digital-inclusion
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Maggie Gu Is Betting That Agency Outlasts Every Skill
A diplomat's first journey to Africa became a twenty-year argument about who gets to shape the future. Now the Tomorrow Foundation founder is moving the conversation from access to agency.
HIVE COLAB and the business of getting past the prototype
A shared workspace in Kampala grew into a proving ground for Ugandan entrepreneurs. Its real work happens between a promising idea and a business that can pay its bills.
Before you open a business, BGE asks if it can pay your bills
In the Cher, BGE Berry Touraine helps people turn a skill into a livelihood. Its most revealing service may be helping them decide whether to launch at all.
H7’s €295 ticket into Lyon’s startup world
In a former boiler works, H7 bundles a workspace, startup coaching and introductions for €295 a month per desk, excluding tax. Behind that offer sits a business balancing founders, corporate partners and a very large room for events.
Tech4Dev’s free courses come with a bigger assignment: getting paid
The nonprofit behind Women Techsters pairs digital training with mentors, work experience and job matching. Its toughest lesson has been learning what keeps people in the classroom long enough to use it.
Yas Madagascar’s $100 Million Bet Came Before the New Name
Before Telma became Yas, it committed $100 million to a mobile network expansion and brought commercial 5G to Madagascar. The next test is getting that infrastructure to earn its place in everyday life.
Spark New Zealand Is Learning What to Let Go
The former Telecom has quit sports streaming and sold control of its data centres. Its next test is turning a narrower focus into better connections for New Zealanders.
The Quiet Roll-Up Wiring Brazil's Interior, One Bought-Out ISP at a Time
A decade of acquisitions turned a scattered handful of small-town providers into Brazil's second-largest ISP in Sao Paulo state. Here is how Alares built a fiber network out of everyone else's leftovers.
Lady Mariéme Jamme
A library gave Mariéme Jamme the vocabulary to rebuild her life. Now she is turning code, mentorship and an insistence on human dignity into a global education system for girls too often left outside the digital economy.
Millicom (Tigo)
Millicom, operating under its Tigo brand, is a Luxembourg-headquartered telecommunications and digital services group that connects more than 46 million customers across nine Latin American markets with mobile, fiber-cable broadband, pay TV, and Tigo Money mobile financial services. Listed on Nasdaq under the ticker TIGO, the company describes its purpose as building the digital highways that connect people, improve lives, and develop communities.
Michael Buckley
Michael Buckley is the Chairman and CEO of Be My Eyes, the world's largest digital volunteer organization connecting blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers via live video calls. A communications veteran who spent 12 years at Brunswick Group and three years as Facebook's VP of Global Business Communications, Buckley pivoted to mission-driven tech when he joined Be My Eyes in December 2022. Under his leadership, Be My Eyes launched Be My AI (powered by GPT-4), which TIME named one of the Best Inventions of 2023, and scaled the platform to over 1 million blind and low-vision users supported by 6.7 million volunteers worldwide. He is also co-founder and chairman of Ocean's Halo, a seaweed-based natural foods company, and an active angel investor.
Asif Jafri
Asif Jafri is the Founder and CEO of Kistpay, a Shariah-compliant smartphone and laptop financing platform bridging the digital divide across Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Thailand, Africa, and the UAE. With 27+ years of combined corporate and entrepreneurial experience spanning banking, telecoms, and consumer goods, he has built Kistpay into a globally recognized venture - winning the IsDB Pitch Competition 2024, earning GSMA Top 10 finalist status, and speaking alongside world leaders at the World Bank Global Digital Summit. His mission: connect the next billion people to the internet through affordable device financing, with a particular focus on women's economic empowerment.