Rappi is one of the largest superapps in Latin America with over 15M users. The company started out as an on demand delivery service and today has become an everything store across Latin America’s population of 650M people. We’re joined by Rappi’s Product Lead, David Vanegas , who attributes Rappi’s success to their users’ creativity, and the company’s speed and obsession with user feedback. Tune into this episode to hear how Rappi acquired its first 250 downloads with donuts, and ways the compa...
Apr 22, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Grab is the largest superapp tech company in Southeast Asia with over 250M downloads in a region with 600+ million people. Grab first started out as a ride sharing company but quickly grew into food delivery, payments and so much more. In this episode, we speak to Grab’s Head of Product for Deliveries, Zhibo Sun . Zhibo shares insights into Grab’s product culture, growth strategies and how the company has pivoted during Covid.
Apr 22, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Like many emerging markets, saving money in Nigeria was expensive. Then came PiggyVest, a free savings and microinvestment product, that's now one of the fastest growing fintech startups out of Nigeria. PiggyVest built a strong following and grew to millions of people by word of mouth. Seriously, check their Twitter mentions. We spoke to Odunayo Eweniyi , the co-founder and COO of PiggyVest, about the company’s growth trajectory and product culture. In the first 20 mins we talk about Nigeria's c...
Feb 23, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Bykea is a ride sharing and delivery startup in Pakistan and the fastest growing startup in a country of 220 million people. Founded by serial entrepreneur Muneeb Maayr, Bykea is taking on the juggernauts Uber and Careem. The 5 year old startup is quickly growing due to its obsession with localizing the product to meet the needs of everyday Pakistanis and a “pounding the pavement” startup culture. In this episode we hear from Rafiq Malik , Bykea’s Chief Operating Officer whose passion for logist...
Feb 11, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Have you ever noticed all your Filipino friends seem to have family all over the world? That’s because so many of them have migrated all over the world in the last century. Hence when Filipinos return home to build a startup, they bring a diversity of ideas and experience from all over. In this episode, we explore the Filipino startup ecosystem with Diane Eustaquio , Executive Director at one of the earlier accelerators in the Philippines. She shares with us unique insights and growth hacks like...
Jan 28, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Since its early days, Malaysia has been a key part of the globalization trend. Malacca, a city in the Malay peninsula, was historically an important destination along the Silk Road trade route. This meant its had a history of a melting pot of cultures. Today it has enabled Malaysian entrepreneurs to excel at building startups serving multiple regions of the world. A shining example is Grab, a ride sharing startup and the most famous unicorn in Southeast Asia founded by Malaysian entrepreneur Ant...
Dec 31, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Over the last episodes, we’ve focused on people and companies in emerging markets building for their markets. There’s also been a wave of companies in Silicon Valley building for emerging markets. Those include Payjoy which focuses on selling smartphones via loans and Branch, Tala and Kiva who give microloans to everyday people. Today we have Mark Heynen , who co-founded Payjoy, helped Google and Facebook expand its products to emerging markets and has worked in emerging markets since 1999. We d...
Dec 31, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 15
On this episode, we venture into the Baltics and more specifically, Lithuania. Although the Baltic states are small, what they lack in size they make up in innovation. Even during the Soviet Union era, the Baltics served as the innovation hub. And today countries from this region serve as models for the rest of the world. For example, Estonia is the leader in govtech. Lithuania has become a leading sandbox for fintech companies given friendly regulations. In our discussion, we're lucky to be joi...
Dec 31, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this episode, we take you to Thailand, known globally as the ultimate vacation getaway. But did you know it’s also Southeast Asia’s second largest economy by GDP and has a population of 67 million people? These are some factors that prime it to be a key startup ecosystem in the region. We’re joined by Amarit Charoenphan who is probably one of the best known startup ecosystem leaders in Thailand. He cofounded TechSauce, Thailand’s leading technology conference, media and events company and has...
Dec 30, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 13
With 55 million people, Myanmar transitioned from 5% to 85% internet penetration in just 7 years. That’s more than 65% of the population that has access to electricity! This transition started 2 years after the country ended its militaristic rule in 2011 to become a democracy. The opening up of the country paired with the population’s latent demand to participate in the international economy meant people quickly adopted the internet and social media. Startups were also popping up as older indust...
Dec 21, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 12
With 88M people, Iran’s startup ecosystem is one of the best examples of “constraints breed innovation.” Politically, sanctions have limited Iran’s participation in the global economy including limiting the use of everyday products like the Apple and Google Play store. With limited foreign influence, the usual competition that local tech companies face from the Ubers, and Amazons of the world are non-existent, enabling home grown tech companies to thrive. It’s also forced Iran to build most tech...
Dec 20, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 11
With over 100 million people, Egypt makes up ¼ of the 400 million population in the Middle East. 60% of these people are under 30 years old. With a 70% internet penetration rate, highly skilled developers, and tons of local challenges that serve as opportunities, Egypt is one of the most robust startup ecosystems in the Middle East. High growth startups like SWVL solving commuter transportation, Instabug helping developers detect and fix bugs, and Wuzzuf helping people find jobs, means entrepren...
Dec 17, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 10
You haven't seen city density till you've been to Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka. It's one of the densest cities in the world in a country of 165M people. This density presents challenges like terrible traffic, sprawling slums and incomplete infrastructure. Bangladeshi startups have taken advantage of the density to innovate for those unique challenges while leveraging the density’s centralization of demand and supply to scale startups fast. Our guest, Minhaz Anwar , who built Bangladeshi’s st...
Dec 07, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 9
With 220 million people and 70% of the population under 30 years old, Pakistan is prime for technological innovation with its highly talented developers and tech hungry consumers. This ecosystem transitioned from being an outsourced R&D center for companies like Kayak years ago to building Daraz, the Amazon of Pakistan which sold to Alibaba in 2018. Since then, there’s been tons of talented founders here who are building businesses to tackle social problems in the country. We have Jehan Ara ...
Nov 06, 2020•56 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Indonesia is the world’s 4th most populated country with almost 280 million people. Its enormous size plus strong economy has enabled its exploding tech ecosystem with 6 unicorns in just 4 years. The largest being ride hailing superapp, Go-jek, valued at $10B . No surprise given Indonesians are obsessed with mobile tech and internet penetration stands at 73% . Indonesians are culturally very social and high on trust, driving network effects, and the collection of tons of data enabling better ser...
Oct 18, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 7
85% of the world’s population or 6 billion people live in emerging markets. Thus growth for Silicon Valley’s tech giants is often synonymous with building for emerging markets. Building products for the next billion requires a deep understanding of local cultures. And in recent years, the local tech companies’ innate understanding of its people has enabled them to outcompete the wealthier, Silicon Valley tech giants. The local versions of Uber such as Didi in China, Go-jek and Grab in Southeast ...
Oct 11, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 6
What comes to mind when you think of Ethiopia? Did you know they’re one of the fastest growing economies with a 10% average annual growth rate for the last 15 years? Or what about the fact that Ethiopia is the second most populated country in Africa with 115M+ people? Don’t worry if you didn’t know these facts because we have Markos and Florian joining us today from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They founded the first Ethiopian startup accelerator, Iceaddis, almost 10 years ago and they’re about to sch...
Aug 16, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 5
On this episode, we take you to Kenya in East Africa. With 54 million people it is smaller than Nigeria (200M) and Egypt (100M). However, according to Disrupt Africa, Kenya has received more venture capital investments than any country in Africa. It might have something to do with being the first place in Africa to get widespread mobile payments adoption. Today 75% of Kenyans use mobile money, which makes Kenya the country with the highest penetration of mobile money in the world. Today we have ...
Aug 12, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 4
On this episode, we take you to South Africa. South Africa is one of the richest countries in Africa but also the most unequal country in the world. Marcello Schermer joins us as the Head of Expansion at Yoco, the “Square” of Africa. We discuss how innovations in payments are unlocking entirely new markets while tackling inequality and enabling entrepreneurs to more easily start and scale businesses....
Aug 08, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3
On this episode of the Emerging Markets Tech Startups podcast , we take you to Zambia. Zambia is a country of 18 million people in Southern Africa. The country is famous for the world’s widest and largest waterfall, Victoria Falls. Simunza Muyangana joins us as the co-founder and Director of Bongohive , Zambia’s first technology and innovation hub which started 9 years ago! We discuss how Bongohive was founded with the advent and explosion of Android, the first Zambian startup to receive a $1 mi...
Aug 02, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Nigeria's population will explode to 400 million people by 2050. Today, Nigeria is the startup epicenter of Africa. Hear from our guest, Kola Aina who founded Ventures Platform to invest in the future of Africa. Kola talks about the most innovative companies from Nigeria, and how he sees the future of the country's startup ecosystem.
Jul 30, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 1
