nd rural areas.
While U.S.-based startups are working on infratech for the developing world, Nairobi’s startup scene has had recent success with homegrown solutions. BRCK, a connectivity device built to work with spotty electricity in Africa’s harsh environment, and Kili, a cloud infrastructure startup that is working to improve cloud hosting in Africa, were developed within Kenya and are gaining traction across East Africa. By building in the developing world, these startups are acutely aware of the needs and restrictions of their users, which forces them to stay simple, direct and affordable.
While these startups are building for the developing world, the technology they create can be brought to the developed world as everyone could use a better designed, cheaper solution to getting online or placing a phone call. Captricity, a startup spun out from TIER, initially focused on helping doctors in Uganda accurately and quickly collect data on patient health.
After having success with AIDS clinics in East Africa and continuing to improve its core technology, Captricity’s founders recognized that, while they had been focused on improving paper processes and data collection in the developing world, their tools also solved problems in the U.S. Now, New York Life, Humana and the FDA use Captricity’s data-capture platform to analyze paper documents, the kind of transition these infratech companies could eventually make.
Almost every person should have reliable and affordable access to phone and Internet networks within the next decade.
While startups like Endaga, Range, EveryLayer, BRCK and Tarana are focused on the link between people and Internet and phone connections at the local level, Facebook, Google, SpaceX and OneWeb are pursuing projects to redefine how Internet service providers operate. These corporations are developing alternatives to traditional ground-based networks that struggle with hilly terrain, low-density populations and limited infrastructure. Facebook’s Aquila program of solar-powered drones should begin testing later this year, while Google’s Loon balloons, which float in the stratosphere, are currently being tested in a variety of locations.
Looking even higher, SpaceX and OneWeb are building a constellation of satellites that will continually orbit Earth with the goal of being able to provide Internet access anywhere at any time. OneWeb has raised $500 million from a group of companies, including Qualcomm, and is targeting a 2018 launch date for the first of its satellites.
As the infratech startups work from the bottom up on access to Internet and phone networks, and major corporations work from the top down to provide Internet access everywhere on Earth, almost every person should have reliable and affordable access to phone and Internet networks within the next decade. Developing the tech infrastructure to accomplish this goal will be extraordinarily challenging, but tremendous advances have already been made.
As today’s infratech companies succeed in building alternatives to the infrastructure we take for granted, they will have a potential market in the billions across the developing world, and will fundamentally alter how people around the world live.
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