Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#31

Post by toufka » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 8:18 PM UTC

diafygi wrote: post #12

Electricity is generally seen as going the way of telecommunications where it will skip a wired grid and go straight to wireless (in this case, distributed solar). Here's three startups I know are trying to make distributed energy happen in developing world: 1. http://angazadesign.com 2. http://powerhive.com 3. http://sunfunder.com

And another which is encouraging pellet stoves as safer and cleaner than paraffin or energy-hungry charcoal: http://www.africancleanenergy.com/

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#32

Post by a_lubling » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 8:21 PM UTC

Vayu - http://vayu2.brace.io/

My friend is the founder, working in Ann Arbor with an amazing group of aeronautical and electrical engineers, medical researchers, and others. They're building hardened VTOL drones to take medical supplies, samples, tests, back and forth from hospitals to rural India. They have a great team and deep relationships with the NGO and health sectors in India.

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#33

Post by toufka » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 8:23 PM UTC

An open-source data collection system (census, health, economic, anything...) using apps on the ubiquitous non-smart phones: https://opendatakit.org/

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#34

Post by darrenkopp » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 8:32 PM UTC

http://devresults.com

We're working to help aid and development organizations gain better insight into how effective and where donor money is going, monitoring and evaluating organizational goals, and aggregating raw data into useful reports for both the organization and donors.

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#35

Post by covercash » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 8:41 PM UTC

I'd say YC darling http://watsi.org is a prime example of this! They're certainly one of my favorites in this space.

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#36

Post by austinwm » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 9:24 PM UTC

http://welldone.org - building a remote monitoring platform to improve the reliability and accountability of rural water infrastructure (for starters). Disclaimer: I'm the Executive Director of WellDone.

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#37

Post by kal00ma » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

Ona http://company.ona.io solves data collection problems for development organizations. Current clients are the WHO, UNDP, HNEC - Libya, World Bank, and UNICEF.

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#38

Post by rickyci » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 9:48 PM UTC

http://getmobilewise.com/ Mobile Wise is establishing a corps of Tech college graduates and young professionals who commit 6-12 months to empower citizens in developing countries on Digital Capability and we then provide employment opportunities to our fellows. We're currently running a pilot in Ivory Coast with the backing of Microsoft, promising so far!

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#39

Post by mhoad » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 9:59 PM UTC

AdamN wrote: post #4

OkHI is funded, has a great team and is rolling in Kenya: http://www.okhi.com/ Their mission is to give everybody in the world an address. Something that people in the West take for granted, but isn't available for most of the globe's citizens. This is also a major opportunity business-wise of course and if I could invest, I would.

As someone who spent the majority of this year living in Kenya I have to say that this was one of the weirdest things I had to adjust to. I was maybe living 10 minutes drive from the centre of Nairobi and no one could agree on what my actual address was. Directions were always given as references and as for receiving mail well good luck

Re: Ask HN: What are some startups working on big problems in the developing world?

#40

Post by mhoad » Thu, Dec 25, 2014, 10:08 PM UTC

I actually moved to Kenya to help a friend setup a business there this year and had the good fortune of becoming involved with a number of NGOs of various sizes. One of the smaller startup style ones I was working with was http://www.earthenable.org where they are directly trying to bring down the child mortality rate dramatically by finding a really cheap and affordable way to ensure that families in Rwanda no longer have to live on a dirt floor (super prone to a lot of horrible diseases). They have some of the most impressive people I've ever met working on that project I seriously couldn't recommend them enough.