The Investor Roundtable: Evaluating Emerging Venture Markets
Following the launch of our new 2021 Emerging Venture Markets Report, our CEO Philip Bahoshy hosted some prominent investors from the space for a roundtable discussion to deep-dive into 2020's startup funding landscape.
The webinar's panelists featured:
• Aatif Awan - Founder & Managing Partner, Indus Valley Capital
• Basil Moftah - General Partner, Global Ventures
• Christopher M. Schroeder - Co-Founder, Next Billion Ventures
• Courtney Powell - Chief Operating Officer, 500 Startups
Check out the full discussion, and watch the Webinar below:
Key insights shared:
● The best governments are leaning in heavily to help the ecosystem progress.
● Banks are starting to become more proactive due to the increased attention on Fintech.
● Fintech may overtake E-commerce in MENA this year.
● Family offices are beginning to dabble with larger cheques.
● This time next year, we may be discussing $2B funds raised in 2021.
● Significant, bigger rounds are taking place as the average ticket size has now crossed $2M.
● There hasn’t been a slowdown in the amount of capital being deployed by LPs into funds.
● There is a major difference in ticket sizes across geographies in MENA.
● Pakistan lost a decade or so due to geopolitical reasons, is now catching up, and starting to look like Egypt did in 2018 or 2019.
● Pakistan's diaspora is very well connected, with a lot of Pakistani’s bringing the knowledge they have learned from Silicon Valley into play.
● Cross-pollination can only happen once people realise that there are connective tissues across regions. The gravity of shared experiences is opening up a new generation.
● Pressure shouldn’t be placed on the importance of American/European VCs coming to the region as VCs from other regions who understand the market dynamics are stepping in.
● However, know-how is lacking and is still needed from international investors to help orchestrate M&A and exits in the region.
● There was a lack of exits this year as companies were not in a position to complete transactions and COVID-19 led to them taking time to re-evaluate their business.
● Silicon Valley investors are invested in the region and are paying attention/asking questions as equalisation is now happening.
Stay tuned for the 2021 predictions shared by the panelists!
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