Written by Charity Nyawira on 14 June 2021
Kenya has the 6th highest GDP out of the 46 countries in Sub Saharan Africa, at $101.05 billion. Unfortunately still, over 36% of Kenyans live below the poverty line, earning less than KES 5000 or roughly $50 a month. The majority of Kenya’s poor population suffers multidimensional poverty, experiencing different kinds of hardships at the same time. What’s ailing the country? From harmful cultural practices to social inequalities, inadequate medical coverage, unemployment, and harsh climatic conditions; let’s scrutinize the various factors that make Kenyans poor and what the future holds.
We spent a day with iProcure's management, employees, and customers to understand the company’s operations, future goals, and how their services are impacting the community.
While many African countries are birthing innovation after innovation; Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa received 82% of the total fintech investment in Africa 2020. We analyze some of the leading types of innovations in these and other African countries.
Lendahand has reached the milestone of 100 million euros invested in SMEs in emerging markets. Our CEO Koen The tells us how it all started and how Lendahand managed to get here.
Lendahand's newest partner BWISE offers mobile payment solutions to small and medium entrepreneurs in Latin America. Their services allow MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) to process more types of transaction payments from clients and to sell their customers accessible prepaid products.
Many would bet their gold that emerging markets are not the likely home for innovations and inventions like drones, fintech, covid contact tracing apps, and so much more. And yet, there are countless homegrown ideas from developing countries that impact the lives of thousands. When shining a light on their capabilities, we witness an incredible display of possibility.
About five years ago, 7-figure investments for African startups were rare. Fast forward to 2019, African startup funding crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time. The ’billion dollar’ trend continued in 2020 as more and more investors are gaining confidence in early-stage African startups.
172,545. That's how many women entrepreneurs Lendahand's new portfolio company Kori has supported to grow so far. Cooperative Kori, based in Peru, focuses on the financial growth of people who have their own businesses and offers group loans for women entrepreneurs.
Lendahand is excited to announce our newest co-financing partner: AlphaMundi. As a global impact investment company, AlphaMundi is dedicated to reducing poverty and preserving the environment, particularly in developing countries.
In this new series Lendahand-investor Marlous van Oorschot tells us about her experience as with Gender Lens Investing. Read her first article here.
With #ChooseToChallenge, International Women’s Day is a call to action for accelerating gender parity- something we at Lendahand strive to accomplish as well. We dive into the gender balance at Lendahand and put some remarkable women behind our portfolio companies in the spotlight.
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