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mohammed_ab

Pula Secures Funding from Global Investors to Support Smallholder Farmers in Africa and... - 0 views

www.accion.org/rmers-in-africa-and-south-asia

Pula Agriculture Insurance Weather Risk

shared by mohammed_ab on 10 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • At Pula, we are radically restructuring agricultural insurance, using technology to insure the previously unbanked, uninsured, untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide. We work in nine countries across Africa and Asia, and in 2017 alone, we facilitated crop and livestock insurance cover to 611,000 farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi.
    • nourserghini
      nourserghini on 10 Feb 21
       
      Pula serves many African countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi.
  • Pula uses satellite data and farm yield measurements to understand how weather patterns affect a smallholder farmer’s yield, and uses this information to automate compensation in case of loss. The company also provides farmers with targeted agronomic advice via SMS messaging, helping them grow more from their existing landholdings.
  • Insurtech startup Pula announced today that it has closed a seed funding round to advance its efforts to provide insurance to smallholder farmers in Africa and South Asia.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This injection of funds will enable Pula to invest further in its technology platform and service offerings.
  • hichamachir on 12 Feb 21
     
    I like the way Pula uses the latest technology in order to understand the weather and the possible problems that farmers might find. This is a very good strategy because farmers feel that Pula is doing its best to deliver the best insurance possible for them.
  • mohammed_ab on 13 Feb 21
     
    This excerpt shows that Pula has secured new funding to invest more in its technology. This is good news for its customers as they will benefit from better technology and more product offerings.
kenza_abdelhaq

AgroCenta Startup Profile | Startuplist Africa - 0 views

startuplist.africa/agrocenta

AgroCenta Ghana Specialized competitors

shared by kenza_abdelhaq on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • AgroCenta Competitors
    • kenza_abdelhaq
      kenza_abdelhaq on 13 Feb 21
       
      AgroCenta's competitors include MySidekick in South Africa, Intigo in Tunisia, and Odiggo in Egypt.
chaimaa-rachid

WorldRemit raises $175M at $900M+ valuation to help users send money to contacts in eme... - 0 views

techcrunch.com/...o-contacts-in-emerging-markets

WorldRemit quick-money million

shared by chaimaa-rachid on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • WorldRemit, the London startup that has focused on enabling competitively-priced, quick money transfers from migrant workers and immigrants living in developed countries back home, typically in developing countries, has raised $175 million in a Series D round of funding from TCV, Accel and Leapfrog.
  • chaimaa-rachid on 13 Feb 21
     
    In this article, we can notice that the company has grown and I think it will maintain this growth as people are satisfied with its services.
hichamachir

How FinTech is Transforming The Insurance Industry | Clearbridge Mobile - 0 views

clearbridgemobile.com/forming-the-insurance-industry

Fintech Artificial-Intelligence InsurTech

shared by hichamachir on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • Enhancing the Customer Experience with InsurTech Financial service companies understand the demand for mobile. PwC’s recent FinTech Survey notes the significant growth in customers using mobile applications by 2020, and 75% of respondents say the most important impact FinTech will have is an increased focus on the customer.   Similar to FinTech, InsurTechs have many advantages insurance companies can leverage. These lean startups are free from legacy products and processes; they can use emerging technologies to build brand new systems; they can target specific value pools instead of offering lengthy end-to-end solutions that don’t meet everyone’s needs. Overall, InsurTech’s can go to market entirely different than traditional insurance companies. By partnering with InsurTech enterprises, insurers can offer:   Enriched Connectivity. Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions can eliminate friction at several touch points in the customer journey. Chatbots will be able to understand and act on customer queries at any time. With deep learning, chatbot solutions can further interpret sentiment to identify when to introduce a human agent.
    • hichamachir
      hichamachir on 13 Feb 21
       
      Pula is a successful InsurTech company. However, I suggest that Pula uses Artificial Intelligence even more especially if they can create a system that explain their service to the customers in a very clear way. Human agents sometimes don't operate objectively because they might get emotional and make the company lose a significant customer but it's not always the case for sure. So, I suggest a mix of AI and human agents.
tahaemsd

WorldCover Raises $6 Million in Series A Funding to Provide Climate Insurance in Emergi... - 0 views

www.businessghana.com/...-Insurance-in-Emerging-Markets

FinTech Africa Service modernization climate change

shared by tahaemsd on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • WorldCover has uniquely combined technological advances and developed a solution that allows us to support smallholder farmers caught in conditions that are worsening due to climate change," said Christopher Sheehan, WorldCover CEO and co-founder. “With the rise of many insuretech startups around the world, we are excited about this successful round of Series A funding as it enables us to accelerate growth in existing markets while working towards expansion into new regions. This will allow us to fulfill our ultimate vision of making the world more resilient to climate change”.
    • tahaemsd
      tahaemsd on 13 Feb 21
       
      worldcover is addressing the 50-100$ Billion in annual losses from natural disasters, of wich less than 1% is insured
aminej

FarmDrive Raises Funding to Help Africa's Smallholder Farmers Get Finance with Credit S... - 0 views

agfundernews.com/-credit-scoring-algorithm.html

Kenya Online Fintech Mobile Agriculture Farmers Funds

shared by aminej on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • So far, 3,000 farmers have registered with FarmDrive, borrowing over $130k in loans. That’s a tiny portion of what’s needed across Africa where 65% of the workforce is involved in agriculture, but less than 1% of bank loans go to the industry. And globally there’s a $450 billion funding gap in agriculture, according to FarmDrive.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
      kenza_abdelhaq on 13 Feb 21
       
      FarmDrive is fulfilling a market gap by providing loans and access to financing to farmers who represent 65% of the workforce in Africa.
  • FarmDrive, a Kenyan data analytics startup helping smallholder farmers in Africa access credit from local banks, has raised funding from the venture arm of Safaricom, the biggest communication company in East and Central Africa, Safaricom Spark Venture Fund.
    • aminej
      aminej on 13 Feb 21
       
      More and more companies are raising funds for agricultural fintechs since they are realizing that agriculture is very important mostly during crisis period. Also, small holder farmers need protection and investments in order to maximize their profit
  • kenza_abdelhaq on 13 Feb 21
     
    "So far, 3,000 farmers have registered with FarmDrive, borrowing over $130k in loans. That's a tiny portion of what's needed across Africa where 65% of the workforce is involved in agriculture, but less than 1% of bank loans go to the industry. And globally there's a $450 billion funding gap in agriculture, according to FarmDrive."
ayoubb

Egyptian fintech MoneyFellows has raised over $1m - Ventureburn - 0 views

ventureburn.com/...neyfellows-egypt-fintech-round

shared by ayoubb on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • Tech publication Menabytes reported in an exclusive article yesterday (4 August) that 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, and Phoenician Funds along with other unnamed individual investors participated in the round.
    • ayoubb
      ayoubb on 13 Feb 21
       
      MoneyFellows
mbellakbail69

Nigeria's Facebook Marketplace, Ghanaian $790k funding, Kenya's lending woes - Techpoin... - 0 views

techpoint.africa/...techpoint-digest-11

shared by mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • Founded in 2015, Agrocenta operates a mobile merchanting platform that provides market information, storage and delivery solutions to smallholder farmers in Ghana. According to co-founders Francis Obirikorang and Michael Ocansey, their flagship app, CropChain which enables trade between smallholder farmers and consumers, has rapidly grown from 3,000 to 48,000 registered farmers. The startup also provides credit and insurance facilities for smallholder farmers via its LendIt app.
    • mbellakbail69
      mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21
       
      Agrocenta has to concentrate on doubling its flagship offering through the new capital injection.
aminej

WorldCover raises $6M round for emerging markets' climate insurance | TechCrunch - 1 views

techcrunch.com/...ging-markets-climate-insurance

Climate Change Agriculture Farmer Insurance Funds Investing Online Fintech

shared by aminej on 07 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • WorldCover investor and EchoVC founder Eghosa Omoigui believes the startup’s insurance offerings can actually help farmers improve yield. “Weather-risk drives a lot of decisions with these farmers on what to plant, when to plant, and how much to plant,” he said. “With the crop insurance option, the farmer says, ‘Instead of one hector, I can now plant two or three, because I’m covered.’ ”
  • WorldCover’s platform uses satellite imagery, on-ground sensors, mobile phones and data analytics to create insurance options for farmers whose crop yields are affected adversely by weather events — primarily lack of rain.
  • For the moment, WorldCover only insures for events such as rainfall risk, but in the future it will look to include other weather events, such as tropical storms, in its insurance programs and platform data analytics.
    • tahaemsd
      tahaemsd on 13 Feb 21
       
      worldcover model oes not assess or provide insurance payouts specificially for climate change
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • the startup will look to possibilities to update its platform to offer farming advice to smallholder farmers, in addition to insurance coverage.
    • aminej
      aminej on 13 Feb 21
       
      WorldCover has managed to raise funds of 6 milllion which is huge. It shows that companies are more and more helping farmers and agriculture because it is very important for the development of a country
  • WorldCover, a New York and Africa-based climate insurance provider to smallholder farmers, has raised a $6 million Series A round led by MS&AD Ventures.Y Combinator, Western Technology Investment and EchoVC also participated in the round.WorldCover’s platform uses satellite imagery, on-ground sensors, mobile phones and data analytics to create insurance options for farmers whose crop yields are affected adversely by weather events — primarily lack of rain.
  • mohammed_ab on 07 Feb 21
     
    WorldCover provides a solution for crop and smallholder farmers to protect themselves from weather uncertainty. The company gives an opportunity to those farmers to hedge against weather risks, which helps them increase their yield.
  • hindelquarrouti on 13 Feb 21
     
    Worldcover is an African-based Insurance that covers climate. It mainly targets farmers. It benefits from the use of satellite imagery and data analytics in order to create good insurance options to farmers.
  • chaimaa-rachid on 13 Feb 21
     
    Worldcover gives small farmers the correct sort of insurance relying on their region.
hibaerrai

Thndr obtains brokerage licence, executes digital commission-free trading | ZAWYA MENA ... - 0 views

www.zawya.com/...sionfree_trading-SNG_183523889

Thndr Egypt Fintech Investment Securities

shared by hibaerrai on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • The company is keen to work with companies specialising in the financial technology (fintech) solutions field, to contribute to the development of the Egyptian capital market sector.The most prominent of these partnerships includes a contract with the Egyptian Company for Information Dissemination (EGID).
    • ayachehbouni
      ayachehbouni on 13 Feb 21
       
      As Thndr helps both individuals and companies to easily deal in the Egyptian stock exchange, working with companies specializing in the financial technology solutions field is a must.
  • Startup and equities trading platform, Thndr Securities Brokerage, has obtained approval from Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to practice securities brokerage activities.Thndr is the first company in the Middle East to announce the provision of a zero commission on securities trading service.Its activities take place through an advanced electronic platform that enables dealers in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) to view the latest developments and indicators at zero cost.
    • hibaerrai
      hibaerrai on 13 Feb 21
       
      Thndr is the first fintech to have a brokerage license in Egypt. Also, they aim to help users invest easily in the Egyptian Stock Exchange by employing wero comission on traded securities.
nouhaila_zaki

What Kenya's mobile money success could mean for the Arab world - 1 views

www.worldbank.org/...-could-mean-for-the-arab-world

M-Pesa Kenya Arab World

shared by nouhaila_zaki on 12 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • For a successful model, the Arab World can look to Kenya’s development of mobile money or “M-Pesa”. In many ways, the elements that lead to M-Pesa’s success in Kenya are already present in the Arab World. Young people in MENA are digitally savvy, are active on social media and are some of the heaviest users of mobile phones in the world.
    • hichamachir
      hichamachir on 12 Feb 21
       
      M-Pesa can influence many countries to believe in the power of technology and innovation. I think that embracing the entrepreneurial lifestyle can help many countries to innovate and create successful business and M-Pesa is a great example.
  • The growth of M-Pesa is the result of many factors, including the ease of setting up an account (which is free and only requires an official ID), its simplicity of use, its affordability, the high literacy rate of the population, and the high penetration of mobile phones.Another key element to M-Pesa’s growth worth emphasizing is the regulatory stance adopted by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). It decided not to oppose the entry of the telecom operator into the financial sector as long as it offered sufficient guarantees. CBK adopted an “above the fray” position as a regulator and allowed for experimentation in order to foster innovation.
  • The successful adoption of M-Pesa in Kenya reverberated across the African startup scene. It acted as a catalyzer and a signal for young entrepreneurs in Kenya and Africa as a whole: revolutionary ideas could be successfully implemented in Africa and generate both business opportunities and a development path for local communities.
    • samielbaqqali
      samielbaqqali on 12 Feb 21
       
      M-Pesa will influence many nations to believe in the potential of creativity and technology. I think it will help many countries to innovate and build effective companies by adopting the entrepreneurial lifestyle, and M-Pesa is an excellent example.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • A MENA perspectiveMENA could easily follow in Kenya’s footsteps, and reap immense benefits. The adoption of mobile payment systems makes transactions cheaper, easier and safer. By simplifying how clients can pay for goods and services, it helps firms reach out to new customers and foster private sector development across the economy. Moreover, as is often the case with innovations, it has the potential to be built upon and used by other new technologies and to create a positive momentum in fintech as a whole.Governments in the Middle East and North Africa should enable digital innovation with conducive regulations and the development of a regulatory ‘sandbox’, which guarantees the security of transactions but allows for experimentation, that would stimulate the development and adoption of disruptive innovations.Today, economic connectivity is achieved by the development and harmonization of optic fibers, IT equipment, online payment systems, information transmission and data protection policies. If the MENA region puts sufficient efforts in this direction, it could propose a new path to its citizens, in particular the youth, and bring about a new development strategy adapted to the modern age.
    • nouhaila_zaki
      nouhaila_zaki on 13 Feb 21
       
      This except is very interesting because it touches upon the way in which M-Pesa could benefit MENA societies. It encourages MENA governments to legislate in favour of innovation and digital products in order to propose a new development strategy that befits the modern age.
  • mohammed_ab on 12 Feb 21
     
    I think that this article has some great information on how to replicate the success story of M-Pesa in the Arab World. I think that the Arab World is in need of such service to facilitate the life of unbanked people, and especially women. This article also highlights the importance of having a lenient regulatory system.
mehdi-ezzaoui

SA fintech startup ThisIsMe, Easy Equities tie for top spot at African Fintech Awards -... - 0 views

ventureburn.com/...thisisme-easy-equities

Easyequities Africa Fintech Service

shared by mehdi-ezzaoui on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • “The business is growing and we plan to attract new talent. We are growing globally into Africa and other markets and we are constantly enhancing our technology,” said Thomas.
  • mehdi-ezzaoui on 13 Feb 21
     
    Easyequities looking for the African fintech award
mehdibella

Microloans for Waco businesses the focus of new operation | Local Business News | wacot... - 0 views

wacotrib.com/...be-11eb-b802-5f9d153a4d4b.html

Kiva kenya Nairobi Fintech finance

shared by mehdibella on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • Kiva, a nonprofit founded in 2005, has chosen to make Waco a “Kiva Hub,” the first city in Texas to receive such a designation
  • He welcomed small business needing a loan up to $15,000 to contact Startup Waco, headquartered at 605 Austin Ave.
  • The Waco City Council gave the local Kiva Hub a financial kick-start, awarding it a $50,000 grant. Passavant said he hopes to approach individuals and foundations about putting additional money behind Kiva.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “I’m sure Austin, Dallas and Texas’ other larger cities will follow suit, but we moved quickly to make this happen in Waco. We were the first,”
mbellakbail69

Fawry becomes first Egyptian tech company to achieve USD 1 bn market cap | Enterprise - 0 views

enterprise.press/...ieve-usd-1-bn-market-cap-20538

shared by mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • STARTUP WATCH- Fawry is officially Egypt’s first unicorn: EGX-listed e-payments firm Fawry became the first Egyptian tech company to hit a market cap of USD 1 bn on Monday after its share price reached intraday highs of EGP 22.69, former managing director Mohamed Okasha announced in a LinkedIn post. Fawry’s share price has increased by more than 300% since it debuted on the EGX last year, a rise that has accelerated in recent months as the use of its payment services skyrocketed during the lockdown.
    • mbellakbail69
      mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21
       
      To support its quest to understand its customers more deeply, Fawry will soon deploy IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator, which includes popular open source deep learning frameworks and efficient artificial intelligence
hibaerrai

How to Use Big Data in FinTech: Use Cases and Strategies | Mobindustry - 0 views

www.mobindustry.net/tegies-examples-implementation

Big Data Fintech Strategy Customers Technologies

shared by hibaerrai on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • According to MarketsandMarkets, the global big data market is currently valued at almost $140 billion. By 2025, it’s expected to grow to $230 billion at a CAGR of 10.6%. This makes FinTech app development a priority for companies that are transforming financial services with big data analytics.FinTech is one of the industries that uses big data extensively due to its complex services, use of IoT technologies, and need for risk analysis and security, which requires fast operations on large amounts of data.Big data developers help FinTechs gather an overwhelming amount of information and derive insights that really matter in the decision-making process.
    • hibaerrai
      hibaerrai on 13 Feb 21
       
      Big Data strategy will help gather all necessary data to know the customers behaviors and preferences and other criteria for better decision making.
mbellakbail69

Exclusive: Egypt's MoneyFellows raises over $1 million in a bridge round to digitize mo... - 0 views

www.menabytes.com/moneyfellows-1-million

shared by mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • With steady growth in our user base, we have been working hard over the past year in order to optimize and perfect our product and are now ready to begin our scaling journey. We will dedicate the money from this bridge round to raise greater awareness for MoneyFellows, in order to allow a much greater number of users to access our application and meet their saving and financial needs
    • ayachehbouni
      ayachehbouni on 13 Feb 21
       
      Moneyfellows is still growing and developing and thanks to the many investments it receives and its many ideas that attract even more investors, the company in my opinion can expect to become one of the greatest Fintech companies.
  • MoneyFellows with its group pooling platform for credit and savings is digitizing the entire process of money circles with a scoring model that compliments current offline model, making it more scalable, safe and efficient.
    • mbellakbail69
      mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21
       
      The startup also has secured corporate deals with different companies in Egypt in order to facilitate participation of their employees in money circles.
mbellakbail69

FinTech for All: Moneyfellows founder on helping friends and family to save or borrow i... - 0 views

medium.com/...r-borrow-in-egypt-228e5a98c356

shared by mbellakbail69 on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • Unique challenges are mainly regulations for Fintech companies usually being a grey area, without enough clarity on what exactly they might fall under.With lack of enough funds and diversity, fundraising is also another challenge for most of the startups in the MENA region.
    • ayachehbouni
      ayachehbouni on 13 Feb 21
       
      Fundraising is a priority for start-ups and companies in the MENA region as it is thanks to it that the companies can grow and work at full potential
  • Tackling these challenges, the EFSE Fund and the SANAD Fund for MSME, advised by Finance in Motion, have partnered with Village Capital and the LHoFT to develop the Fincluders Bootcamp 2017, unique investment readiness program designed for entrepreneurs offering inclusive financial products.
  • ‘Financial Inclusion’ might be the most noble sector of financial technology, solving problems the traditional finance industry won’t — servicing underbanked demographics in areas with poor financial infrastructure.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In my opinion, Financial inclusion isn’t just about opening a bank for those that are unbanked, but rather being able to offer them actual financial services like lending, savings and improving their credit scoring (which is the building block for all financial services), helping them improve their actual living standards, eventually.
kaoutarchennoufi

From M-Pesa to Ushahidi: how African tech is fighting the coronavirus - Friends of Europe - 0 views

www.friendsofeurope.org/...ch-is-fighting-the-coronavirus

CashFlow Grow Fees Users

shared by kaoutarchennoufi on 13 Feb 21 - No Cached
  • The main telecoms operators in the country are all pitching in too – starting with Safaricom which uses the M-Pesa mobile application. In my book “Startup Lions, at the heart of African Tech” I explain how M-Pesa was born organically (and unexpectedly) from contact with the poorest Kenyan populations who didn’t even have bank accounts. A great many of them used ‘m-banking’ to gain financial independence which led to the M-Pesa service having over 22.6 million users in Kenya in 2019 – almost two-thirds of the adult population. A few hours after the president’s announcement, M-Pesa decided to drastically reduce its usage fees and to remove the daily transaction volume limit across the board in order to increase cash flow.
    • kaoutarchennoufi
      kaoutarchennoufi on 13 Feb 21
       
      M-Pesa has made the decision to increase its cash flow by reducing its usage fees and removing the daily transaction volume limit across the board. However, I think that it is not a good strategy to reach that goals. They need to follow other ways such as encouraging E-payments, paying less their suppliers, offer discounts, increase their fees..
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