Emerging Economies | July 21, 2017 |
Dear Subscribers,
Hope last week's digest was a great learning experience for you too. In this weekly digest, I am providing you investment trends in Agritech innovation, emerging technology trends in 2017, entrepreneurship across Silk Route, startup culture in oil based middle easter Gulf economies, how Brazilian tech internet start-ups ecosystem is experiencing amid the political upheaval there.
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Anurag | What Techstars Gave Me  Sometimes the most brilliant things start with a simple idea. To nurture it, you need a network, people, culture and experienced entrepreneurs that empower you. It's about becoming a part of something that is bigger than yourself, finding validation in your company and your team, and giving back. Over the past 10 years, Techstars has helped entrepreneurs succeed, working with founders around the world starting great companies. Listen to these founder stories about how they started and their Techstars experience. go.techstars.com/founderstories
| | By Azadeh Tajdar, Leila Piran, Farrukh Lalani - Bourse & Bazaar (Technology, Silk Route) Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan host some of most interesting and promising start-ups in Southwest Asia. Entrepreneurship and innovation are neither new nor foreign imports to the region. Cities and towns in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan make up parts of the Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes that once connected the East and West from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, trade, innovation, and cultural exchanges have flourished along these trade routes. Today, however, the entrepreneurs of this region operate in isolation from one another. | | By Vinod Sreeharshamay - New York Times (Investments, VC tech fund, internet startups, political upheaval) The Latin American venture capital firm Kaszek Ventures has raised a $200 million fund, its largest, a major vote of confidence for internet start-ups in Brazil amid the political upheaval there. The new fund, which the firm is expected to announce this week, is about 48 percent larger than the firm's second and most recent fund, which was $135 million and was marketed in late 2013. Kaszek is based in Buenos Aires, but it made about two-thirds of its investments in start-ups in Brazil in its first two funds, and that is expected to continue. | | By Mary Sophia - Forbes Middle East (Gulf economy, Oil Wealth, Tech transition) The oil price volatility that started in the latter half of 2014 have been a wakeup call for the Gulf countries. The contracting hydrocarbon prices have forced these countries to seriously consider economic diversification. More importantly, it is contributing to a shift in local mindset where the population is seeing the futility of depending only on the public sector for employment. This has in turn translated to a wave of entrepreneurship in the Gulf countries. In Kuwait, many say the locals are rediscovering their trait of entrepreneurialism that was somehow suppressed due to the oil wealth. "Entrepreneurship is in the DNA of Kuwait," says Hasan Zainal, Partner at Arzan Venture Capital. | | By Hemendra Mathur - AgFunder News (Agriculture, technology and investment) The ability to manage the long and complicated agricultural supply chain in India with the right technological interventions will be the key to the success of start-ups. This year 2017 could well be the inflection point for investment in agritech resulting in a greater number of deals as well as increased participation from mainstream VC funds; the mainstream VCs that have been bullish on food e-commerce startups are already in the process of evaluating several agritech deals. Tech-enabled supply chain models for aggregation as well as precision agriculture are likely to have higher share in the number of deals. | | by Guarana (Technology Trends, AR, VR, AI, Intelligent Objects) - Guarana Technologies When it comes to technology, there's always something new on the horizon. Now, more than ever, it's a great time to be a tech geek… and we can't help but wonder: What's coming next? If you're on the lookout for a good sector to start a business in, these are all interesting trends. If you're already an entrepreneur, think about how you can leverage these technologies to reach your target audience in new ways. And the business that makes the best of them will definitely be ahead of the competition. Here are the 10 most impressive Emerging Technology Trends For 2017. | | By Heather Strachan (@heather_strach) - Tech.co (Cultural Bias, Acquiring Capital) A new study released by the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) — tells us that there's another reason. Here learn more about what GALI found when they looked at 2,400 entrepreneurs in emerging markets, and why do these founders have a harder time raising capital? | |
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