SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to the Future Ventures podcast on Scaling with Clarity. Today I'm joined by Ahmed Jane, managing partner startup by a global accelerator and venture platform that is supporting hundreds of startups across AI, deep tech, and emerging technologies. Amit brings over two decades of experience across telecom, venture building, and global market expansion with leadership roles at companies like Vodafone and multiple successful ventures of his own. Today he works closely with founders to help them scale internationally, raise capital, and build companies that can compete on the global stage. This conversation is about what it really takes to go from an idea to scale today, not 10 years ago. Welcome, Amit.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Hi, hi Max. Thanks for having me today.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

It's an absolute pleasure. I've been looking forward to our conversation. We started this conversation a while back, and I'm looking forward to uh kind of better understand what it is that you're doing in the scale of space. You operate on a global basis. So why don't we just open it up with a bit of a founder story? I know you've worked with some amazing companies like Vodafone, I know you've built ventures, but tell us how did you come to do what you're doing currently?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, so so great. Um, I will roll back a little bit and talk talk about you know my uh the start of my journey, uh because what I what I do today has in some form you know some connection with what I was doing earlier. So uh having worked with companies like Vodafone, where I was um instrumental in uh rolling out their SME strategy, their global global business strategy, and so on and so forth. And I think I think that really helped me um develop uh my understanding uh of scaling large businesses and and scaling businesses to to a global uh to you know multiple global markets. So when we when uh so my my uh working career has uh had you know multiple pivots. Um and um I started as a corporate executive, then you know moved into entrepreneurship and then moved back into corporate life uh with Vodafone. That was my second stint with the telecom. Um and uh and eventually when we started Startup Bay in 2016, uh this was one of the frustrations that I actually see in a lot of founders, uh, where you know they've they would have a brilliant idea. Some of them they will have uh um, you know, uh they would have scaled their business in the domestic market that they operated. Uh, but then as far as globalization was concerned, there were multiple, they were facing you know multiple challenges. And uh that's what brought me into you know bringing in a global um market entry and access program uh into Startup Bay. Um Startup Bay, as you know, Startup Bay started as an accelerator, then you know swiftly moved into a venture studio where we would not just uh where we would not just you know accelerate the ideas or accelerate the early stage companies, but also co-create ventures alongside uh founders. Um but um the real challenge uh that we saw when these companies mature uh and grow to an ex to a particular stage uh where they want to navigate the global markets, and they would find it very challenging. Like what works in Southeast Asia doesn't necessarily work in Europe, what works in Europe doesn't necessarily work in the US. And that's that actually formed the premise of uh rolling out the global market uh entry and access program.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Fantastic. And um so in working with so many companies, kind of what did you find that works? Like what are the common mistakes that that companies fall into or the common traps, and how should they think about uh overcoming those?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Well, there are plenty. Um, you know, some of the actually let me start with, you know, the let me, you know, kind of start with uh the challenges that that exist in uh the you know uh the minute you start thinking about globalization or rolling out your business into you know a different market than the one you are operating in as a founder. Um so one is pretty well known to everyone, which is a regulatory challenge, right? So regulatory challenge is one of the big challenges that we have. Um then there is a cultural challenge. Uh every market is very different, and every market has uh you know a different ecosystem, different startup ecosystem, different culture set, and and that needs to be understood very well. Um, the third thing is the product, right? So the product has to be localized, and these are the these this is a third set of uh challenges uh that we have, and the final one, fourth, which is the operating structure. I would say that you know most founders would perceive global market entry as a uh uh as a challenge, which is on the first three, which is the regulatory product and the culture. Uh, but in my opinion, I think the biggest challenge has been the structure. Uh so uh unless the founders are able to understand uh the uh structure of market entry, um I think you know that becomes the single largest or single most uh uh issue as far as globalization is concerned.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Understood. Um what are you talking about global entry? What are the the differences that exist between different markets? How would you characterize them in terms of global market entry?

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Yeah, sure. So so let me take let me take a few examples. Uh and it also, you know, it has also been our journey of understanding the various uh uh markets. When we started the global market entry program, we initially focused only on Asia. So we are a Singapore-based uh Singapore headquartered accelerator. Um we started, you know, we started focusing on uh adjacent markets like Vietnam, uh like uh Philippines, uh, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia. And we um when we started navigating, we saw that um the general practice amongst founders was uh to uh to go to these markets, uh demonstrate, participate in you know various events, various uh various forums, and network with uh you know local accelerators and so and and various ecosystem enablers, and try to uh try to you know run a few pilots uh in these markets. So we found that there were a lot of ecosystem enablers who were doing this, uh including some of the government-backed you know ecosystem enablers who do this, uh, where you know they will help you uh go to the market via an immersion week or some or you know or or some some event uh uh as such. What we found it uh you know, what we we where we found the gaps in this is that that the founders did not get the um clear, did not get a very clear insight into the market in terms of um whether you know they would uh whether they should choose that particular market or they should not choose that particular market. Is it the right market for them at that stage of their you know of their uh startup uh journey? So we uh said that look, what we need to do is that we need to work with them and identify, or rather, you know, kind of go to the drawing board and first look at what markets are suitable for their uh product or their solution. Um, and once we do that, um then we start you know kind of developing a market entry strategy for them. Uh, of course, we do an immersion week towards the end of the first phase of our of our um uh program, uh, which is where they can make an informed decision uh with through through a market entry strategy and uh uh uh immersion week where we you know help them with certain pilots, help them with introductions to uh corporate customers, help them with uh introduction to investors to find out whether you know investors in that geography would be backing these uh startups. Um and that becomes a decision-making point for them. So the way we addressed the issue is is uh you know taking them to a decision point whether they want to, they whether they should really go in, get into that particular market. The second mistake, what many founders do is uh identify, I mean, and and I would to some extent, you know, I would discount the SaaS startups uh because they are global in nature from day one. Uh, but if you talk of deep tech, if you talk of you know any uh any other uh uh space like fintech, healthcare, uh, and uh so on and so forth, um, where uh uh you know the market entry strategy specifically decides whether you should go into that particular market at that point or you should not. So many other founders would straight away go and you know incorporate their company in a particular market or or the target market that they intend doing, uh, much before understanding whether that particular market is the right market at that point of time.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Interesting. Um is there strategic opportunities? Is founders thinking about the companies and kind of where to position? And obviously, uh there's numerous considerations that go into mark this one, uh, another one, maybe tax, uh, another one, maybe strategic uh synergies that could be had with uh with partners. Um what have you found to be the most uh business friendly climates and kind of like what's included in that decision tree that you're referring to in terms of like what it's immersion wake or um in terms of where should a founder where should a founder go? And does this vary based on the industry sector that you're focusing on? You talked about AI, you talked about deep tech, but like kind of how how should founders think about this?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah, so interesting point. Um the um the uh choice of market completely depends on many other factors, right? I mean, many other factors other than the ones that you mentioned, that you know, uh tax friendliness, the ecosystem maturity, um, the uh technology, technology access, uh investor access. So beyond beyond all of that, um there are a few other considerations. Like, for example, if you are a consumer tech market, consumer tech uh company, come consumer tech startups, I would say there are a couple of other elements that get added to this, right? So suddenly, you know, China or an India becomes a very interesting market, which is you know highly populated, highly uh high, you know, good potential of uh long-term growth. Um if you are uh AI or uh AI software or you know, pure AI engineering market, you also need to then add a layer of complexity, which is where do you get the best talent in, right? Now then US becomes an obvious choice. Um, and besides US, Europe and some parts of Southeast Asia also you kind of become a very obvious, obvious choice. Um, if you are a very pure deep tech in terms of you know science-based uh deep tech startup, then you need to also look at uh the talent uh where you will get the the right talent uh for your startup. And that becomes very critical for a deep tech because you know there is a there is uh a huge talent scarcity in deep tech, and it's a known fact. Um scarcity in most of the regions, but not in certain regions. Like, so for example, if you go to Europe, uh specifically if you look at the eastern or the central European region, uh, you have a pool of brilliant uh you know science talent that exists in this region. So I would say that besides the tax friendliness, regulatory, um uh regulatory and a few other factors, um, I think the talent access and the market access becomes uh you know, becomes a very important factor for consideration to where you should be launching your uh startup in.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

How do the industry that you guys are focusing on? What do you guys are finding the hardest is I mean you seem to be focusing on all the priority industry in the moment, AI and deep tech, but it's kind of like what's your sense of how the market is shaped at the moment? Um B2B SaaS versus Deep Tech, or B2B SaaS versus uh AI, kind of like what's hot and what's not?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, good question. So um so um B2B SaaS has matured, right? So that that that particular that particular sector is quite well matured, and then you know you have very clearly defined uh playbooks uh to launch that business globally. Um coming to AI and deep tech, see in AI the significant growth potential that we see is lies in um the uh specific application layer uh which is on the which is you know primarily driven by agentic AI, uh generative AI, agentic AI, and so on and so forth. Uh that is where the explosive growth is going to be for many, many startups. Because the uh the core layer in AI is now very saturated, right? And there is no point in if if I'm doing a startup, you know, building an LLM in uh the core AI AI layer, um, that will have very limited uh potential. But yes, agent tick, generative, and uh these are the application layer is where the uh growth opportunity is. Um the uh talking about deep tech, so so AI is very straightforward. AI focus on agent tech AI, generative AI solutions, uh focus on the application layer, and that's where the explosive growth is going to be. The uh deep tech is far more fragmented, right? So, I mean, in deep tech, you have um you know you you have uh solutions which are physics-based solutions, you have you know chemic chemistry-based solutions, you have a whole lot of solutions which are which are in the space of biotech. Now, every uh solution or every layer in deep tech has or sector in deep tech has its own complexities. Now, some are relatively straightforward because you know physics leads to engineering applications which has a straightforward uh you know industry adoption. Um and the and the cycles, the maturity cycles for a physics-led uh deep tech venture is probably going to be uh shorter. And when I say shorter, it's certainly not as short as the age and tki go to market uh, you know, but but relatively shorter. However, if we go into the deep tech space specifically taking biology or or or the you know uh biosciences, then the uh complexities are very, very different, right? Then there are not only you know research complexities which which uh lengthens the uh uh time to market, but also there are regulatory challenges, uh different set of regulatory challenges in that space. Uh so I would say that you know AI followed by followed by deep physics led deep tech, followed by biosciences led deep tech. Uh the complexities, you know, kind of keep on building in and and and growing.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Interesting. Um with regards to bounders and um kind of like with the advancement of AI, how has the formation and scale of process changed? I mean, right prior to this, the the advice was always like, you know, uh have at least another co-founder. One of them is technical and the other one is non-technical. Um uh on the deep tech side, you like it is the same. You you have to have somebody with very strong deep subject matter expertise, whether it's in physics or biosciences. Um how has AI changed the game?

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Okay, so AI has played a role in in speeding up many things in terms of uh in terms of deep tech uh research. Now that obviously doesn't take away the fact that you know if it's a deep tech venture, you need a founder which is a subject matter expert. It doesn't, you know, kind of doesn't take away that that part. Yeah. So uh the access to research information and the uh and and the entire process of research uh can definitely be is or rather is much faster today, uh with uh you know enabling the founders who come with a subject matter expert. So earlier, say about a few years ago, if uh a particular research used to take about 12 to 80 months, now today that research can be crunched into say three months. But the human expertise in deep tech, which is you know, kind of going into the basics of or uh or having having a uh having a deep understanding of the subject, whether it's you know biosciences or whether it's physics or whether it's you know kind of uh any material science, nanotechnology, and so on and so forth. It is necessary that uh the founder or the founding team has both uh the founders. One founder who is certainly and technical founder is a non-negotiable here, uh the technology founder, because the business side you can still, you know, kind of fill it with uh uh not AI, but fill it with the support which is available in external support which is available in the ecosystem. Uh technology founders are non-negotiable. So that's that's that's the crux of uh deep tech uh company.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Interesting. So if I was to parlay this, I mean, I get this on the company side, AI has been a Huge accelerant. Um has the has the has the government or the regulators caught up to this? So if a company, I mean, let's say it you have um uh life sciences or biotechnology and it can use AI to advance uh uh research. Um but I think that the traditional process still we're gonna do clinical studies. So we do this kind of have the regulators caught up to to where companies are, and if so, what do you see are the barriers and blockers currently standing in the way of uh companies?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yeah, so so regulators are, I would say, regulators in terms of adoption of AI, number one. Second is adoption of the research that is that is enabled by AI. Uh, they are still, you know, still some distance. Okay. Um, it will, I mean, eventually it will uh catch up, but then the regulators have to be regulators need to be open enough. Uh, I'll give you a few examples. There are um the in in Europe specifically, um, they are uh for for simple things like you know communication, they are saying that look, you can't use AI. Okay, so for research in Europe, it's going to take much longer for adoption. Now, as I said earlier, that look, uh, AI does not is a good enabler, but it does not replace the uh knowledge and the research cycle or the uh clinical trials in bio biosciences and so on and so forth. AI AI is still uh you know some distance uh to be able to replace that. Um maybe in future we will have clinical trials uh which are you know uh for simple uh you know simple outputs uh which are run on uh uh simulators or not really on on the actual or rather actual clinical trials. But um regulators, I would say regulators are are still, you know, are still a little distance uh from from where we would want uh them to be. Um the typic the challenges are one is of course the uh infrastructure and the understanding that what exactly is actually AI enabling in this entire uh life cycle or the maturity cycle of a deep tech venture. So today I would say that it's it's only the research which is getting accelerated with the use of AI. Nothing else is actually getting accelerated. But then the regulators need to uh understand and accept that yes, if I'm able to uh cut down my research uh using AI from say 18 months to three months, um, then it certainly should be an acceptable norm. Uh, and and then the regulator needs to accept that that particular research. The other challenge is at the university or the research lab level, right? Even there, uh, even there, the usage or adoption of AI for accelerating the research is pretty slow. So I think we are going we are going slow on both fronts. One is the research lab front uh on adoption of AI as well as the risk as well as the reg as well as the regulator. Once these two bodies uh adopt AI and focus on accelerating research. I mean, say, look, COVID was a fabulous example where a vaccine research, which used to take you know 10, 10, 15 years, uh suddenly, suddenly the need of the hour was to roll out the vaccine in one year, and uh the whole world did it.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Yeah, for sure. Um well from that kind of perspective with mRNA and the research and how we advance research and and studies. Um now you operate across uh across central Europe, I believe startup's uh headquarters is in the Czech Republic, but you're based out of Singapore as well. Uh you've you've done quite a bit of work in India. Now, as we're thinking about governments and regulators and what role the regulators or the government should play in this, how would you juxtapose, for example, Singapore versus India versus the Czech Republic or Europe in general? Um the approach that they've taken, or are they actually hindering progress?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Okay, so so look, uh regulations in Europe is uh a complex subject. Um it has it has you know all always been now, whether it is the data privacy laws in Europe or or the uh you know uh the biosciences regulations and so on and so forth. Um the and and worldover also, if you look at Europe, then ends up playing a very important role of becoming a regulator for the world, right? I mean, whatever such yes, whatever gets regulated in Europe is like a straight adoption in any other market, right? Because you know, they would have done the best job on it.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Maybe not in the US.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

No, yeah, maybe not in the US, but yeah, I mean Europe followed by US, that's that's the you know complexity. Asia, on the contrary, and India, um, and a few other regions like China, etc., they are much faster. Yeah, uh, they they are they are definitely much faster. They have they have talking about Singapore, Singapore has uh has you know very similar, very stringent uh data privacy laws, but then implementation was not it did not take them as many years as uh what your Europe did, right? Yeah, um so so I would say yes, there is um um Europe is a complex uh market to navigate. And Europe also then layers uh has has uh uh another layer. Uh one is uh the regulations which are EU-wide. Uh so first bridge to cross is EU regulations, and then you get into specific countries, right? With the complex market, then you get into specific countries who will have their own regulations, own laws. So there are two layers. Uh US doesn't have that. Um, I would say that the most progressive uh markets, I mean, we we uh uh we operate in uh uh Europe uh based out of the Czech Republic, we operate in Singapore and the Southeast Asia. I would say the most progressive, progressive ecosystem uh from a regulatory standpoint as well as the market standpoint uh is uh Southeast Asia. Uh they interesting the governments are far more supportive. Now, talking about DTEC, uh see, recently, so so recently uh in Singapore, um uh the government, or rather, last two years, uh Singapore government has been investing a lot of capital as well as as well as deploying a lot of resources to accelerate the deep tech ecosystem or the deep tech ventures. So uh in uh Singapore through their enterprise uh program, uh the number of deep tech ventures that they accelerated last year uh in 2025 was about close to 100 uh such new ventures. Um and uh they have allocated a 25 billion Singapore dollar uh capital for specifically you know for deep tech uh ventures.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

And it is this Ahmed in in the context of like them setting up an investment plan and coming in as an investor, yeah. Okay, so it's this Singapore's version of a sovereign wealth fund with a priority focus on deep tech, yes, with a priority focus on deep tech.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

And I would say that uh while Europe, uh the sovereign fund and the Europe uh now now with the EU Inc., which you know kind of makes it easier for uh the pan-Europe challenge that I spoke about earlier, uh, that first you you know kind of navigate the EU regulation and then can then get into country specific. Now, with EU Inc. coming in, I think that regulatory challenge, uh, or rather that navigation will probably become far more easier for a startup founder. Now that kind of a structure has always existed in Singapore. I would give the benefit of you know to Singapore because it's a it's a small little uh country, very concentrated. So they don't have to, you know, kind of look at these multiple complexities. Yeah. Um but what gets adapted in Singapore gets very quickly uh imbibed or adapted in other Southeast Asian countries. Uh so that's uh that's the uh you know that's that's the beauty of uh the Singapore region. Uh but I would say yes, I think EU Inc. uh is one of the best initiatives that the uh European Commission has uh taken to uh and and I'm sure it'll it'll you know lead to some you know positive results in times to come.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Makes sense, makes sense. Um so I guess it's a two-folded question. On one hand, I'm curious as to what's your perspective on the capital markets in the moment. Um is there capital to to be deployed into scale-ups? Um, and if so, in what area? And two, um, kind of like the second part of the question is like, what should a scale-up founder or founding team um or a company looking in the risk company, what should they do to best position themselves for um investment?

SPEAKER_00 32:42

See, uh when you you know talk to deep tech focused uh founders, they always say that look, you know, we have very limited number of very limited access to capital, uh, which I think was true a few years ago, but we have seen that change in the last couple of years. We've seen that change. More and more VCs are are now uh you know kind of coming up with uh patient capital where they have uh uh you know they they they uh know that this is going to be an investment for next 10 years, 15 years, and so on and so forth, right? The availability of capital uh on on deep tech, AI, and these sectors where we primarily focus is is abundant. Uh there is absolutely yeah, is abundant. There is absolutely no uh uh you know, I we don't see any challenges uh as long as the uh as long as the project that is coming on the table is uh promising. Now while working with a lot of deep tech founders, what we see is that that you know their their uh positioning is uh uh is is very technology focused, right? So they will when they go and meet an investor, they'll focus on technology at uh TRL to TRL 5, to TRL 8, to TRL 9. I'm ready to launch commercially. Uh this is my scale up plan, and and uh but everything is revolving around uh tech. Um the the uh the market side, which is the business uh scaling, is where most of the technology uh deep or rather deep tech founders um uh face. And I would say that look, you know, when when uh you start a SaaS company or a software company or you know, uh e-commerce or some such business or some such startup, which is a which is again a tech-enabled startup and very promising uh startup, but there the founders are typically coming in from a management graduation or or or a mix of technology and management, right? So they come with that DNA of both business as well as uh technology, whereas the deep tech founders um will always come only from a deep research institute, they don't come from anywhere else, and yeah, and for them to adopt to uh the you know uh business uh challenges becomes uh a little bit of uh a learning curve. Um, so capital is available in abundance. I think what investors are looking at today is the uh scalability of uh a deep tech venture, and they have the patient capital, right? They understand that you know this is not gonna this is not gonna give me 10x, 20x results in the next seven years, but it may take me 15 years or 20 years, right? But it may be uh it may be a 50x opportunity in 15 years, right? So uh investors are willing to back uh or rather are backing deep tech ventures very aggressively. Uh, I think that understanding has also come into the investment landscape that look, if we are going to continue our investments in the typical software and SaaS uh and enterprise software uh business, um, then um the market is saturated, it is going to be competitive. Where lies the future opportunity isn't AI, isn't TPEC. So they are willing to you know kind of back uh these these ventures very well. In terms of geography, uh I would say um that Europe, Singapore are uh definitely far more mature amongst the markets that the investment markets, amongst the markets that we work in. Uh, and I'm you know kind of discounting US, US capital is free flow, right? It's a US is still leading as far as the capital flow is concerned. But uh emerging markets like Africa, India, uh, Brazil, these markets are also now gearing up, and we see a lot of interest from the investor community to invest in AI, to invest in deep techs. So I think that's very encouraging for the sectors that we focus on.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Have you seen any kind of changes uh in terms of how investors operate or think about uh investments? Uh I mean the typical fund uh lifecycle is uh you know seven years plus minus two years, or plus minus two plus two uh in terms of it's kind of it's got a specific, it's got a specific lifecycle in terms of how long the fund exists and uh when a company is invested in vis-a-vis the the stage of the fund drives kind of like a lot of the a lot of the investor behavior. Um, but now with deep tech, for example, like the cycle is longer, the patience has to be more durable. Um so how is that shaping the investment market, like in terms of what the expectations are vis-a-vis uh what has been the the case for the last maybe 20, 30 years?

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Yeah, I think 20, 30 years is too long a time, but yeah, even if you look at you know, say five years back or 10 years back, uh there were hardly very few investors or very few in uh investors who were backing uh deep tech ventures. Uh that is changing. It is, I would say that it is still evolving. Now, um, as far as the uh patience is concerned, yes, of course, deep tech ventures, they they these funds are not operating in uh seven, seven years or seven plus one kind of uh you know uh model. Um they when they focus on deep tech, um they've they by design, uh these funds operate on a 10 years and above uh fund lifecycle, right? Yeah, uh, because seven years doesn't you know kind of give them. The second thing is that this see where where we still see a gap in in the deep tech uh funding cycle is the uh scale up funding.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

So really, I would have expected you would say that like you know, the incubation or the initiation, like ideation, like the early, early stages, but you you think that the gap exists at this okay, okay. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Yeah, so so I would say I would say both. Um the uh so so if you look at uh the deep tech life cycle, the deep tech life cycles are typically in uh will will be 10 years, 15 years, right? So capital has to be very patient for that long a time. Now, most venture capital firms or the most venture capital groups, they they come with an experience where the fund matures in seven years or plus one year, and and then you know you you move to next. Uh they handover from so so where where is the gap in scale up, right? So in seven years, a deep tech venture is typically at a stage where they would be commercially operational, but they are still not you know a global enterprise, or they are still not uh not not into the large uh uh business space. Yeah, they uh the scale up capital that is required, so so many venture capital uh firms are still operating or rather still operating that uh seven years plus plus one year uh model, and they are focusing on deep tech and they are investing in deep tech. So the early access or the early acceleration uh capital um is now getting very much uh you know, very very very much uh, or I would say the middle layer, not the not the early, early, but middle layer, which is the VC accelerated uh capital. They the other capital where the handover typically happens after seven years, that is where that is where the challenge is. So either you know, either the handover of uh these ventures goes into the a bigger play and more patient play. Uh, that's where we still see that that particular uh, you know, that particular investment uh mindset is changing, uh, but it it is still there is still a gap. The other gap is very early capital, right? Which is which is research. Now, to a large extent, why I don't see that as a problem, because to a large extent, the very early stage capital gets covered by either the universities through grants or through the enterprise 2030 plan, like how Singapore has, or through the um European uh fund. So deep deep tech fund. Um now these funds are are taking care of the early early stage uh funding requirements, right? Yes. Um the angel investing layer you know doesn't really exist here. It's either you depend completely on on grants or uh incubation uh or or the incubation capital. Uh there are quite a few incubators, like we also support a lot of uh uh very early stage uh uh ventures at a at an idea, not an idea stage, but at a preliminary research stage. Yeah. Um and uh so that this part is is kind of you know taken care of. The scale of capital or large scale up capital is where I still see that you know that that bridge is yet to be you know kind of firmed up.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

You know what's interesting, like um, I mean, for context, feature venture is a boutique capital advisory firm with focus on strategy growth and capital in terms of how we support our scale up. Founders. We built the capital intelligence platform. We initially built it for just ourselves to be able to help our founders, right? Like what is with their equity story, what is with uh their evaluation, or what is with their with with matching up the capital. Um I think I think it was like earlier this week, maybe it was on Wednesday and Thursday. I did a search in our um in our platform. How many found how many investment firms now have declared deep tech is their primary priority focus? It came with and then we sort of in terms of high, medium, low in terms of technical bench strength and things. 1228, I think, was the number of firms, investment firms that came back with. I'm like, this is a massive number. I mean, I I didn't do this research like a year ago to be able to compare and contrast, but that's a huge, huge number. And we have over 18,000 investment firms in the database. To me, that tells me that almost 10% of all investment firms, at least on our platform, are declaring deep tech is their primary priority focus. Primary. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Yeah. So you are right. See, look, the numbers, the number of venture capital firms, when you uh look up uh deep tech focused venture capital firms, they are going to be overwhelming, right? I mean, they are going to be going to be uh very high. Now, um, as I said, that look within deep tech, there are there are different uh uh stacks. If if there is uh AI, uh so many deep tech uh venture capital are only and only investing in AI, right? Yeah, and and they are not they are not uh you know going into the hard biology and the hard science, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

They are not looking at any anything which is hard science. Um so if you filter down hard science, then this number will dramatically drop. Yeah. So I I am I I would say that you know there is still um there is still a lot of gap in terms of scale-up capital for hard science, whereas AI, everyone sees that as an opportunity to uh you know to to to uh as an explosive growth opportunity, right? Everyone looks at looks at AI in that way. So AI is easier, but uh hard science is still some way to go.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Okay. I yeah, I would agree. Um it's kind of interesting. We are starting to do uh work with companies in Africa and Latin America and Latin America particularly decides me. I mean, Africa decides me from the from the market growth opportunity, right? Like it's the youngest continent. That's where all the growth in the next 20 to 50 years is gonna occur. Um but Latin America, it's like valuations are suppressed, opportunities are abundant, amazing founders. Um, their business environment is still very, very different. So uh it cannot quite easily take a US-based solution or something like that and replicate it, put it into Latin America. It has to be customized today. So as a result, there'll be an emergence of opportunities or companies or founders that are specific to just Latin Americas. And Latin America is a billion dollar uh sorry, a billion in population. So it's not a small market size. Um but it it's interesting just to compare and contrast kind of like what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think I think you're you're if uh you're focusing on the global south, I think that's where the explosive growth uh.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

The global south. I like it. I've never heard of this term, but that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

So so so Latin America, Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, this is the future.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Yeah, yeah. No, it's interesting. I was talking this week to uh an amazing founder out of Christchurch, New Zealand, and I'm super impressed. What are they doing, what the Kiwis are doing there? Like it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I think I think yeah, you you are uh if you if you're focusing on uh Latin America, Africa, uh Southeast Asia, India, and you know the the global south uh markets, that's where the real growth is.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah, fantastic. Um, Ahmed, I know we're coming to time. Like any other parking thoughts that you have? Uh like where should people follow you? Where should people learn more about the work that you do? And and if they want to engage with you, how should they go about engaging with you?

SPEAKER_00 48:58

Yeah, so one is of course LinkedIn. Um yeah, LinkedIn is uh the primary uh social media media uh connection platform that we there that we have for business, right? So so um any anybody who would uh want to get in touch with me, I I think LinkedIn is best. And I would love to you know kind of converse with more founders uh through uh either a LinkedIn connect. And then once it is once we are connected on LinkedIn, then you know it's easier to exchange emails, phone numbers, and talk and meet depending upon their location. I still I still uh believe a lot in you know meeting founders in person. Uh so I I try to I try to meet as many people as I can where in whichever geography I'm you know kind of working in at that point of time.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Uh what is just a bit of a digression. Uh what are your favorite um events where you meet amazing founders? Um kind of like where do you go if you want to be in the analog world and and meet with companies that you are interested in working with?

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Oh uh so events there are there are plenty, I would not say any particular favorite event. Okay. Uh but but yeah, like for example, um, there are there are you know the there was this entire week in Munich uh which was focused on defense tech. So I went and you know attended multiple multiple events uh there. And um uh similarly, Czech Republic has a full week during the month of October, which is which are which are multiple startup events. So it's a series of series of you know, it's it's called the Czech Startup Week by uh by Czech founders and uh Czech invest. Uh then you have uh um you know Singapore FinTech Festival, you have the uh you have uh the uh HODL if you are interested in blockchain events and kind of go into H O DL. So so yes, I do go to a lot of a lot of these events, but you know, beyond events, I think my go-to places uh to uh you know meet some amazing founders are are some of these local events which happen at incubation centers, uh the local incubation centers. So if you just search on Luma or uh uh Eventbrite, you find a lot of these local events which I think those are those are really amazing and you know a large event happens once in a quarter or once in once in a month, but these events happen every day. All the time, yeah, awesome. All the all the all the time. So I think those are those are some of the events, but yes, otherwise, you know, we are uh accessible via our website, uh which is startupbay.tech. And uh as I said, LinkedIn is an amazing start point. Uh followed by followed by some in-person conversations and and and that's we'd love to help with this.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Uh, we'd love to be able to we'll definitely drop links to uh to your LinkedIn profile where people can reach out and seek to connect as well as startup a dot tech so people can learn more about your company if they want to engage. Uh it's been an absolute pleasure having you on. Um, it's been a fascinating conversation. You're a person that brings a different global perspective because you operate across geographies. So and you operate in all of the, well, what I would say are the very much on vogue uh industries at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

No, my my pleasure. It was lovely, lovely talking to you, uh Max.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

Pleasure.