My Writings

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. Globally real estate has been a slow adopter of new technology compared to most other industries. However despite this slow adoption the proptech category has given birth to success stories such as Zillow, PropertyGuru, QuintoAndar, Redfin, Lianjia and many others. However, the proptech revolution has so far been heavily concentrated in a…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. In Mexico SMEs are an integral part of the economy and are responsible for 88% of private sector employment. Despite this the economic contribution of SMEs is only 35% of Mexico’s GDP compared to 40-50% for other comparable economies. Their smaller share of GDP in Mexico is primarily…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. Globally property and real estate is the most significant store of wealth and the largest global asset. The world’s real estate is worth over $320 trillion and is more valuable than all global equities and debt securities combined, and worth almost four times that of global GDP. Over the past…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. One of the most significant structural changes in the global economy has been the rise of subscriptions. This transformation started as a transition from selling software through sales of one-time lifetime licenses to selling software-as-a-service (SAAS) on a recurring monthly or annual basis. Since then the…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. In the Philippines, small neighborhood convenience shops called Sari-Sari stores are far more common than supermarkets and large retailers across the country. They are a core part of the Philippines’ retail ecosystem with the 1.1 million Sari-Sari stores nationwide driving 60% of all FMCG sales in the country. They…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. In urban India – the world’s most populous country – one of the biggest day-to-day pain points is congestion. In fact 3 of the top 10 most congested cities in Asia are in India (Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi) including the most and third-most congested city. India’s huge population of…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. Small corner stores are a defining part of emerging market economies. These stores sell everything from groceries to mobile phone data and medicines. In Africa, these retail corner stores are ubiquitous and in 2016 they (and other informal retailers like street hawkers) accounted for approximately 90% of retail…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. If there is one term that has gone from a niche business term to a mainstream buzzword over the last 3 years it has been “supply-chain.” The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as growing geopolitical tensions in Europe and Asia has left the world…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. In Brazil renting apartments or buying homes has historically been a tedious and inefficient process fraught with complexities. Everything from searching for properties to rent or buy to the need to provide guarantors and co-signers and often the requirement for rent insurance have made the whole process…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. Globally remittances has been one of the largest and fastest growing segments of financial services for years. By 2022 remittance volume to low and middle-income countries reached a whopping $630 billion. Despite the size of this global market the remittance industry is plagued by friction and significant…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. While Africa saw VC funding soar to $5 billion in 2022, this funding has been far from evenly distributed across the continent’s 54 countries. In fact the majority of VC investment in Africa has been concentrated in English or Arabic-speaking nations such as Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. The last few years have been some of the most eventful in the automotive industry’s history. For much of the COVID-19 pandemic many used cars cost more than new ones, the prices of new cars hit record highs and there were huge shortages and backorders for vehicles globally. Meanwhile…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. This week Emergent interviews Krishnan Menon, CEO of Lummo. Lummo is building a merchant operating system comprising accounting, finance, and e-commerce tools for small and medium-sized businesses in Asia. The company was founded in 2019 and since then has grown rapidly and today has over 3 million monthly active users. Lummo…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. [Editor’s Note: Since this article was published in September 2023 Lummo entered voluntary liquidation.] Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the engine of economies around the world. SMBs come in all shapes and sizes from mom-and-pop stores to businesses with dozens of employees and multiple locations.…

This article was originally published in my newsletter Emergent. This week Emergent interviews Mostafa Amin, CEO of Breadfast. Breadfast is Egypt’s leading quick commerce startup and today delivers 2,500 different items to over 200,000 households in Egypt in as little as 30 minutes. Since its founding in 2017 Breadfast has grown rapidly and the company has raised 30 million…