INSEAD Emerging Markets Podcast

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  Building the Financial Rails Between Africa and Its Diaspora - Ope Sonusi, Bluum Finance 20.04.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail Ope Sonusi is the founder of Bluum Finance, a platform building the infrastructure layer that allows fintechs to offer investing and wealth management products across Africa and its global diaspora. In this conversation, Ope shares how his own experience as an immigrant led him to a missing piece in fintech: the ability to build wealth across borders. We also explore why investing infrastructure in emerging markets is so complex, and what it will take to unlock capital ...
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  From Blank Canvas to 38 Million Visitors: Mohamed Al Zaabi on Building Yas Island 24.02.2026 18min

  Send us Fan Mail Mohamed Al Zaabi is the Group CEO of Miral Group, the force behind one of the world’s most dramatic tourism transformations - turning an artificial island in Abu Dhabi into a global destination drawing tens of millions of visitors. Under his leadership since the mid-2010s, Miral has overseen the creation, operation and evolution of immersive attractions, resorts, sports venues and digital experiences that have re-imagined what a destination can be in the 21st century. A...
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  From US Dominance to Global Dispersion: Nick Rohatyn on the New EM Cycle 02.02.2026 45min

  Send us Fan Mail Nick Rohatyn is the founder and CEO of The Rohatyn Group, and one of the architects of emerging markets as a modern asset class. Having built JP Morgan’s emerging markets business from an eight-person desk into a 600-person global platform, Nick has spent more than four decades investing across cycles, crises, and continents. In this return episode, he reflects on why emerging markets may finally be entering a new phase after more than a decade of underperformance, and why di...
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  Why Ukraine May Be the Most Mispriced Market in the World with Bruce Talley 15.12.2025 44min

  Send us Fan Mail Bruce Talley is an American entrepreneur and frontier market strategist who has spent decades operating in opaque, rapidly changing environments from Russia’s Black Sea coast to Brazil and now Ukraine. He built the largest destination services company at the Sochi Olympics, navigated direct FSB scrutiny, and today is helping global investors access deeply discounted Ukrainian residential markets through the Ukraine Prime Property Fund. In this episode, Bruce shares hard earne...
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  Building and Exiting Startups in the Gulf with Victor Abou Rahal 08.12.2025 39min

  Send us Fan Mail Victor Abou Rahal is a veteran digital transformation and tech leader in the GCC, with more than 25 years helping traditional industries go digital. He is now CEO of Narovate, a Saudi based startup focused on digital water solutions, after leading Boxit For Me through a successful exit and building the digital arm at ADNOC Distribution. In this conversation, Victor shares what he has learned about leadership, exits, and entrepreneurship across oil and gas, logistics, and now ...
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  The rise of Tier 2 and Tier 3 India - Kevin Carter, EMQQ 22.07.2025 47min

  Send us Fan Mail Kevin Carter is the founder of EMQQ Global and a leading voice in emerging markets investing. In his first appearance, he broke down the investment case for digital consumption in emerging markets. In this follow-up episode, Kevin returns fresh from a month-long trip to India, where he went beyond the usual business hubs to explore tier 2 and tier 3 cities, the infrastructure transformation, and why India might be the most compelling EM story of the next two decades. In this ...
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  Startup to unicorn within 2 years in Uzbekistan - Djasur Djumaev and Nikolay Seleznev, Uzum 15.07.2025 36min

  Send us Fan Mail Djasur Djumaev, Founder and CEO, and Nikolay Seleznev, Co-founder and Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer of Uzum, Uzbekistan’s first tech unicorn, joined us for this episode. Uzum became a unicorn in just two years, and now serves as the country’s leading e-commerce and fintech ecosystem. In this episode, they share how they built a household name in a largely offline market, their strategy for leapfrogging infrastructure gaps, and why Uzbekistan is one of the mo...
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  Growing a search fund acquisition to IPO in Brazil - Jan Riehle, B4A 08.07.2025 40min

  Send us Fan Mail Jan Riehle is the CEO of B4A, a leading Brazilian beauty marketplace with over 700,000 active users. An INSEAD ’09D, Jan began his career in M&A and private equity in Switzerland before joining Springstar, a German-Swiss venture builder, to manage their Brazil operations. In this episode we cover: How he acquired and merged two struggling beauty companies (Glambox and Men’s Market) into what is now B4A (00:00:24; 00:05:28) His approach to restructuring and achi...
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  GCC Leadership Series: Amr Habis - The Cultural and Economic Transformation of Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030 26.05.2025 27min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I speak with Amr Habis, a transformational leader with expertise in engineering, project management, and business strategy, who has played a key role in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. With experience spanning organizations like Aramco, OEM Group, and the Saudi National Guard, Amr provides deep insights into Saudi’s economic shift, infrastructure boom, and cultural transformation. We discuss: Amr’s career journey – from engineering and construction to oil & g...
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  GCC Leadership Series: Waleed AlBanawi – Lessons on Resilience, Impact, and Innovation 19.05.2025 29min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we are joined by Waleed AlBanawi, an INSEAD 05D, Executive Chairman & CEO of Banvest Group, and former chairman of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) MENA. Waleed has deep experience in traditional industries, venture capital, and regional economic transformation. We discuss: His father’s entrepreneurial journey – pioneering industrial business in Saudi Arabia before the oil boom, securing funding when banks wouldn’t lend to industry, and overcoming reg...
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  INSEAD GCC Leadership Series: Zaid Mosawy on Delivering the 2022 World Cup 12.05.2025 42min

  Send us Fan Mail Zaid Mosawy, an INSEAD 10D, joined us to discuss his experience as a key figure behind the delivery of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. We explore how his background in civil engineering, experience with the London Olympics, and INSEAD MBA positioned him to lead one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the region’s history. Zaid shares lessons from a decade of planning and executing the World Cup—from cultural diplomacy and labor reforms to navigating...
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  East Africa's Leading Used Car Marketplace with Kaoru Kaganoi, Peach Tech 05.05.2025 1t 18min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the INSEAD Emerging Markets Podcast, Nick Lall speaks with Kaoru Kaganoi, INSEAD MBA '16J and founder of Peach Tech, East Africa’s leading used car marketplace. From growing up in Paris as the son of a Japanese professor of French philosophy to intense stints at McKinsey in Tokyo and Nairobi, Kaoru shares his global journey through social impact work in Bangladesh, Tuvalu, and Palestine, culminating in launching a high-growth startup in Kenya. He opens up a...
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  Blockchain/Working Capital Solutions for Emerging Markets – Altesh Baijoo, Founder of Insaaph Capital & Director at Flow48 28.04.2025 28min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the INSEAD Emerging Markets Podcast, host Nick Lall is joined by Altesh Baijoo, a dynamic entrepreneur at the intersection of finance, technology, and global markets. As Founder of Insaaph Capital and Director at Flow48, Altesh is helping reshape financial access across the developing world—unlocking investment opportunities through blockchain-enabled platforms and bridging SME funding gaps through tech-driven working capital solutions. Altesh shares ...
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  Emerging Market VC with Yana Yasevich, Alter Global 31.03.2025 58min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we were joined by Yana Yasevich, Partner & Head of Platform at Alter Global, an early-stage VC firm focused on emerging markets worldwide. Since 2020, Alter has made more than 70 investments in entrepreneurs based out of São Paulo, Jakarta, Dhaka, Lagos, Buenos Aires, Manila, Mexico City, and more, supporting high-character founders building not just companies, but their communities and economies. We discuss: Yana’s entrepreneurial journey – how lau...
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  Sustainable forestry in Africa - Darren Lapp, New Forests Company 05.02.2025 30min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we were joined by Darren Lapp, CEO of the New Forests Company, a sustainable forestry and timber products business operating in Uganda and Tanzania. Darren shares his journey from growing up in a forestry town in Canada to leading a major forestry enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa. We discuss: Darren’s career path – how he transitioned from biology and soil science to forestry, influenced by early work experiences and international exposure.The challenges of f...
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  Athletic + career excellence and VC in the Balkans - Pedja Predin, Fifth Quarter Ventures 07.11.2024 28min

  Send us Fan Mail Pedja is an INSEAD 14J and GP at Fifth Quarter Ventures, the first VC firm solely focused on Southeastern Europe. Pedja was on the Serbian National Water Polo team, and post-INSEAD scaled Gelato (a print-on-demand startup) into a unicorn my leading its expansion into emerging markets like India, China, and Russia. In this episode we discuss the types of founders Pedja likes to invest in, traits he looks for in investors and partners, how to build brands in emerging mar...
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  Building Latin America's largest fintech - Livia Chanes, CEO Nubank Brazil 01.11.2024 29min

  Send us Fan Mail Nubank (NYSE: NU) is Latin America's largest fintech company and the world's largest neobank with over 100 million users and a valuation of over $70 billion. Livia is an INSEAD 09D and prior to Nubank directed tech and business analytics at Itau Unibanco (Latin America's largest bank) and was a Partner at McKinsey. Find us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and Youtube.
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  Is India the next China? with Kevin Carter, EMQQ Global 28.08.2024 58min

  Send us Fan Mail Kevin Carter, founder and chief investment officer of EMQQ Global, joined us to disucss his journey in the investment world, initiated by his transformative reading of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," which led to him working alongside economist Burton Malkiel of Princeton University in creating multiple stock market innovations like fractional investing and personal indexing, and his ultimate focus on China and other emerging markets. Carter shares insights on the di...
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  Adventure capitalist quantitative investing - Asha Mehta, Global Delta Capital 05.06.2024 47min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the INSEAD Emerging Markets Podcast, we speak with Asha Mehta, Managing Partner at Global Delta Capital, about her impactful career in finance, focusing on emerging and frontier markets through a lens of sustainability and responsible investing. Asha founded Global Delta Capital after working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Lead Portfolio Manager and Director of Responsible Investing at Acadian Asset Management. Asha has been recognized ...
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  Global citizenship with Andrew Henderson, Nomad Capitalist 18.04.2024 47min

  Send us Fan Mail Andrew Henderson is the Founder and CEO of Nomad Capitalist, the world's leading offshore consulting firm dedicated to helping clients make informed decisions on the best countries to invest, start a business and live in. Andrew has helped over 2,000 UHNW individuals go offshore and his YouTube channel has over 750,000 subscribers. Nomad Capitalist Live, Nomad Capitalist's annual event, will be held in Kuala Lumpur this September 25th through 28th. Find us on Apple, Spotif...