Sramana Mitra: What is an example of a local problem that is non-copycat? We have a term for that. We use a more elegant term for that. We call it concept arbitrage.
I’ve been extensively involved in the Indian startup ecosystem. I always encourage concept arbitrage because it’s a very good way for entrepreneurs to learn how to be entrepreneurs and get things going.
>>>Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Francis Simisim was recorded in June 2019.
Francis Simisim is Partner at Original Pitch Venture Capital based in the Philippines. We had a very good discussion on how that ecosystem is developing.
Sramana Mitra: Tell us about yourself as well as Original Pitch Ventures.
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:
During this week’s roundtable, we had Doug Atkin, Managing Partner at Communitas Capital Partners, as our guest. Doug has extensive experience in FinTech and this conversation explored the nuances of that sector.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Sramana Mitra: How relevant do you think is Silicon Valley to the B2C side of the Mexican venture ecosystem? Not just Mexican – Latin America. If you’re doing B2C, how relevant is Silicon Valley for you?
Hernan Fernandez: I think it’s growing in terms of relevance. I really wished Silicon Valley took a little bit more time to understand Latin America. I have seen many entrepreneurs with heartbreaking emails, “We always go with the big market.”
>>>Sramana Mitra: How much of your portfolio has this follow-on funding?
Jose Deustua: All of them have raised funds.
Sramana Mitra: All of them have received funding from what source? What is the primary source?
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:
Sramana Mitra: A lot of these B2C trends are big in India as well. We cover India extensively. The Indian B2C market is more advanced than Latin America. A lot of these trends are very active trends in India as well.
The commonality across all this is that the consumer logistics part is very broken in most of the emerging markets. There’s a lot of logistics-oriented stuff that needs to get built. Venture is a perfect way to build that. A lot of FinTech doesn’t exist. The financial services sector is very immature.
>>>