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
Weekly Review August 11-17
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
Weekly Review August 4-10
Weekly Review July 21-27
This week, social enterprise folks convened in Mexico for “G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion Challenge: Innovative Solutions for Unlocking Financial Access” and held breakout discussions on Twitter. Following the trend, here are articles from the past week addressing financial inclusion.… read more
Weekly Review June 30-July 6
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends that relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our comments.
Continue reading to check out the news on mobile technology, including innovation in services and apps from students and young entrepreneurs in Africa to multinational telecoms.
You can also out this week’s articles on Pinterest:
Closing the Digital Divide with Mobile Broadband in Africa Part 2: Spotlight on Kenya
We recently wrote about the rapid uptake of mobile broadband and its expected journey toward revolutionizing the digital divide in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya, in particular, shows signs that mobile broadband is the key to increasing Internet access and ICT sophistication. In this post we’ll share the stats and driving forces behind mobile broadband’s success in Kenya.… read more
Weekly Review June 16-22
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends and relate them to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
This week, we’re featuring news on smartphones and telecoms and other ICT headlines. … read more
Closing the Digital Divide with Mobile Broadband in Africa
Today, there are over 60 million mobile cellular subscriptions in Africa – an astounding increase from less than 5 million ten years ago. Unlike anywhere else, mobile phone subscriptions quickly leapfrogged over fixed landline subscriptions, some calling it “The Death of the Fixed Line.” Similarly, mobile broadband is experiencing a much faster uptake than fixed broadband. In this post, we discuss the policy, infrastructure, and accessibility considerations that have allowed mobile to be … read more
Weekly Review May 26 – June 1
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends that relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
This week, we’re covering the headlines on the mobile phone’s continued boom in developing markets.… read more
Weekly Review May 19-25
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends that relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
Articles and blog posts this week cover news on mobile technology in emerging markets. We’re featuring news from iHub’s blog, MIT Technology Review, Business Daily Africa, and Mobile Payments Today. A common trend you’ll find in each article is … read more
The Impact of Mobile Technology in Disaster Relief
At Invested Development, we frequently herald the impact that mobile technology can create for the underserved in their daily lives. Mobile technology, specifically information and communication services, has also dramatically increased the effectiveness of disaster relief services. Having access to information and communication greatly helps those affected by natural disaster and those who are trying to help. There is an opportunity for innovation to increase the impact that ICT and mobile technology has on people … read more
How Mobile Technology Improves Informal Savings Groups
To date, we’ve introduced both the benefits and the inefficiencies of informal savings groups. Today, we’ll share how mobile technology can improve informal savings groups. Injecting the benefits of mobile money, increased communication, and innovative apps into the savings group model can displace the inefficiencies that exist in trust, convenience, and security. Importantly, mobile technology does not compromise the intrinsic benefits of the savings groups. … read more
Weekly Review May 5-11
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends and relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
This week, we read about the work that organizations and businesses are doing around the world to enhance, promote, and leverage the benefits of mobile.… read more
The Inefficiencies of Savings Groups
Last week, we introduced informal savings groups and their benefits. In this post, we’ll discuss how mobile phone technology can optimize the intrinsic benefits of a savings group through mobile money, innovative cash management applications, and increased communication.… read more
Weekly Review April 30-May 4
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends and relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
In a follow up to our recent post on financial inclusion, this week we turned to our favorite industry blogs and mainstream media to see what they’re saying this week on the topic. We’ve included posts and articles from … read more
Weekly Review April 14-20
Every week, we read dozens of articles on our favorite industry trends and relate to our investment thesis. We pick the most popular trend from the week and share the top articles along with our thoughts.
This week, we read about many different opportunities available for mobile and information communication technology innovators, including incubators, market growth, and improvements in infrastructure.… read more
Weekly Review March 30-April 6
This week, we’re focusing on headlines in mobile tech innovation and that opportunities that are making it easier to innovate in Africa.… read more
Weekly Review March 17-23
How can mobile money be used to incentivize savings? Mobile money, if executed correctly, can extend financial inclusion to include savings capabilities as well as transfer and payments. We’re looking at some examples of that this week.… read more
Weekly Review March 4-10
This week we’re sharing articles that cover the latest industry trends and news in mobile technology.
Mobile Money’s Boost – Can Nigeria Outpace Egypt?
In our recent post, Africa’s Big Three, we compared Nigeria – Africa’s third largest economy – to South Africa and Egypt – the first and second largest, respectively. We discovered that added mobile penetration could boost Nigeria’s GDP to outgrow Egypt’s by 2020. This prediction is a result of increased mobile penetration and its positive effects on economic growth. In this post, we’re following up on our prediction with a discussion of another benefit of … read more
Weekly Review February 19-25
The penetration of mobile web in Africa is on the rise, and we predict that it will be as powerful as the mobile phone itself. Along with the increased presence of mobile web, we’re seeing an ecosystem growing around it. This includes everyone from Vodacom and IBM to small startups at m:lab in Nairobi. This week, we’ll look at recent highlights that bring these players together, both big and small, to facilitate the growth of … read more
Weekly Review February 12-18
Mobile money’s increasing prevalence in Africa is spurring conversations, support for accompanying innovations, and larger efforts for financial inclusion.… read more
Weekly Review January 29-February 4
The technology sector in India, including all players from $5 billion USD Facebook to tiny startups in Bangalore, is growing and changing everyday. If investors can support continuous innovation, the sector will keep booming despite the many obstacles that exist for entrepreneurs in India.… read more
Weekly Review January 8-14
2012 is going to be a big year for mobile money and financial inclusion. Below we highlight a few of the stories describing the increased adoption of mobile money (beyond Kenya) and the continued growth of financial inclusion and other benefits offered through mobile phones.
“A Mobile Money Wish List for 2012” by Will Mutua on Afrinnovator
As a follow up to Mbwana Alliy’s prediction that increased mobile money services in Africa … read more
Weekly Review December 18-24
This week, we took a look at technology stories that will improve the African lifestyle.
“Three lessons for innovators & techpreneurs: Learning from Ushahidi’s history” by Will Mutua on Afrinnovator
Well done to Ushahidi on raising a $1.9 million round from Omidyar Network. However, as we know, not every Kenyan techie success story is carried with the same glory and ease demonstrated by M-PESA. Ushahidi’s experience is a great example of the
… read more