Every spring, 2.5 million students are admitted to college in the U.S. By September, 14% who intend to enroll will fail to matriculate. Of the students who enroll, 48% fail to earn a degree within six years. Students who dropout disproportionately come from underserved communities, which frequently lack the supportive resources to help students navigate challenging financial, academic, and social situations. The societal impact of this phenomenon is staggering, costing the U.S. an estimated $4.5 billion in lost earnings and taxes annually. AdmitHub has designed an innovative solution to these issues - an AI virtual assistant. The primary benefits are: 1) students receive personalized support 24/7, 2) colleges enjoy greater insight into individual and collective student mindsets and more time to engage deeply with students who most need support, and 3) more data is available for universities to provide greater individual support.
\n\t\n","gpf":"true"},{"id":6,"url":"https://www.eflglobal.com","finalistCategory":"Financial Inclusion","catId":2,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/efl-finalist.jpg","name":"EFL","teamId":"EFL","summary":"EFL’s digital credit assessment helps lenders in emerging markets safely turn a \"No\" into a \"Yes\" by leveraging universally available psychometric and behavioral data.","videoId":"-Mo8fDKSpBU","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/efl-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThree billion people lack the credit history lenders require to make a loan. This creates a massive missed opportunity for lenders and widespread financial exclusion. With EFL’s digital credit assessment, lenders can quickly select the best people to say yes to, where other lenders are forced to say no. EFL has 10 years of experience applying psychometrics and behavioral science to loan repayment. That means we know how personality drives credit risk, across cultures and segments. And we apply this knowledge to effectively score anyone, anywhere, at any time. Over 35 lenders across 15 countries trust EFL to safely grow their lending portfolios. With more than $1.5 billion lent across hundreds of thousands of loans, EFL will empower lenders to grow without the risk.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":"true"},{"id":9,"url":"https://www.launchcode.org","finalistCategory":"Skills & Matching","catId":4,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/launchcode-finalist.jpg","name":"LaunchCode","teamId":"LaunchCode","summary":"LaunchCode expands the tech workforce by providing free coding education to disadvantaged jobseekers, then matching them to paid apprenticeships with companies via a digital platform.","videoId":"8rPjnV-Hac4","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/launchcode-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThe growing tech economy is creating a huge number of well-paying, upwardly mobile jobs – far more than colleges, universities, and for-profit bootcamps can fill – which offer immense financial and professional rewards for those equipped to participate. Moreover, coders increasingly have the power to make decisions that shape society’s development. However, most Americans lack access to the training that would allow them to enter tech careers, particularly those with the fewest resources and the most to gain from developing valuable new skills. LaunchCode is solving this disconnect by providing free, accelerated job training using a low-cost, scalable model to quickly replicate in-person coding classes across the country. Additionally, we place our graduates into paid apprenticeships with hundreds of companies to help them transition into full-time employment in tech despite lacking traditional credentials. We partner with employers to determine their needs and establish LaunchCode as a trusted source of talent.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":"true"},{"id":11,"url":"http://www.logistimo.com","finalistCategory":"Income Growth & Job Creation","catId":3,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/logistimo-finalist.jpg","name":"Logistimo","teamId":"Logistimo","summary":"Digital freight matching to last-mile local capacity drives significantly greater productivity in rural transport, and consequently enhances job growth, income and economic inclusion for all.","videoId":"A-VJAGo58AM","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/logistimo-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nEconomic inclusion of rural frontier communities, of 3Billion people, is handicapped by inefficiencies of last-mile logistics. Constrained by availability, reliability and affordability of transport, villages lack access to essential goods, rendering them underserved and disconnected from mainstream value chains. Local vehicle operators suffer information asymmetry, favoritism of entrenched relationships, and inability to appropriately aggregate demand. This status quo perpetuates limited opportunities and uncertain working hours for local transporters, all while failing to capture carbon-footprint reduction opportunities through smarter capacity utilization and scheduling. Our auction-based platform – using demand aggregation, load/route/schedule optimization, and fulfilment tracking – better connects demand to local capacity, alleviating most collection & distribution obstacles. Our vehicle-agnostic approach supports milk runs and line-hauls, seamlessly integrating trucks, bikes, boats and UAVs alike. During 18 months, the platform has performed 14k deliveries for 1000 customers, and >80 livelihoods have been created alongside a 300% income increase for many transporters.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":"true"},{"id":2,"url":"http://www.a-r-e-d.com","finalistCategory":"Technology Access","catId":1,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/ared-finalist.jpg","name":"African Renewable Energy Distributor Ltd","teamId":"ARED","summary":"ARED has developed a business in a box solar kiosk to empower people at the base of the pyramid using a franchise business model.","videoId":"Z2cw32uoVXg","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/ared-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nARED is a hard-tech as a service company (HAAS). We developed a business in a box solar kiosk, app and software platform to bring connectivity solutions using internet WIFI, intranet solution for offline users, phone charging solutions and with our app we offer additional services such as airtime, mobile money, prepaid electricity, tax payment. We use a micro franchise model to empower mostly women and people with disability. Our vision is to implement the best one stop shop center for our customers in rural and semi urban areas to disrupt the existing informal sector in Africa.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":3,"url":"https://aid.technology","finalistCategory":"Financial Inclusion","catId":2,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/aidtech-finalist.jpg","name":"AID:Tech","teamId":"AIDTechnology","summary":"AID:Tech offers a blockchain solution with Digital Identity at its core. We were the first EVER to deliver international aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon.","videoId":"W05-s0tQXkM","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/aidtech-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThere are currently 2.4 billion people in the world without identity; a prerequisite to access public and financial services. The UN Sustainable Development Goals, 16.9 states everybody on earth should have a legal identity by 2030. By enabling customised services such as asset creation, transfer on top of a Digital Identity infrastructure, AID:Tech’s award winning platform brings social and financial inclusion for the underserved & undocumented through digital ID on the blockchain. AID:Tech provides end-users with a Digital ID profile that offers scope for building extensive financial and social history. It offers a streamlined alternative to existing offerings that are outpaced by current demands - processes are siloed, data are fragmented, where they are often duplicated, misused and lost. These obstacles are not only costly, with $1.1 trillion is lost every year from developing countries due to illicit outflows but stops end-users from financial inclusion and access to social services.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":4,"url":"http://digitalcitizenfund.org","finalistCategory":"Technology Access","catId":1,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/dcf-finalist.jpg","name":"Digital Citizen Fund","teamId":"DigitalCitizenFund","summary":"The Digital Citizen Fund empowers young women in developing countries by allowing them to succeed in a global market through access to technology and education.","videoId":"Bqhuz6TMT7o","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/dcf-logo.jpg","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThe modern world’s shift to a knowledge-based global economy has made it a necessity to provide women with the essential tools to be active, skilled participants of the digital era—especially in societies where gender inequality and shaky economic development are prominent issues. Digital Citizen Fund centers have trained young Afghan women in critical technology and job skills that allow them a chance to compete in an ever-growing global economy connected by the Internet. To date, more than 10,000 young women have been trained in digital and financial literacy, equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a global marketplace, resulting in an improved economy and social environment for their families, communities, and country.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":5,"url":"http://www.dotlearn.org","finalistCategory":"Technology Access","catId":1,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/dotlearn-finalist.jpg","name":"Dot Learn","teamId":"DotLearn","summary":"Making video-based online learning work reliably and affordably in Africa through an ultra data-lite encoding technology.","videoId":"JCHw-09hqIQ","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/dotlearn-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nAfrica has an education crisis - high-quality learning is often unavailable and beyond the financial means of many young people. Hardware and internet connection issues prevent these young people from accessing new forms of learning such as online education. Dot Learn solves these issues by encoding educational videos in file sizes that are 100x lighter than MP4 or web videos. With our proprietary file format, five hours of learning can be accessed online at the cost of sending a single text message. We are making online education work on cheap smartphones in Africa and have served 7000 students in Ghana and Nigeria since launch last October.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":7,"url":"https://www.hogaru.com/en","finalistCategory":"Income Growth & Job Creation","catId":3,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/hogaru-finalist.jpg","name":"Hogaru","teamId":"Hogaru","summary":"Hogaru empowers women in the cleaning industry by creating stable employment opportunities. We leverage technology to select, train and manage a team of +500 cleaners.","videoId":"VA_lfuU9rgk","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/hogaru-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nHogaru provides solution to a glaring problem in Latin America: the lack of access to job stability and financial security that women in the cleaning industry face. There are 30 million cleaning workers in Latin America. 90% of them work informally, without a contract or social protection, while being paid wages far below the minimum standard. On the other hand, there are 6 million small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in Latin America with a need for a reliable and secure cleaning service. At Hogaru we provide SMBs with a safe, high quality cleaning service, while improving working conditions for cleaning professionals. We offer our workers long-term employment, and access to financial services that help bring them the stability they never enjoyed by working independently. Through the use of technology we are able to support them by training them on the job and connecting them to over 7,000 customers.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":8,"url":"https://ihub.co.ke","finalistCategory":"Skills & Matching","catId":4,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/ihub-finalist.jpg","name":"iHub","teamId":"iHub","summary":"iHub builds talent by deploying promising developers in project teams working on real problems for clients alongside highly skilled and experienced engineers.","videoId":"hHITuXbht8c","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/ihub-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nKenya has a talent challenge, for both employers and workers. In Kenya, where unemployment is a critical issue, we have lots of people with raw technical skills seeking opportunities to prove themselves and earn a living. The education system is unable to keep up with trends in technology and adequately equip students for the jobs of the future. On the employer side, we have a dearth of experienced technical talent to meet the demands of companies locally, and companies are not equipped to train on the job. Developers need exposure and experience, both in technical and soft skills. We think this comes while working with others towards a common goal. We provide upcoming developers with an opportunity to work in teams alongside more experienced engineers on real projects, acting as a trusted intermediary between companies with products to be developed or talent demands, and those developers with limited industry experience.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":10,"url":"www.leapskills.in","finalistCategory":"Skills & Matching","catId":4,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/leap-finalist.jpeg","name":"Leap Skills Academy","teamId":"Leap","summary":"Leap is an impact oriented skill-development organisation that mentors, trains and provides employment opportunities to students from low income households through technology and classroom training.","videoId":"UkbG-nueb1Y","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/leap-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nIn the age of life-long learning and to establish relevance in the digital economy, Leap faces challenges that manifest in the form of lack of awareness, absence of requisite capability and a dearth of opportunity. As an impact oriented skill development organisation, we have been focused on training motivated youth from small town India and have directly worked with close to 5000 students in Haryana, Himachal and UP in the last 4 years through mentoring, training and employment support. Our program combines the strengths of a classroom environment with the convenience, flexibility, and engagement of a mobile learning platform to match students to jobs and inculcate skills imperative to succeed in the digital economy.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":12,"url":"www.nehthit.com","finalistCategory":"Skills & Matching","catId":4,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/nehthit-finalist.jpg","name":"New Day","teamId":"NewDay","summary":"New Day is a smartphone-centric low- to mid-income employment platform for developing markets worldwide, enabling scalable and rewarding job-matching, skills-building, and employer transparency.","videoId":"nclJY25OhAU","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/nehthit-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThe “Digital Economy” takes different forms in different places. In Myanmar, Southeast Asia, where 75% of the population owns smartphones, the digital economy means that we can build inclusive, scalable digital services for the mass market, including the low-income population. However, digital employment services have not caught up to this newfound capability. Low-income job seekers still rely on anecdotal information from friends and family when looking for work. New Day is the developing world’s first smartphone-centric low-income employment platform. Our platform enables profound improvements in job-matching, skills-building, employer transparency, and professional growth. We are developing our product for the 55m person Myanmar market because of its uniquely high smartphone rate (for comparison, India has a smartphone rate of 23%) and booming economic growth (highest in all of Asia). Our commercially viable product will impact millions of people in Myanmar by offering efficient, transparent means to find a job.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":13,"url":"https://www.nomanini.com","finalistCategory":"Financial Inclusion","catId":2,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/nomanini-finalist.jpg","name":"Nomanini","teamId":"Nomanini","summary":"Nomanini enables informal merchants and agents to facilitate a range of mobile and banking transactions. We work with banks and leverage existing distribution channels.","videoId":"jby8P8Pf-Bk","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/nomanini-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nThere are 500 million unbanked people in Africa who interact with informal merchants for a wide range of services. This channel of high volume but small value transactions requires the unique solutions that Nomanini has built. These potential account holders live on $5 a day and are widely distributed geographically and so existing banking channels, such as branches, ATMs and even agency banking are too expensive to serve them. Nomanini enables financial inclusion via local informal retail merchants, who already serve as a daily touch point for over 80% of people in Africa. Nomanini enables merchants to facilitate a wide-range of basic transactions including mobile top-ups, utility payments, remittances, deposits, withdrawals, account opening and mobile money/card acceptance. Nomanini works with banks to enable existing third party merchant aggregators, such as mobile and FMCG distributors, to acquire and serve merchants efficiently.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":14,"url":"https://www.skillsmart.us","finalistCategory":"Income Growth & Job Creation","catId":3,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/skillsmart-finalist.jpg","name":"SkillSmart","teamId":"SkillSmart","summary":"SkillSmart values “lived” and “learned” skills, rather than a resume, to empower job seekers and match them to employment opportunities.","videoId":"SZxrrduOakQ","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/skillsmart-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nSkillSmart was borne from the frustrations expressed by job seekers and employers that emerged during the Great Recession. Co-founders Jason Green and Mike Knapp were engaging employers nationally and locally, big and small, and were shocked by continued reports that despite high unemployment employers struggled to find individuals “with the right skills.” Yet, those same employers were unable to articulate the skills they needed, over-relying on proxies like degrees or years of experience which disqualify large segments of the population that may have the skills to perform the job. If there isn’t good information about the skills required, it’s extremely hard to create a path to get there. And the consequences of not getting there have profound effects on our communities and our country. By driving from employer demand and connecting employers and job seekers at the skill level, SkillSmart levels the playing field and transforms the talent development process.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":15,"url":"http://tala.co","finalistCategory":"Financial Inclusion","catId":2,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/tala-finalist.jpg","name":"Tala","teamId":"Tala","summary":"Tala is a mobile technology and data science company that’s building financial identities for underserved people in emerging markets through alternative data and instant credit.","videoId":"zbCW2Grvt5U","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/tala-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nAn estimated 2 billion people around the world are financially underserved. They’re hard to serve in part because they don’t have a documented financial history, or credit score, that can help banks and other traditional institutions understand their capacity and needs. Tala has developed an Android application that builds financial identities and delivers instant credit to these populations in Kenya, Tanzania, and the Philippines. Any person with a smartphone in these markets can download Tala’s app via the Google Play store and apply for a short-term, unsecured loan. In lieu of traditional credit reports, Tala's proprietary underwriting models draw on more than 10,000 mobile data signals including network diversity, social connectedness, geographic patterns, and financial transactions to score borrowers in real time and develop a sense of their financial wherewithal. The whole process, from application to loan disbursement, takes less than five minutes.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""},{"id":16,"url":"https://www.tuteria.com","finalistCategory":"Income Growth & Job Creation","catId":3,"finalistThumb":"/img/finalists/tuteria-finalist.jpg","name":"Tuteria","teamId":"Tuteria","summary":"Tuteria provides a peer-to-peer online platform that connects people seeking to learn anything, with verified local teachers who can teach them to earn extra income.","videoId":"3bOLalD0ZvA","finalistContact":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n","finalistLogo":"/img/finalists/tuteria-logo.png","fullBio":"\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\nGlobally, conventional methods of education and learning are transitioning from centralized to distributed, and from standardized to personalized. Such trends have resulted in better learning outcomes, thus leading to huge demand for oneon-one learning. Yet in a country like Nigeria, with 180 million people - there has been no easy, reliable way to find and hire great teachers to learn subjects like Math, Physics, Art etc., or exams like SATs, GMAT, ACCA or even skills like Cooking, Music, Languages, Bead-making etc. Tuteria solves this problem using an online platform where learners can easy find, evaluate, book, pay for and track lessons with a verified local teacher in any subject, skill or exam. For instance, someone looking to learn Math or Violin can connect online with a Math or Violin teacher nearby, determine suitability, pay & schedule lessons, then meet in-person to learn. To date, we've transacted over $134,000 worth of lessons.
\n\n\t\n","gpf":""}]