Economics Professor Ajay Shenoy received a 2023 Sprout Grant to help improve outcomes for predominantly woman-owned small retail businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. This past academic year, he piloted an algorithm for a mobile phone app that will pool data from small businesses to better predict product demand, reducing waste and increasing profitability. These improvements could better support the livelihoods of business owners and local economies.The research team’s initial results helped them land more than $128,000 in additional external funding to continue their work.