Jake Kendall

Partner, DFS Lab

Jake is co-founder and partner at DFS Lab and early stage investor supporting companies who are creating the digital commerce infrastructure in Africa. He has been investing in African digital platforms since the launch of M-Pesa a decade ago both at the World Bank and then the Gates Foundation. At Gates, his team invested over $1B in mobile money and digital payments projects around the world including leading players like bKash in Bangladesh, and M-Pesa and Equity Bank in Africa. Jake has a BS in Physics from MIT and a PhD in Economics and his academic research work has focused on low income populations and their usage of digital services.

By Jake Kendall

Blog

Four Mobile Money Trends from the IMF Financial Access Survey

The expanded IMF Financial Access Survey now includes basic mobile money indicators. The data shed light on four trends that stand out.
Blog

The Emerging Landscape of Demand-side Data in Branchless Banking

The second post in a series on the emerging branchless banking data architecture focuses on the demand side of the data equation and attempts to answer questions such as: which clients are using which products for which purpose? What aspects of a service are they satisfied or dissatisfied with? And, perhaps most importantly, is the service having a positive impact on their general well-being?
Blog

The Emerging Global Data Architecture of Branchless Banking

This first post in this series lays out a conceptual map of the data landscape and takes a closer look at the supply-side data gathering efforts worldwide. It is important to note that while various initiatives have begun to look at the wider financial inclusion data architecture from the supply and demand-side, branchless banking and mobile money data is still missing from many datasets or is poorly represented.
Blog

The Global Findex: Filling A Major Gap in the Data Landscape

We believe both policy making and private sector decision making is much improved when it is rooted in rigorous research and analysis. Better evidence can improve outcomes in a number of ways:
Blog

Bank-led or Mobile-led Financial Inclusion?

Payments are an optimal gateway product for financially underserved households. Unlike credit, insurance, and savings, payments do not require trust by either party.