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 Anthony Tan. On this episode we’re joined by Daniel Lim, who's been a pivotal part of Malaysia’s startu ..read more

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 discuss key trends in emerging markets including: the digitization of everyday transactions, the “mobi ..read more

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 joined by Danielius Stasiulius, founder of a edtech startup in Lithuania called BitDegree. Daniel ..read more

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 been pivotal in building Thailand’s startup ecosystem. Join us to learn about angel and venture inv ..read more

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 million investment and why Prince Harry from the Royal family comes to visit. --- Support this podcast ..read more

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.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dianna-yau/support ..read more

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 company captures user feedback via Whatsapp to continuously innovate. --- Support this podcast: https://an ..read more

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. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dianna-yau/support ..read more

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 challenges and local culture that gave rise to PiggyVest. The last 20 mins is all about growth strate ..read more

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 logistics and transportation enables him to run a tight ship while ensuring Bykea continues to experiment a ..read more