Laura Crow

Principal Product Manager
, M-Pesa Africa Ltd
Profile / Bio: 

Laura is part of M-Pesa Africa’s Product team responsible for designing and rolling out platforms which the 7 M-Pesa markets can commercialise. Her focus within the team is to develop the product strategy, set the commercial priorities, drive thought leadership and specify the features and performance metrics for M-Pesa’s offerings in credit, savings, wealth management, and financial education with a particular interest in ensuring these products cater for the rural segment, especially in agriculture. Laura has led the development of a new credit platform, now in beta in Tanzania and Mozambique which aims to provide better competition and more tailored offerings to customers underpinned via a responsible lending approach. Within her remit, Laura has collaborated on DigiFarm and Connected Farmer platforms (together with our local partners Safaricom and Mezzanine). DigiFarm service targets small holder farmers to help them access knowledge that can increase their productivity, access to savings and loans alongside access to discounted inputs and markets. We plan to expand this to 7 million smallholder farmers in Kenya. Laura has been at Vodafone for 13 years, with other roles dedicated to their Emerging Market footprint in Consumer Services, Commercial Development and External Affairs. Prior to joining Vodafone, Laura worked at a consultancy based in Singapore on business practices and human rights, and UK based think tank AccountAbility focused on corporate standards and holds a MSc in Development and BSc in International Relations from London School of Economics.