The Praekelt Foundation Incubator for Free Basics

To accelerate the impact of the Free Basics by Facebook platform, we partnered with Facebook to launch an incubator programme for social change organisations, empowering them to create and share information and services with the potential to reach over one billion people.

Two thirds of the world’s population have never been online. The relatively high cost of data, and lack of relevant localised content present substantial barriers. Free Basics by Facebook aims to address these challenges by providing people with access to basic websites for free – like news, job postings, health and education information, and communication tools like Facebook. Yet, without capacity and the relevant experience, social change organisations have a limited ability to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity.

Praekelt.org partnered with Facebook to co-found a programme that would select 100 organisations to join an unique incubator. Chosen by an independent panel of experts, each organisation accepted into the incubator receives training, support and free access to Praekelt.org’s Molo platform. Using the tools provided by Molo our partners are able to create, adapt and publish content to mobile-optimised sites that meet Facebook’s strict technical requirements for services submitted to the Free Basics platform.

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Praekelt.org uses open source technologies to deliver essential information and vital services. Originally founded as Praekelt Foundation in 2007, we work with governments, NGOs and social enterprises to provide vulnerable and marginalised communities with information, inspiration, education and access to financial services.