Forum on the Mobile Ecosystem in Nepal: Perspectives from other communities December 12, 2011 Maja Andjelkovic infoDev / The World Bank Group

PARTNERSHIP INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY, and ENTERPRENERUSHIP INCLUSIVE GROWTH, JOB CREATION, POVERTY REDUCTION JOBS, CAPACITY, SKILLS, ACCESS TO FINANCE AND MARKETS, ENABLING POLICY AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT, TEST INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 2

Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy (CSBKE) Finland, Nokia, infoDev partnership Encourage innovation and competitiveness among SMEs in the information and communication technologies and agribusiness sectors 5 mLabs (incubators): Armenia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, Vietnam 7(+1) mHubs (social networks): Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, Vietnam 3

Kenya 40 million people 25 million mobile subscribers (62.5%) Largest group of users earns less than USD 40 per month (one-third are students) Second biggest income bracket is over USD 90 per month In 2009, Airtel Kenya (Bharti) led price war saw drop in prices from Sh8 per minute to Sh3 Most popular handsets: Nokia, LG, Samsung; very low smart phone penetration Developer focus: PHP, Java, (Symbian), mobile web Landscape changing (price, offerings, technology -> ecosystem) 4

Why Social Networking? Quickly innovating industry Disruptive change provides opportunities for small and young firms  more entrepreneurship Formal information sharing channels don’t yet exist Informal networking builds trust, social capital, access to knowledge, finance and resources 5

Examples of social networking meeting themes Writing secure apps (Kenya) Open data, mapping & Open Government (Tanzania) Battle of the Mobile Platforms (Tanzania, Georgia) Mobiles for Learning (Uganda) Innovative use of Mobiles in Marketing and Advertising State of Mobile Banking and Payments in Tanzania Silicon Valley to Dar-es-Salaam Mentorship 6

Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy AkiraChix: Kenya Mobile Social Networking Hub Kenyan based AkiraChix aims to develop a successful female workforce in technology in East Africa CSBKE supports Mobile Garage, a competition for mobile apps developers. Objective of competition: Create a social networking hub Encourage the creation of mobile applications Create a competition for ideas to encourage entrepreneurship Establish mentorship for developers 7

AkiraChix 8

9 IPO48 Hackathon

10 IPO48

Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy M-Farm Ltd: Women-led business pioneering social networking for farmers M-Farm is run by Jamila Abass and utilizes mobile technologies to provide agricultural information to farmers in rural Kenya M-Farm is one of 20 SMEs to receive Access to Markets and Finance award at 2011 infoDev Global Forum in Helsinki InfoDev will work closely with winning SMEs to grow their businesses 11 M-Farm founder Jamila Abass

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App Testing Facility 13

Incubators (2009 data, CTC Topica, Vietnam) 14 CountryIncubatorsCompanies Incubated China Korea Japan Singapore India Taiwan Australia80160 Thailand89412 Malaysia Uzbekistan32488 New Zealand10142 Hong Kong5200 Vietnam1147

High Growth Incubation (CRC Topica) 15 Intensive services for 3-4months Not necessarily within walls (eg. weekly meetings only) Goal: angel funding / venture capital Success sharing 3-7% royalties on gross sales 6-15% equity E.g.NZ, India, Practical Action Sri Lanka Incubators having their own seed funds E.g. NZ, India (Technology Development Board) or formal links to 3 rd party finance

16 Thanks!