This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. The rise of food and grocery delivery startups is a global trend that shows no sign of slowing down. Delivery startups are being founded and growing rapidly in the most unexpected places. One great example of this trend is food delivery startup Jahez. Jahez is a food Expand
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Interswitch: An African Fintech Powerhouse
This article was originally published on my newsletter Emergent. Fintech is one of the top two most active areas for tech entrepreneurship and venture capital financing in emerging markets. The financial systems built in the West over centuries – both consumer-facing and business banking – are far more robust in comparison to the limited access Expand
Flutterwave: Championing Digital Payments in Africa
This article was originally published on my newsletter Emergent. The digitization of payments is a lucrative opportunity that entrepreneurs across the world are chasing after. In Africa, where a large percentage of the population remains unbanked and the penetration of credit and debit cards low, this opportunity is particularly large. The soaring number of smartphone Expand
GoTo and Southeast Asia’s Super App Wars

This piece was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. The merger of GoJek and Tokopedia will create one of the largest technology companies in the world: The creation of GoTo will now kick off a showdown between Super Apps in Southeast Asia between GoTo, Grab and Sea in a battle for supremacy. With Grab’s recently announced Expand
Getir: From Turkey to the World?
Is Getir the first global Turkish startup? This piece was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. My name is Mikal – I’m an early-stage tech investor and I was born in Asia, grew up in Africa and now live in the US. Every week I break down a fast-growing business in an emerging market to understand Expand
Grab: The Most Valuable Startup in Southeast Asia
This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. Southeast Asia is the most dynamic internet economy in the world outside of the United States and China. The number of internet users in the region has soared from 260 million in 2015 to 400 million by 2020. The region as a whole has a population of Expand
The Green Revolution
2020 was a tipping point for clean energy globally. Amid the chaotic news cycle of the pandemic, this fact was mostly lost. Decades of research, investment and advancement culminated in 2020 to decisively change the economics of clean energy and start what will be a decades-long effort to redesign and rebuild our energy infrastructure globally. Expand
Surveillance in Public Spaces
The space for privacy has been rapidly shrinking in the last decade worldwide. In 2013 American whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked information on a massive global surveillance campaign being conducted by the US government in partnership with the Australian, British and Canadian governments. Facebook and Google are capturing and storing ever more detailed information about users Expand
Cellular Agriculture and Global Meat Production
Meat has for thousands of years been an aspirational and rare meal for most of the world’s population. But as the world has rapidly modernized and industrial agriculture has taken off in the last 100 years meat consumption has soared globally. Industrial meat production however is a highly carbon-intensive activity. As the world begins to Expand
The Antitrust Hammer
The technology industry has seen almost two decades of explosive growth after many observers predicted the industry had died after the Dotcom Bubble of 2001. In the last 20 years a generation of superstar startups have scaled and revolutionised how we communicate, transact, find information and what devices we own and use. A lot of Expand