Every Thursday, I curate the top Caribbean Tech News of the Week, give insight and opinion on some key developments about the people, businesses, trends and opportunities powering the rise of #DigitalCaribbean. Things are happening at the intersection of technology and money, travel, health and wellness, creative industries, sports, climate change, media, food and cannabis.
In this week’s report.
You may have notice that I skipped a report last week and instead I wrote a piece “ What the Caribbean Must Get Right About Innovation” If you haven’t already, have a read and leave a comment.
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN FINTECH ]
Sagicor Partners With Digicel To Roll Out Mobile Money App
Telecommunications company Digicel Group and partners are expected to announce the launch of a mobile money app this month that is usable internationally, more than a year after the product was first targeted for market entry.
The company is partnering with Sagicor Bank Jamaica and technology company MasterCard on what is expected to be a card and app that will allow subscribers to utilise the product in multiple countries via ATMs, and is reportedly the first of its kind in Jamaica to have that global reach.
Read More Here:
Jamaica Stock Exchange explores cryptocurrencies
The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has expressed an interest in allowing investors to trade cryptocurrencies on its platform.
The JSE advised that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Canada-based Blockstation to explore the possibilities of offering cryptocurrency trading to investors.
“The market will be notified of ongoing developments as the framework and platform to effect such trading is currently being examined,” said the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
Read More Here:
Caribbean central bank enlists Bitt to explore digital currency
The central bank of Caribbean NationsIslands Curaçao and Sint Maarten is teaming up with Overstock-owned blockchain firm Bitt to explore the creation of a digital currency.
Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), which is in charge of monetary policy for the two former Netherlands Antilles island territories, wants to look into the feasibility of creating a digital guilder.
Read More:
Then there is
- QUISK – mobile wallet by Advanced Integrated Service ( Jamaica)
- DROPHAT – Paypal Settlements by Sprint Financial ( Jamaica)
- ALEX – Digital Trading for farmers by RADA ( Jamaica)
THE BAHAMAS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY ANGEL INVESTMENT NETWORK (“BBTAIN”) INAUGURAL SIGNATURE EVENT AS STARTUP ECOSYSTEM AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ADVOCATE
The Bahamas Blockchain Technology Angel Investor Network (“BBTAIN”), is an exclusive, invitation-only, global angel investor membership and networking organisation founded to sponsor bi-monthly meetings not only to tackle the funding gap, but also increase investor access to companies (deal flow) both within Blockchain enabled technologies and in other areas such as: International Arbitrage, Computer Programming, Software Design & Writing Bioinformatics & Analytics, Nano Technology, Biomedical Industries, Data Storage or Warehousing, etc.
Read More Here:
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN STARTUPS ]
4 CARIBBEAN STARTUPS GO TO YC ONLINE STARTUP SCHOOL.
Four Caribbean Startups applied along with about 10,000 others across the world and got in to Y-Combinator Online Startup School.
So why do these Caribbean Startups choose to go to Y-Combinator startup school.
- Y-Combinator’s global pedigree in being one of the few successful and profitable startup accelerators that has produced winners such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Instacart and Reddit to name a few.
- It’s Online Startup School-where attendees
– have a network of over 2880 founders across 140 countries
– have direct access to advisors from Y Combinators
– Cut startup costs and get discounts from the best in the business (Stripe, Digital
Ocean, Amazon Web Services, and more).
– Learn how to tell your story to customers and investors.
3. It’s a free 10-week online course on how to start a startup and the 100 companies who complete the course will also receive USD$10K
Who are the Caribbean Startups?
1. Dwayne Samuels Co-founder of Samelogic ( 2nd startup) | Jamaica
Qualitative Mobile Video Surveys for agile ethnographic research, powered by Emotion AI
2. Jermaine Henry of FlowFacto ( 2nd startup) | Jamaica
FlowFacto is a cloud-based financing platform for SME exporters.
3. Andre Thomas Co-founder of Kliq ( 2nd startup) | Trinidad & Tobago
We help you plan your next group trip, corporate retreat or team-building activity.
4. Giselle Frederick Founder of Zingr – | Grenada
A digital wallet enabling peer-to-peer payments without high commission charges.
The easiest way to make and receive payments in the Caribbean.
Diaspora Group Invests $5 Million in CMU Technology Entrepreneurship Lab
The Jamaica Diaspora Investment Group has provided $5 million for the establishment of a technology entrepreneurship laboratory at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU).
The investment will help to get the lab operational and hire engineers to produce its first web-based platform, dubbed ‘Project Pakasa’, work on which is slated to begin next week and to be completed in three months.
Read More Here:
[ SUN, SEA + OPEN DATA + CARIBBEAN POTHOLES ]
Fixing Castries’ traffic problem, but what about Kingston!?
I’m writing this in-between flights on the way back from St Lucia where we just held our first open data meet-up, part of a six-month process to support the local IT community in building digital products to serve their citizens.
This work goes back to an open data bootcamp we held on the island in May in collaboration with the World Bank and Code for Africa to commemorate the launch of the Government’s Open Data Portal. At that meetup we shared examples of how open data was being used to help people in other parts of the world and got them to start thinking about problems and products they could create for St Lucians
Read The rest of the Blog Here:
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN TRAVEL TECH ]
Kingston hosts earn US$2.4m from Airbnb service in 2017
PRIME Minister Andrew Holness says there is scope for greater expansion of the Airbnb service in Jamaica, which earned hosts in Kingston US$2.4 million in 2017
Read More Here:
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN WOMEN IN BLOCKCHAIN ]
Women Led Technology Consultancy – BlockEm Ledger has launched.
So this emerging technology consulting startup BlockEM Ledger just launched chuck full with Caribbean women leading it. For transparency sake, I know 4 of them on the founding team and advisors.
They have as their mission “To foster relationships between Latin American and the Caribbean ICT communities and the Asia and MENA regions, in order to create an environment of mutual growth opportunities.”
Check them out:
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN MOBILE CULTURE ]
Cable & Wireless reports mobile user decline
REGIONAL telecommunications provider Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), which operates in T&T as Flow, last week reported a decline in its mobile subscribers, but increases in its fixed-line and broadband Revenue Generating Units (RGUs).
In operating highlights for its second quarter of 2018, issued on Thursday, CWC reported that its mobile subscribers declined by 89,000, which was “primarily driven by prepaid losses in Panama (51,000) and Jamaica (16,000) and mainly the result of competitive factors and a more targeted approach to promotional activity”.
Read More Here:
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN E-GOVERNMENT ]
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) published the results of its latest e-government survey, which covers all 193 United Nations member states. The exercise included the following 16 Caribbean countries:
Read about how they rank :
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN PODCASTS ]
This Weeks in Podcasts
DEMYSTIFYING THE ITU, WITH CLEVELAND THOMAS, THE CARIBBEAN AREA REP
The development of global telecoms and ICT policy and standards is the remit of several organisations, but the most important – the one that tends to have the greatest impact – is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). However, it is somewhat surprising that even among those who pride themselves on being versed in the tech field, many are not familiar with the ITU, nor the work it has done in the Caribbean region. In speaking with Cleveland Thomas, the ITU Area Representative for the Caribbean, he gives some insight into the ITU’s focus globally, plus the organisation’s efforts and priorities in the Caribbean region.
Listen to this podcast episode here :
[ SUN, SEA + CARIBBEAN TECH EVENTS]
We at SiliconCaribe are producing a Caribbean Women in Tech Trend Event end of October in Kingston Jamaica. Interested in speaking, sponsoring? Email me ingrid@siliconcaribe.com
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