After Zimbabwe dropped its native currency and adopted American dollars in 2009, the country soon faced an unexpected technological advancement – a cashless economy. This cashless economy has been a surge for the technology space in southern Africa.
Debit card machines are thriving in Zimbabwe’s cities, specifically in churches, supermarkets, betting parlors, nightclubs, parking areas. Most businesses are happy to accept paper cash but are unable to dispense it.
Nearly 70 percent of Zimbabweans don’t have bank accounts, those without use mobile money through their cellphones, where they are allowed to turn digital cash into legal tender.
Learn more about Zimbabwe’s economy and its effect on emerging tech in neighboring countries, and more in this edition of Founders Flash.
- A cashless economy in Zimbabwe? (New York Times)
- What kind of cloud data warehouse do you want? (Forbes)
- 5 ways the second machine age will morph the future of big data (Entrepreneur)
- The nagging legal question about FanDuel, DraftKings (Fortune)
- What's behind this health care giant's VC play? (Upstart Business Journal)