EU launches €410m venture capital fund for start-ups and SMEs
April 10th, 2018 – EU funding of € 410 million will be used to launch a new European venture capital initiative to help bridge the EU and the US, the European Commission announced. The Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) announced th...
Four million Africans use Ecobank mobile app
April 4th, 2018 – The upgraded version of Ecobank’s revolutionary mobile app has attracted 3 million new customers in just 6 months, taking the total number of users to 4 million. The app builds on the core functionality that saw the original vers...
Lazada teams up with higher education institutes to offer SMEs e-commerce skills
March 29th, 2018 – Lazada has announced it is working with higher education institutes and data analytics experts to jointly develop online and offline training courses that will help Southeast Asia’s entrepreneurs and SMEs capitalise on the e-com...
ADB Ramps Up Support for SMEs with Additional Supply Chain Financing
March 26th, 2018 – The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved $100 million in additional financing to extend and expand the scope of its Supply Chain Finance Program (SCFP), helping more small and medium-sized enterpris...
Telefónica to offer cloud-based VPNs for enterprises in Latin America and Europe
March 9th, 2018 – Telefónica is to build a network service platform and cloud-based virtual private network for enterprises. The company – working through its Telefónica Business Solutions unit – will start the service in Argentina and Chile, ...
UBA Partners French Devt Agency to Support SMEs in Africa
March 16th, 2018 – The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and the Agence Française de Development (AFD), France’s public and solidarity-based development bank have entered into an agreement to utilise the EURIZ and ARIZ schemes offered by AFD to fa...
Empowering SMEs in the Latin American market
March 18th, 2018 – Telefonica Business Solutions and Huawei have signed a global alliance for the development of new comms solutions for enterprises. The solution, specially aimed at SMEs, delivers a simple form of private network between the busine...
African SMEs to benefit from US$74mn guarantee facility
March 6th, 2018 – Small businesses operating in Africa’s infrastructure sector are set to benefit from a new US$74mn re-guarantee facility. The facility has been agreed between the African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (AGF...
ASEAN’s FinTech Reputation Rubs Off On SMBs
February 22th, 2018 – Southeast Asia is now front and center on the world’s FinTech stage, and it’s no accident. Regulatory efforts to promote FinTech innovation, a bustling climate for blockchain and interest from other markets eyeing the regio...
A cryptocurrency accessible outside the internet
February 22th, 2018 – Introducing mCoin, the first cryptocurrency accessible on any mobile. mCoin is a unique first of a kind inclusive cryptocurrency that makes it possible for the 3 billion people around the world who don’t have access to the In...
