Catalyzing Innovations that Matter
Angani Closes Seed Round with Leading East African Investors to Localize Cloud Services
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2015
Boston, MA and Nairobi, Kenya – Kenya’s Angani Ltd has closed a seed round of funding led by Invested Development with participation from Africa’s Talking, Savannah Fund, and Africa Angels Network.
Angani is the first fully automated public cloud infrastructure company in the region. For the first time, East African companies are able … read more
With cloud technologies becoming more and more popular in both developed and developing markets, it’s important to us at Invested Development to understand both the opportunities and the potential implications that the shift to the cloud will have. Below is a selection of recent articles explaining cloud services and predicting growth and potential change in the market.
How to Make Sense of the Cloud’s Alphabet Soup: What are SaaS, IaaS and PaaS? By Bryan Tamador … read more
The Mobile Financial Service industry has made financial inclusion possible for millions in developing nations. Today, there is an opportunity to integrate mobile money into agriculture development with the potential to benefit farmers, buyers and mobile money providers. Below is a series of articles by Lee Babcock, digital finance thought leader, suggesting the best way to jumpstart mobile payments in the agriculture sector.
Three Steps to Jumpstart Agriculture Mobile Payments by Lee Babcock on Next … read more
Cloud-based solutions are spreading throughout Africa, boosting the ICT sector and offering opportunities for local business growth. Below are articles highlighting how cloud integration is impacting the continent.
How the Cloud Can Power Entrepreneurship and Urbanisation in Africa by Derek Kudsee on IT Web Africa
Africa has seen incredible economic growth in the past decade. Income has grown by 30% on the continent and six out of the world’s ten fastest growing economies are in … read more
As a follow up to our post on Education, Energy, and the Digital Divide in Africa, visit BRCK’s blog to learn how our portfolio company is making education technology work with its last-mile Internet connectivity solution in rural Kenya.
“What does it take to launch an e-learning initiative in remote schools in Kenya? Last week I packed my bags and drove four hours northwest of Nairobi to Isiolo to find out. BRCK was invited … read more
Kenya’s BRCK raises $1.2M to connect the last mile to the internet
July 9, 2014
Nairobi, Kenya
Ushahidi spinout BRCK Inc. announced today that it has closed a $1.2 million seed round. BRCK is solving last-mile connectivity problems with a device that can bring seamless internet connection to the most remote areas of the world.
Invested Development, an early stage impact investor, led the round for the Nairobi-based technology startup. Invested Development, Omvestments, Urban.us, Cheryl … read more
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2014
Boston, MA & Nairobi, Kenya – Invested Development, an early stage impact investment fund manager, has invested in iProcure, a technology startup serving the needs of the agricultural ecosystem in Kenya. iProcure provides software to enhance sales and inventory management in rural and peri-urban agriculture markets. As a result, farmers can access high-quality farming inputs and equipment conveniently and affordably.
According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the … read more
With our interest in technology in emerging markets, we are always interested in new ideas to increase Internet access. Check out some of these innovative approaches to increasing the efficiency and scope of Internet access in the developing world.
The Small Brick-Shaped Device Can Help Get Millions of Africans Online by Adele Peters on Fast.Co Exist
Even in large cities in Africa, Internet access is difficult to find and often unreliable. However, the BRCK can … read more
Remittances and mobile money have played a big role in promoting financial inclusion in emerging markets. Currently it’s a market dominated by big players like Western Union, but more and more often we’re seeing localized startups like Remit in Uganda looking to make financial services even easier and more inclusive.
“Safaricom Deal to Allow Diaspora to Send Money to M-Pesa Accounts” by Chris Udemans on HumanIPO
The growth of mobile technology has had … read more
With mobile technology as one of our key investment themes, mobile money has been exemplary in defining the impact that mobile can have on access to finance for both individuals and organizations. Here’s what we read this week on the latest news in mobile money.
Mobile Money Transforms Kenyan Banking Market from Mobile Payments Today
As one of the best examples of successful mobile money adoption, 64% of Kenyans now actively use their mobile phone … read more
After nearly a decade of increases, GDP growth in Latin America slowed from 4.4 percent in 2011 to 3.2 percent in 2012 and 4.0 percent in 2013. Despite slowing growth, Latin American countries are still innovating and embracing new ICT. We are always looking for start ups and innovators to bring technology to Latin America.
‘Colombia will be 1st country in Latin America completely connected to internet:’ Santos by Daniel Freeman on Colombia Reports
Recently, … read more
Developing countries received over $400 billion in remittances in 2012 according to a World Bank (see our infographic on remittances here). This is a great example of how mobile money has changed the way people send money by making it easier and safer. This week, we read many stories detailing both progress and challenges in the sector. We are always looking for innovative entrepreneurs that piggyback on the success of mobile money to provide … read more
With the upcoming GSMA Mobile for Development Summit, we focused our weekly reading on mobile money and technology. Mobile money has become a mainstream service for MNOs in emerging markets posing both benefits and risks. We are always looking for innovators and startups that can piggyback on these innovations to promote financial inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid.
Mobile money transforming Africa by Arthur Goldstruck on Mark Lives
Since the first mobile payments … read more
Our blog may have been quiet this summer, but our last newsletter can give you an idea why! We weren’t the only ones who had a busy summer: the UN declared Internet access a basic human right, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg launched an effort to bring internet access to every corner the globe. Here are stories from the summer commenting on ubiquitous internet access.
UN General Assembly’s Declaration of Internet as a Human Right (PDF)… read more
The increase in remittances and money transfers poses an interesting challenge to mobile and banking technologies. We are always looking for the newest innovations in mobile tech for the BSP Fund. Here are some of the stories that caught our attention in remittances and mobile technology this week.
Remittances to Africa carry a high price tag by Tosin Sulaiman on Reuters
As the official remittance flow to Africa has increased to a record $60.4 … read more
The Safaricom AppWiz Challenge, a collaboration between Safaricom and Invested Development, is seeking judges and mentors. The Challenge was launched in May is designed to help Safaricom identify and nurture talent within the developer community. The participants will undergo training and mentorship throughout the incubation period as the objective of this challenge is to help youth successfully deploy their mobile applications in the market.
We are looking for experts in agriculture, energy, water, transportation, … read more
We are always researching the latest innovations in mobile technology for potential investments for the BSP Fund. Here are some of the stories that caught our attention in mobile technology and mobile money.
How can financial services work best for the poor? by Anna Scott on The Guardian
In order to develop a service that effectively serves a poor population, it is necessary to consider their needs. The product should be designed around the … read more
Editor’s Note: This post is written by Sean Smith. Sean spearheaded and will continue to lead Invested Development’s efforts in supporting the Safaricom App Wiz Challenge.
In early 2012, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore and other senior executives of Kenya’s largest telecom visited the iHub in Nairobi to answer questions from the innovation community. Most of the back and forth between iHub members and Safaricom executives went as expected (at least if you follow such things):… read more
Since the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress is next week, it’s only fitting that this week’s Weekly Review focuses on mobile for development news.
Video: Exploiting Opportunities for Mobile Money in Untapped Markets – NFC & MMS 2012 on Mobile Money for the Unbanked GSMA
We’re attending MWC next week, and we’re particularly looking forward to the discussion about NFC applications in emerging markets. NFC is near-field communication technology that allows for simple, fast, and secure … read more
From agriculture to broadband, payments to people, mobile technology continues to impact every facet of Africa’s burgeoning economic growth.
“Africa: Raising the Bar on Agricultural Innovation” by Wendy Atkins on All Africa
An increasingly interesting area for us is agriculture. Mobile technology innovation has lots of applications and benefits, and more frequently experts are looking to it to solve the world’s food production gaps, especially in Africa. From the GSMA, to governments across … 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
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
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
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