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 who founded the Nest I/O in Karachi, the leading startup accelerator and community in Pakistan with over 200+ startups accelerated. Jehan gives us the scoop on the best startups from Pakistan, the challenges in the ecosystem and how they’re building momentum, fast.

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 services . Around 50% of the people are under 30 years old with 70% of millennials saying they want to be startup founders. Every year new unicorns spawn bringing along it a healthy venture capital scene with pre-series A rounds starting at $5-10M. Even Jay-Z invested in Indonesian startups! Could Indonesia be the next China in terms of startup tech growth? We’re joined by Nicole Yap, the managing director of Digitaraya, Indonesia’s leading tech accelerator, to help us explore one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in the world.

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 Asia, and Careem in the Middle East, have got Uber beat. We’re seeing similar trends in e-commerce, fintech, gig marketplaces, classifieds and other industries. On this week’s episode of our Emerging Markets Startups podcast, we’re joined by Chris Schroeder, venture investor and co-founder of the Next Billion Ventures, board member of several startups, and author of Startup Rising, The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East. We talk about how localizing products is the ultimate competitive advantage and examples of emerging market startups that are already leapfrogging Silicon Valley.

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 school us on the exploding growth coming from this country.

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 Mutembei Kariuki, CEO and founder of an AI startup called Fastagger. Mutembei talks goes in depth on the trends in AI across Africa and how it’s used to tackle unemployment.

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.

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.

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.