This blog is the foreword from the latest edition of our regular publication, Start-ups and Mobile in Emerging Markets: Insights from the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator.
Since we first announced our Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation Fund in July 2016, we have received applications from over 1,650 start-ups and the team has conducted on-the-ground due diligence on nearly 90 of them. Based on this experience, we are more convinced than ever that start-ups in Asia Pacific and Africa are a driving force in turning social and economic challenges into opportunities.
It is also still clear that mobile technology is essential to reaching users and driving growth, while partnerships with mobile operators can truly unlock scale. The traction we are seeing from our first cohort of grantees (nine companies selected in April 2017) and early results from our second cohort (15 ventures announced in February 2018) are extremely encouraging.
As of July 2018, our portfolio start-ups have collectively raised an additional GBP 16.5 million in funding, which represents 3.3 times the amount committed to these ventures by the Innovation Fund. We are hopeful this number will keep growing in the coming months as at least five of them are engaged in fundraising rounds likely to exceed GBP 1 million. This is encouraging not only because these funds will help the ventures continue developing, but because they are also validation from the investment community that their business models have the potential to generate impact at scale.
When it comes to measuring this impact, we are happy to report that the 24 projects we have been financing have already had a positive impact for over one million citizens. The type of impact varies depending on the start-up, but ranges from improved access to financial services in areas previously underserved to better availability of sustainably sourced fruits and vegetables or out-of-classroom educational support.
More often than not, mobile operators are connected to these successes. Their involvement can take many forms, from co-branding and marketing (Jamii/Vodacom in Tanzania) to equity investments (Joonaak/Smart Axiata in Cambodia).
The accelerating pace at which mobile operators are launching new initiatives to support local innovation ecosystems (section two of this report) also speaks to their long-term commitment to supporting entrepreneurship. Finally, mobile operators are putting powerful tools in the hands of start-ups, starting with mobile money whose impact extends way beyond financial inclusion, in part thanks to the myriad of use cases start-ups develop (section three of this report and the case study on LipaMobile in Uganda).
We look forward to witnessing even more growth in this space, and to continue working with the rest of the ecosystem — tech hubs, investors, governments — to support these developments. Please do not hesitate to get in touch!
The Ecosystem Accelerator programme is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Australian Government, the GSMA and its members.