The month of May has been a busy one, check out this month's top headlines.
WeFarm keeps farmers connected and provides increased support through COVID-19. Over the past few weeks, farmers have understandably been concerned about how coronavirus will affect business. But WeFarm has been scaling up operations to make sure farmers don't lose their livelihoods. "Our team has been moving fast to identify opportunities, such as last-mile delivery to ensure that even with the barriers that we might be facing right now, we adapt to that and continue to fulfil the needs of our farmers,” Martha Haile, VP of Africa for WeFarm, told the Evening Standard.
what3words helps rescuers pinpoint the location of an injured walker in Australia. In an Australian first, Ambulance Tasmania used what3words to locate a patient who had injured themselves on a windy cliff-face on Flinders Island. The hiker managed to call emergency services, but couldn't describe where they were. Responders were able to guide the hiker to use what3words, enabling them to find their exact location. This isn't the first time what3words has saved lives, in fact, it's already used regularly by many first responders in the UK, South Africa, the Philippines and more.
Zipline and Ignitia selected for CLUED-iN feature. CLUED-iN, on InclusiveBusiness.net, is a platform providing knowledge and insights for those working to deliver sustainable business models to benefit the world’s poorest. These portfolio companies were featured due to their ingenuity and ability to save lives and improve incomes for people living in several African nations.
Iris.ai featured in Xprize's "how AI is helping humanity respond to COVID-19". Written by the leadership behind IBM Watson's AI XPRIZE, the article highlights several solutions using AI, to help humans win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. "Just recently, they made their tools freely available to COVID-19 researchers, so that they can quickly review medical research literature associated with the virus, thereby accelerating lifesaving scientific breakthroughs," writes Neama Dadkhahnikoo, Technical Lead of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, and Devin Krotman, Director of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE.
Ananas Anam, behind green textile Piñatex, is now a Certified B Corp. Certified B Corporations®, also known as B Corps™, are for-profit companies using the power of business "to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy". They meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. This month, Ananas Anam joined 3,300+ B Corps in 150 industries across 71 countries.
Read more about the Design to Improve Life Fund and all our portfolio companies.
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Image: Aaron Fernando
