of the growing number of mobile subscriptions on Africa’s three largest economies: South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria respectively. Based on World Bank research, an additional ten phones per 100 people adds .8 percentage points to GDP growth. In that post, we found that Nigeria could replace Egypt as the second largest African economy based on mobile phone penetration’s value add to GDP growth … read more
African innovation is making headlines everywhere from The Economist to The Guardian. It’s nice to see that the grassroots feel of startup tech community is not lost in translation.
Kenya’s National Energy Policy is designed “to facilitate provision of clean, sustainable, affordable, reliable and secure energy services at least cost while protecting the environment.” The efforts come alongside a critical time for Kenya – economic growth and energy demand are higher than ever. The current supply, although increasing slowly, cannot keep up with demand. In response, the Kenyan government is using three policy tools to facilitate the adoption of renewable energy. The aim is … read more
After the enormous grid failure in India, there is a new awareness of the need for alternative energy. Savvy entrepreneurs and established businesses are taking advantage and jumping on the opportunity to expand their market. Clearly a big hurdle is fully understanding the costs of renewables and working to minimize them. Luckily, there are plenty of smart folks working on that as well.… read more
Around the world, businesses both big (like Nokia) and small (like Wari and Mi-Fone) are working in emerging markets to deliver mobile phone products and services tailored directly to local demand. From long-lasting battery life to the continued expansion of mobile money services, mobile continues to present new opportunities for innovation.… read more
In light of this week’s power crisis in India, our weekly review articles this week focus on the energy sector in India and the clean technology solutions available. Be sure to check out our post from earlier this year on the reality of the energy sector in India and the government’s mission to install 20 GW of solar by 2020.… read more