Following last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we’re exploring updates in the mobile technology space and the potential impact on emerging markets. Availability of mobile money: What does the global industry landscape look like in 2014? by Jennifer Frydrych on GSMA At last week’s Mobile World Congress, GSMA’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) released its 2014 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Financial Services. Frydrych, researcher and author of the report, discusses … read more
Developments in Mobile Technology and Connectivity
At Invested Development, one major investment focus is information and communications technology (ICT) that promote global connectivity. This week’s articles highlight progress towards connectivity for all. Grow Connectivity for the Developing World by Daniel Burrus on Huffington Post Internet access is arguably a basic human right, much like access to clean water. And it should be: connectivity provides people with information at a relatively low cost, unlocking opportunities to accelerate economic development. Unfortunately, there are … read more
Mobile for Development
Mobile money and mobile banking have created a revolution in financial services for the unbanked population, but the potential for mobile technology doesn’t end there. Below are recent articles highlighting how mobile technology can be leveraged to create innovative solutions aimed towards the development of emerging markets.
Mobile for Smart Solutions: How Mobile can Improve Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa by Helene Smertnik on GSMA
A new report released by GSMA explores the opportunity for … read more
Progress in Solar for Energy Access
Access to clean, affordable energy for the rural poor is an issue that we are actively trying to solve. Solar power is a great solution, but solar products often have large up-front costs and the rural population can be skeptical about purchasing technologies they know little about. Entrepreneurs are taking the initiative to overcome these obstacles by creating innovative financing models or technical solutions such as integrating pay-as-you-go technologies with solar products, notably our own … read more
Agriculture in Africa
Agriculture employs 65% of Africa’s labor force and accounts for 32% of gross domestic product overall. Of the 65% employed, smallholder farmers produce 80% of Africa’s food. With modern technology, African countries are taking initiatives to change the agricultural sector.
Science Agriculture Estate Programme to Begins Next Year on Ghana News Agency
On November 19, Seth Terkper, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, announced that the Ghanaian government will begin working on an … read more
Ag Tech Startups and Apps
Ag tech startups and innovation continue to make headlines around the world. Here are this week’s stories covering our exciting new sector focus.
“(Nearly) Unlimited Food” by Ramez Naam on The Huffington Post X Prize Blog
One of the main reasons why we have increased our focus on ag tech is the potential for impact on food production and hunger. Demand is rising with population growth and so are food prices. Accordingly to … read more
Agriculture and technology around the world
It’s no secret that the agriculture space is a hot sector. At ID, we’re finding many opportunities that leverage mobile and information technology to improve efficiency for the small farmer. This Weekly Review features stories on the collaboration of technology and agriculture around the world.
“Unleashing Ugandan Farmers’ Potential Through Mobile Phones” by Kyla Yeoman on Global Envision
MobiPay Kenya has developed a unique application designed with small African farmers in mind. AgriLife… read more
Weekly Review January 5-11: Mobile Tech’s Cross-Sector Influence
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
Weekly Review October 6-12: How Mobile is Changing the Economy, Media, and 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
Interview with David del Ser: Frogtek Update and Thoughts on the IFF
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
Weekly Review September 15-21
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
Infographic: Population without Mobile Phones in Sub-Saharan Africa
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 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
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 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
Simpa Networks Makes Headlines
We take pride in each one of our portfolio companies, and it’s always rewarding to see them recognized for their work. Simpa Networks has been quietly walking the walk and is now talking the talk, evidenced by article after article popping up in our Google Alerts. The media stories on Simpa spotlight the need for alternative energy and accompanying innovative financing solutions for the under- and un-electrified. Now, mainstream media like Inc Magazine and National … 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