GSMA | Mobile for Development

Meet our portfolio start-ups: SkyEye, Samoa

Samoa, like most other small Pacific Islands, has challenging logistical infrastructure due to the lack of a national addressing system. This makes it difficult for small businesses to market themselves and to use e-commerce to grow their business. SkyEye, in Samoa, develops ...

Bigger, bolder and better – The Africa Start-up Summit by Seedstars

Bigger, bolder and better – The Africa Start-up Summit by Seedstars The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team was invited to attend the annual Africa Seedstars Summit in Johannesburg on 4 and 5 December 2019. The event brought together various stakeholders including start-ups, ...

Effective sales strategies for tech start-ups in emerging markets

Scaling a start-up can certainly be challenging in emerging markets. It requires a thoughtfully developed sales process, intentionally recruited salespeople, and effective training and leadership to support them. Challenges with hitting sales targets are often repercussions ...

Technological innovation solves challenges and drives scale in Uganda

The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team, represented by Peter Ndichu, was in Kampala, Uganda in late October 2019. The aim of the trip was two-fold. Firstly, it was to conduct a market visit to our local portfolio start-up, Ensibuuko, and secondly to participate in Kampala ...

Meet our portfolio start-ups: GiftedMom, Cameroon

According to the UNFPA, about 800 women worldwide die every day from pregnancy-related causes, but most of these deaths could be prevented with access to antenatal care and information, vaccinations or timely health advice. Pregnant women and nursing mothers living in ...

Meet our portfolio start-ups: AgroCenta, Ghana

Smallholder farmers in Ghana, while often poor and illiterate, face two main problems: lack of access to structured markets, which leaves them at the mercy of predatory brokers or middlemen who buy at exploitative prices, and lack of access to finance, which means they may ...

Rapid urbanisation, innovators to the rescue? Takeaways from Afric’Up

The GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities team was excited to speak at the Afric’Up Tech and Start-Up summit on 24 and 25 September in Tunis, which focused on how innovative start-ups can address the challenges associated with rapid urbanisation across Africa. ...

Personal and technological connections coming together – Seedstars Apia

The third and final of three events, being held in the Pacific region by Seedstars, in partnership with the GSMA and supported by the Australian Government, began on 24 September in Apia, Samoa. As with the previous events, two days of start-up bootcamp was followed by a ...

Meet our portfolio start-ups: oDoc, Sri Lanka

According to the World Health Organization, there are fewer than 0.9 physicians per 1,000 people in Sri Lanka on average, making access to doctors and healthcare a serious issue. This ratio hides an even deeper disparity between urban and rural areas. Hospitals are often ...

Exploring new developments in the Sri Lankan tech ecosystem

It’s been almost two years since our last piece on the Sri Lankan tech ecosystem. Between 28 August –1 September 2019, Bilal Ali Qureshi from the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team, visited Sri Lanka to meet with key ecosystem builders and to support oDoc, one of the Ecosystem ...

Local solutions for local problems – Seedstars Suva

The second of three events, being held in the Pacific region by Seedstars, in partnership with the GSMA and supported by the Australian Government, began on 13 August in Suva, Fiji. As before, there were two days of a bootcamp for local start-ups, followed by a pitching ...

Mobile money adoption strategies for start-ups in emerging markets

With more than 866 million registered mobile money accounts globally and $1.3 billion processed daily, mobile money serves as a critical infrastructure for start-ups looking to increase digital payment adoption among their customers. Inspired by this, the GSMA Ecosystem ...

Exploring the incredible growth of the Cameroonian entrepreneurship ecosystem

During the last week of July, Peter Ndichu from the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team was in Cameroon to provide further support to GiftedMom, one of the Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund start-ups, and to reflect on the progress made since we first funded them back in ...

Meet our portfolio start-ups: Kea Medicals, Benin

The current status of the African health environment reveals a disconnect between hospitals and doctors regarding the medical history of the patients. Physicians are struggling to provide care, or to act promptly, due to an information deficit and in some cases they need to ...

Six months into Round 3: Updates from the Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund

Back in November 2018, the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator programme revealed its third Innovation Fund start-up cohort consisting of 11 start-ups from across Asia Pacific and Africa. These start-ups recently crossed the six-month mark with the Ecosystem Accelerator programme and ...

Takeaways from Mobile 360 – Africa 2019: Mobile innovation and inclusive partnerships are unlocking digital dividends

The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator and portfolio start-up teams attended and participated in the Mobile 360 – Africa event from 16 – 18 July in Kigali, Rwanda. This year’s event attracted mobile operators, government officials, regulators, start-ups, donors, NGOs and ...

Benin’s tech ecosystem: Driving inclusive innovation through partnerships

The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team, represented by Peter Ndichu and Max Cuvellier, was in Cotonou, Benin in mid-June 2019, firstly for a market visit to our local portfolio start-up, Kea Medicals, secondly to meet with stakeholders in the local entrepreneurship ecosystem ...

Mobile operator and start-up collaboration in emerging markets: A landscape of current and past initiatives

Today in emerging markets, more than anywhere else, there are opportunities for mobile operators and start-ups to collaborate. Mobile operators have reached the scale that start-ups lack, while start-ups have the local innovation that mobile operators need. Back in 2016, the ...

Showcasing Pacific innovation through start-up competition in Papua New Guinea – Seedstars Port Moresby

The first of three events, being held in the Pacific region by Seedstars, in partnership with the GSMA and supported by the Australian Government, began on 16 July in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. There were two days of a bootcamp for local start-ups, followed by a ...

Africa Tech 2.0: A growing ecosystem with convening power

Between 10 and 14 June, the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator team participated in four Africa start-up focused events held in three different countries: Tech in Ghana Conference (UK), Africa Tech Summit (UK), Africa NOW By Google and Partech (France) and MEST Summit (Kenya). These ...

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