Scaling Informal Markets Through Digitization

Digitization has transformed the world in almost every aspect in the last few decades. Internet access, mobile phones, social media, and other services have changed how people communicate and work. In Africa and other emerging markets, the vast majority of economic transactions are happening informally, that is, not through formal companies or services, but between one person to another.



Digitizing these transactions creates opportunities to use technology to make them more efficient – better matching of supply and demand (e-ride hailing services like Uber), eliminating inefficient intermediaries with mobile money giants such as MPESA in Kenya, predictive analytics (estimating seasonal demand from past data), e-wallets for the unbanked, among others. Africa is leapfrogging many developed markets in this regard.

Untapped Global's goal is to connect international investors with high growth frontier markets. We host The Nest investment network and have weekly discussions each Thursday on investing and entrepreneurship in frontier markets on Clubhouse, on zoom, and in-person in cities around the world.