Quona’s global team recently embarked on an inspiring visit to India, bringing together colleagues from the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya and the UAE. A venture capital investor focused on inclusive fintech, we are firm believers in the value of global perspectives, so we immersed ourselves in the Indian fintech ecosystem with the guidance of our local Bengaluru-based team. Over two weeks together in India, we engaged with numerous founders of our portfolio companies, heard impactful stories from their customers and exchanged insights with fintech thought leaders. Reflec ..read more

In the wake of growing global solar home systems uptake, Productive Use of Energy (PUE) appliances — i.e., energy-powered and income-generating devices — have received increased attention due to their multiple socio-economic benefits. They can not only increase revenue for low-income populations and mitigate climate change effects, but also improve global energy access. Although traditional solar appliances such as lanterns, fans or TVs can also be transformative for microenterprises, attracting more customers and increasing revenue, the impact of PUE appliances extends to the customer. The te ..read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gone mainstream in the past year, with revolutionary tools now available to almost everyone in every industry. The benefits speak for themselves — from improving efficiency and streamlining workflows, to using generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to strengthen industries and provide new impact. In healthcare, the potential for AI is huge. It provides opportunities to improve the cost and quality of care, and to reduce the impact of the physician shortage and lack of specialists —problems that are particularly acute in Africa and other emerging economi ..read more

Dotted across rural Uganda are countless former pay-as-you-go (PAYG) electricity shops, now overpainted with signs for other businesses that have moved in to take their place after non-dilutive grant funding dried up. They are a clear signal of the failure of Western-based market-led approaches to increase energy access in the last mile, both in Uganda and across the African continent. But why did this occur? And what does this say about philanthropy and government’s focus on funding private businesses to solve stubbornly low energy access rates? Back in 2017, I was perched atop a motorcycle h ..read more

There is probably no single sector with as much influence on sub-Saharan Africa’s future as agriculture. As of 2022, it employed more than half of the region’s labor force. However, the continent is still plagued by low yields, and is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. Moreover, the sector is constrained by highly fragmented value chains, a large agricultural finance gap and limited value addition (i.e., the processing of raw crops into higher value products), among other factors. Agriculture and food systems could be the engine of the continent’s inclusive economic growth ..read more

Stanford University recently released a new study that looked at various poverty measurement approaches in order to understand how measurement impacts poverty alleviation. It’s common knowledge that public, private, non-profit and international development organizations all need to measure poverty in order to inform their operations. But these researchers found that not only are the measurement tools used by these organizations vastly different, the way that they each define poverty, impacting who qualifies for aid, is also vastly different. The study found almost no agreement among the four m ..read more

There’s an unfortunate reality at the heart of the discussion on climate justice: Investments aimed at building the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities are falling woefully short — and the private sector is almost entirely absent, with just a 2% share of these investments. The UN’s Adaptation Gap Report finds that the amount of investment needed for developing countries to adapt to the changing and uncertain climate is 10-18 times greater than what is currently flowing, creating an estimated annual adaptation finance gap of US $194 to $366 billion. Innovative approaches are clearly ne ..read more

For many years, Adam Smith’s metaphor of the “Invisible Hand,” as expressed in “The Wealth Of Nations,” was the best illustration of the thinking behind free market ideology. This ideology holds that in a market free from government interference, unseen forces like the interplay between supply and demand will result in a natural flow of trade and fluctuation of prices that will fulfil society’s collective interests. This vision is based on the concept of individuals as purely rational beings, well-informed of their options and capable of making sound financial choices based on those options. O ..read more

Africa’s e-commerce landscape is in the midst of an ongoing revolution, and the opportunities it presents are nothing short of transformational. This revolution is driven by the growth in internet access across the continent, since borders have become less of an obstacle and African businesses can now sell and compete globally.  ANKA is playing a key role in this transformation, leveraging “Software as a Service” (SaaS) innovation to connect businesses with consumers, simplify payments and revolutionise logistics to support African e-commerce — not just on the continent, but worldwide. We ..read more

India’s economic landscape is undergoing a significant shift, with small businesses — especially women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — emerging as pivotal drivers of growth. This transition marks a departure from the dominance of large corporations, and it emphasizes the importance of inclusive economic development. According to an IFC report, the MSME sector contributes substantially to India’s GDP, employment and exports, underscoring its growing significance. This shift not only fosters overall economic progress, it also promotes gender equality and social inclusion. About ..read more