emerging markets
Flourish Ventures on repeat founders, emerging markets and when not to hop on the AI bandwagon
In today’s episode of Equity Podcast, Mary Ann Azevedo talked to Flourish Ventures co-founders Tilman Ehrbeck, Emmalyn Shaw and Arjuna Costa about a variety of…
eBay announced today that it has appointed Vidmay Naini as its general manager for global emerging markets, a role that covers the company’s growth in Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe,…
The venture market is in the middle of a downturn, but there are still plenty of emerging fund managers. Seedstars announced today it has launched a platform called Seedstars Capital…
Crypto markets grew the most in the Middle East and North Africa in 2022 due to economic incentives and regulation.
Ethereum layer-two scaling platform Polygon raised $450 million earlier this year in its first major financing round. Now, the protocol’s co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is launching another project, he told TechCrunch…
Since its launch nine years ago, Seedstars has invested in 81 companies in over 30 emerging markets. Now it’s set a goal of investing in 100 more startups with the…
Weather-focused IBISA raises seed round to back its microinsurance solutions for low-income small farmers
Agricultural microinsurance startup IBISA raised a seed round of approximately $1.70 million led by London-based Insurtech Gateway, with participation from Rockstart’s AgriFood fund and others.
In emerging economies, where spending billions to build public transit infrastructure can be out of reach, startups are using technology to meet the mobility needs of a rising urban middle…
Emerging markets fintech financier Lendable is targeting to raise a $100 million fund to invest in African and Asian fintech companies, the firm said in an emailed statement today. In…
Verto, a global B2B payments platform that allows small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers, today announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A…
Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and emerging markets continue to live without access to electricity. Some reports peg these numbers between 500 million and 2 billion people despite the…
Taptap Send gets $13.4M for a no-fee money transfer service aimed at price-conscious emerging market users
Remittances — specifically when people in developed countries send money to family or friends in emerging markets — continue to be a huge lever to help those in more challenging…
Prosus classifieds group OLX shuts down Frontier Car Group’s Berlin office, OLX Autos to focus on LatAm and Asia
Cazoo is picking up significant capital today by teaming up with a SPAC in the U.S. at a $7 billion valuation, but another big used-car play is consolidating operations. TechCrunch…
The traditional process of buying, insuring and financing cars across emerging markets can be challenging, and it defeats the purpose of building an all-around car shopping experience. Today, FlexClub, a…
Small and medium businesses have been some of the hardest hit in the COVID-19 pandemic. And all that has been as true in emerging markets as it has been for…
The coronavirus global health pandemic — and the new emphasis on social distancing to slow down the spread of COVID-19 — has put healthcare and tech services used to enable…
Instagram Lite, the two-year-old version of the Instagram app aimed at emerging markets, has quietly disappeared. The previously highly ranked app vanished from the Google Play charts on April 13…
Pinterest is the latest tech company to introduce a “Lite” version of its mobile application to meet the needs of users in emerging markets. With Pinterest Lite, launched on Monday,…
Pew: Mobile and social media users in emerging markets have more diverse social networks
The latest study from Pew Research Center takes a look at the impact mobile technology, including the use of smartphones and social media, is having on the diversity of people’s…
Google’s lightweight search app, Google Go, launches to Android users worldwide
Google Go, a lightweight version of Google’s search app, is today becoming available to all Android users worldwide. First launched in 2017 after months of beta testing, the app had been…
Today, the Android platform sees more app downloads than iOS, but Apple’s App Store continually dominates in terms of revenue. Now, Google is aiming to narrow the revenue gap by…
Amazon, Western Union debut PayCode to sell goods in emerging markets and let shoppers pay in cash
While Amazon has been methodical (read: a little slow) in launching local versions of its site for various global markets, it has now embarked on a secondary track to snag…
Featured Article
Why no one really quits Google or Facebook
Another week, another set of scandals at Facebook and Google. This past week, my colleagues reported that Facebook and Google had abused Apple enterprise developer certificates in order to distribute info-scraping research apps, at times from underage users in the case of Facebook. Apple responded by cutting off both companies…
A few days ago, Facebook quietly introduced a “Lite” version of its Facebook app for iOS devices, but only in a single market, Turkey. The app had been previously available…
Paystack, with ambitions to become the Stripe of Africa, raises $8M from Visa, Tencent… and Stripe itself
Africa has been one of the least-developed regions globally when it comes to technology and being on the less advanced side of the so-called digital divide. But with a huge…
Twitter announced today its Twitter Lite app is expanding to 21 more countries, which makes the data-saving app available to more than 45 countries in total. The app was introduced…
In November, Google introduced Datally, a data-saving app largely aimed at emerging markets where users often rely on prepaid SIM cards, and don’t have access to all-you-can-eat unlimited data plans.…
Google’s data-friendly app YouTube Go expands to over 130 countries, now supports higher quality videos
YouTube Go, a mobile version of YouTube built for emerging markets with features like offline viewing and nearby sharing, is today expanding to over 130 countries worldwide. This wider rollout…
On the heels of Lemonade raising $120 million from Softbank for its new “peer-to-peer” spin on insurance services, another company aimed at disrupting the insurance market is announcing a major…
Trocafone raises $15 million to expand its used electronics marketplace in emerging markets
Trocafone, the online marketplace for used electronics, has raised $15 million in new financing to expand its reach beyond Brazil and Argentina into other emerging markets. The company, which raised…
