Unlocking economic growth through digital infrastructure

Kuutti Kilpeläinen Senior Investment Manager, Head of Digital Infrastructure and Solutions portfolio kuutti.kilpelainen@finnfund.fi

Emerging and frontier markets often face persistent challenges in the digital sector, with individuals and businesses lacking access to essential digital services. These challenges are particularly pronounced in rural and underserved areas, where the absence of affordable infrastructure hampers economic and social development.

While individual investments often target either improving digital infrastructure or introducing digital solutions, the fact is that without proper infrastructure, digital solutions won’t be able to do what they are supposed to – increase productivity and provide access to digital goods, products and services that support, among other things, gender equality and financial inclusion.

The telecoms, technology and digital-adjacent sectors in emerging and frontier markets are already experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by increasing mobile and fixed broadband adoption, demand for cloud services and advancements in communications technology. These sectors have become critical enablers of economic activity and innovation.

Lowering barriers

Digital tools and technologies are key drivers of economic growth, boosting productivity, fostering innovation and opening new markets. Digitalisation enhances access to information and resources, empowering entrepreneurs and small businesses, especially in developing countries. E-commerce platforms, mobile payments and digital supply chains have already revolutionised the business landscape, allowing greater participation in the global economy.

The combination of high internet adoption, a large potential user base with a low median age, and a lack of “traditional” commercial infrastructure often allow innovative digital solutions to thrive. A prominent example is the financial sector and fintech, where the impact has been particularly swift, with mobile telecommunications enabling new payment networks and significantly improving access to basic banking services at lower costs.

In 2022, for example, we invested in Wave, a mobile money provider operating in sub-Saharan Africa. The countries where Wave operates have some of the lowest bank account penetrations globally. Wave helps customers access affordable accounts and payments services – deposits and withdrawals are also free. This type of advancement has broader macroeconomic benefits, integrating more of the population into the formal economy, reducing transaction costs and potentially expanding the tax base.

Widening accessibility

Women especially benefit from mobile money solutions through increased financial participation and entrepreneurship. Digital technology presents an opportunity to narrow gender gaps in many ways by enhancing women’s access to information and services.

In 2020, for example, we invested in Kasha, an e-commerce platform which improves women’s access to healthcare products and information in East Africa. In 2020, the company’s revenue was approximately 1 million US dollars, but by 2023 revenue had risen to 50 million US dollars. At first, Kasha operated only in Rwanda and Kenya, but has since expanded to South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.

Enabling meaningful access to digital services at its core is about enhancing digital, financial and gender inclusion by investing in scalable high-impact technology solutions.

This blog post was initially published in Infrastructure Investor on 2 June 2025.