Name: Fast Tracking Growth in Emerging Markets
Uploaded: 2025-10-28
Duration: 19 min 59 s

From Asia to Africa and the Middle East, bold innovators and visionary leaders are unlocking the next wave of global expansion across emerging markets. Hear from changemakers leveraging financial innovation, digitized supply chains, and global trade networks to accelerate growth. They share a common conviction: the next decade’s economic leap will come from regions often overlooked, and technology, capital, and infrastructure will determine who leads.

Fast Tracking Growth in Emerging Markets

Conferences

Welcome. All right, well, we're here to talk about emerging markets, and I think it's only appropriate that we start with you, Mohammed. Um, we're here in Saudi Arabia, obviously, and you have a startup that has been named by LinkedIn as one of the most successful startups, multiple years in a row. Um, tell us a little bit about your company and what is it about starting it here that made it so successful? Yeah, absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here. Um, our company called Silk with a Q, which is inspired by the Silk Road, and the idea here is to integrate a global network with the marketplaces within local markets. And we were one of the early that built a local B2B marketplace that helped. Manufacture and marginalized SMEs businesses that's called SAI. And what excites us about this is when we look at the big the problem in terms of financial exclusion in emerging markets almost kind of 5.7 trillion so we focus on building the first layer of commerce and we chose Saudi because there are tons of tailwinds when it comes to e-invoicing, Vision 2030, Expo that is magnetic to a lot of supplier manufacturer. So we thought one of the biggest question we ask ourselves, we talked to our community is why now, and I think it's the best time to build here in Riyadh. So that is why we started and why we think why now is critical for us to build that new trade layer. That is fully integrated to the local market and has that liquidity to make it scale and grow beyond limits. Yeah, and Muni, I know that you had a big announcement recently that JPMorgan was investing an additional $30 million into your business Bidvest. That's a huge deal for any entrepreneur. Tell us how that relationship came about. Did they find you? Did you find them? Um, thank you. So, so JP Morgan has been a long-term investor, um, in Midwest. Uh, we're listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and in fact, more than 50% of our shareholders are offshore. Um, so we've got a fantastic offshore interest in South Africa and offshore interest in the group, and that's been Fantastic. And, and they're long term shareholders and it's not just them. Westwood, that's based in Boston is a big shareholder, Lazard Asset Management is a big shareholder. Um, so we do have a number of your more large asset managers that see value, that are happy with the return and that are happy with the growth story um of the best. Fantastic. And let's see, one of your, um, roles now is to bring more investment into Bangladesh. I wonder how's it going and what's your pitch? What's the elevator pitch? Well, elevator pitch, I'm not sure can stick. I just want to take a step back and And zoom out. This morning we heard about tectonic shifts and changes in the global order. The IMF released a report last week that showed the global uncertainty, according to their index, is twice as high as the most recent peak during COVID and 4 or 5 times as high as a decade ago. Um, and there are various components to that was the deglobalization. Uh, digitalization, decarbonization, demographics, um, uh, with all of these, what do we do as a country? We look at what our natural national endowments are and how can we lean into these global vectors of change. For us, um, it's really our people. We are probably, well, we are certainly the most densely populated country in the world, 175 million people. Um, a third of the size of Thailand, but the population of Russia and Canada combined. Young people 25 years of age or so. So in terms of how we may recognize that here in Saudi Arabia, uh, our crude oil. is our young people, but we need refineries so that we're able to find applications for various grades of skills and education. So that is really the place where we need to invest and that's also the resource that we are willing to share with the rest of the world because the rest of the world by and large is aging. I can tell you later how we're actually doing it, but I'll stop there. Well, Mohammed, speaking of, you know, successful founders and startup culture, what do you think differentiates a successful founder in this part of the world versus maybe in Silicon Valley or some other capital? Well, I think founders globally are kind of consistent in terms of being obsessed with the problem and uh solving something that is big and aspiring. I think when it comes to different geography, it's about understanding localization, innovation according to the market, to the norm, and to the tradition. But what unify entrepreneur globally is going after massive daring market. When you look at, for example, in Saudi. 90% of the businesses in Saudi are SMEs, yet they receive only 9% of the lending from the bank. So it's a massive kind of gap, and the challenges goes greater when you go to other emerging markets. So it's a massive market been lingering for decades. So we think that's what excites talent, what excites community to go build around that. So, I think one is tackling bigger problem, tackling something that daring that cultivate the culture. And then I think what differentiates here, I think it's a younger generation and you speaking to a lot of investors. We have backers from globally, Peter Thiel fund and others, and we have local funds like PIF investing in us. I think one of the key elements here is there are tons of tailwinds. You see open banking happens, so you have that full transparency. You have e-invoicing that has been adopted by all. So a lot of kind of capability make that infrastructure fragile. So you have young generation. Big disrupted kind of market, massive tailwind and a massive appetite from a global investor. So, I think just understanding the problem. Being obsessed with them and kind of learn from a global kind of landscape, but apply innovation to solve local problems. Differently sure and Mpumi, when you're looking at different we were talking about um you know a company that you've invested in that does uh the you know things in restrooms like the soap dispensers and the paper towels um what are you looking for in terms of this is a business I think can grow this is something I wanna be involved with. Yeah, so I mean our philosophy is around business models that fit a particular criteria, right? So we're looking for businesses that are asset light. We're looking for businesses that have recurring income. We're looking for businesses that are inherently defensive in their nature. So we watch a lot around how those businesses um perform through COVID, how did they perform through a financial crisis, etc. so that we can assess the extent of the defensiveness. Uh, and then we've got financial metrics that we're looking for. So we're looking for high margin, high return, high cash generated businesses. That's, that's generally what we're looking for. Um, and so at the moment, um, 30% of our operations are outside of South Africa. We're building a large global hygiene business. Uh, we're #2 in the world at the moment. Um, and so we're looking for those types of, types of assets, um, to consolidate kind of globally. But more importantly, outside of the business model, we're looking for the best management teams in the world because ultimately, how You run a successful business is through people. And so even in our due diligence process, even if we take all the other metrics, if we don't take the people one, we will walk away. So we acquire the best management teams who happen to do what we do. Yeah. Speaking of people, I know that you've said that sometimes people will leave your company, but then they come right back and to, to talk a little bit about creating a culture that people want to come back to you. Yeah, I think not only to live and come back, but when we started, I think Si we said how can we create a wave that people live and build company, build ecosystem, find, and when you go to a bigger problem, there are a lot of nuances can be built around that kind of ecosystem. So we have an ESO with a lot of our employees who have they have an equity within the within the company, giving them that exit and capability to go build their own company. So we take a ride and actually creating that an alumni network. A lot of people actually come in as a potential entrepreneur. So we think they're gonna come through that curve, learn, understand how to apply it and have that capability to go. So within that ESO we're giving them that segue to go build bigger impact. So that is the focus is not just to cultivate the best talent. But also equip them to go build kind of the next venture that disrupt within the same ecosystem, yeah, and potentially you could partner with them in the future. Let's see, I know we have actually two former investment bankers on our panel, both you and Mohammed. What did those years teach you that's now helping you in your current role? I think I want to go back to Bangladesh because since this is becoming a bit of an infomercial, I need to. I need to do my bit. So first of all, I'll take names that are in the public domain. I have letters of commendation from Chevron, MetLife. Uh, young one, the makers of North Face jackets on just how remarkable and action oriented the business and investment climate in Bangladesh has become in the last year or so. Mohammad, I believe you've also gotten yourselves involved in there as well. And the reason for this is, let's be very clear, we, uh, there is now complete consensus that we need to We need a master key to unlock a master door for all the economic aspirations of the country. The master door is private investment, foreign direct investment in particular. And the master key is government reforms. Unless government is agile and responsive and ready for the world order that we described earlier on, um, we're going to be found flat-footed. And so that's why there's a tremendous amount of actual, um, you know, on the ground action-oriented reforms that we're undertaking. And I would invite everyone to come and test it. It is informed, of course, by my background in investment banking because I know what it looks like, having run global emerging markets for a global investment bank, what it looks like from the other side of the table, so I can trace your journey. And the investor experience, and I would encourage everyone to come and test it. Is there one deal that you sort of seems like a model that you would like to repeat? You dropped a couple of names, but is there one deal that comes to mind? I think it's a rather than pick a favorite, I think what I would say is I'll pick a template, and the template is we now have a souped up refined, streamlined investment development authority. Which has been merged with our Economic zones Authority. I run an interministerial investment coordination committee that meets roughly once a month with the governor of the central bank, the, the head of customs and Inland Revenue, the port authorities, etc. and we just make sure that nothing gets stuck in the interministerial system. And that in itself has been able to, uh, has allowed us to convert what is an interest into an actual investment in record time. Yeah. Mpumi, we had a whole panel on Africa earlier today, um, but I wonder if you can just tell us a little bit about Africa's growth story and what are some of the drivers that you think are going to be important in the next 5 to 10 years. Yeah, I mean, I, I listened to the panel, so, so I know what the content was about. And, and, and the point that I'd like to make one point so that that's the only thing that's really, that's really remembered. I think that the um disconnect when we have a conversation around the continent um is that we disproportionately focus on a conversation around risk. Versus a conversation around value, return, etc. So when we talk about opportunities in developed markets, we talk about market proxies, indices, we talk about value creation. We talk about risk, but more how it has been de-risked, right? We, we talk differently. Um, yes, when we switch to our conversation about the African continent, risk perception becomes the big thing. And I think we need to change the discourse when we talk about the African continent. Lastly, I think I'd like to say when you talk about the African continent, look at businesses on the continent and what they have achieved, and let that be your proxy. If I use Bidves as an example, um, we've been around for 37 years. In 2016, we were in 34 countries across the world. We listed our international operations separately and today that business called Bitcorp is double the market cap of its parent company, right? We are again rebuilding um that international footprint. We're now 30% offshore. All of this is being built off a balance sheet from an African business that's what Africa can give you. Amazing and it was interesting when you were speaking earlier you said uh one of the things you're looking for is defensive, something that can survive a recession or a global pandemic. Um, tell us a little bit more about that approach because I feel like we hear so much about growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, but you have a different perspective. Yeah, so I mean and and it's, it's people actually don't realize that. It's the more below the line, um, kind of business models that aren't fancy, um, where they just will continue giving you growth. um, and, and I mean, the business model that we were talking about specifically was washroom services. And if, if I use that as an example, it's the, it's the soap dispensers, the paper dispensers, the air freshener, it's the stuff that you don't think about when you walk into a washroom. But you expect to be there. So the reality is that even when there's a tariff wall, there's going to be soap in the washroom. Even when there's an economic downturn, you still need toilet paper in the washroom. And so it's those kind of very basic simple business models actually that at times continue to just exist regardless of what happens in the world and how changes kind of take place. Yeah. um. Moving back to your startup, um, I think, uh, one of the things you've decided is to try and grow into a decacorn instead of do an IPO. Tell us a little bit about that calculus. Yeah, I think just to add on the point of, I think not only about growth but building that durability and Kind of a few years ago I stumble on one of the kind of the podcasts and it was like build a phoenix that can survive 100 years rather than a unicorn. So for me as well as how can we build that durability? How can we build something that is lasting rather than focus on probably the next probably couple of years and the focus for us is. We have a problem and I've spoken to different founders globally solving the same problem, and I realized that we have a unified broken unit which is SMEs is inexpensive to serve by classical legacy system and to require better velocity, a lightweight asset, and we looked at company globally how can we build that coalition and that's why we created silk and we have now a company in Bangladesh called ShopOp served more than Half a million kind of uh businesses we partner with a company like Mastercard to get an inclusion to a lot of women driven businesses that contributing to the Bangladeshi market. The same thing here in Saudi we're kind of empowering around a billion real internal financing to the small businesses that is nano to to bigger merchants. I think one of the bigger problem we focus on is something called kind of a data desert is. A lot of this client is invisible to the bank and clear to the bank, and we're trying to solve that and I think with the age of AI that will kind of give us that. Scalability will give us that efficient growth as we go, so. I think initially we started with an obsession to solve something that A problem for me, for my colleagues, and we're coming back from like, I used to work with Karim, the first unicorn in the region. I helped them launch a lot of markets and I've seen. You need to build something that is scalable and something that creates that ripple effect. So we solved it for us initially, how to solve that supply chain. Then the dream got bigger. How can we solve that society? But then we realized that probably a problem exists for the global south and how can we build a bigger kind of unification. And I think we got that multiplier effect. The more we learn from Saudi, we feed into Bangladesh to feed into India and other markets. The system is get better and attract better talent, and we create that kind of lasting impact. Yeah, Lay, I know speaking of AI, you've expressed some caution about AI. There are things that worry you. If you could just give us a few words of hope and, you know. Well, what I really, really like about the stories I'm hearing here. is that we're talking about the use case and the impact and the people you're serving who are underserved at the moment, um, as opposed to here's a shiny new piece of technology. Let's take it to Unicorn and then Decacon and off we go. That I think that world has has destroyed so much value in recent worlds, recent years. So I'm very glad we're talking here about real people and real jobs and real enterprise. Um, the thing about emerging markets is that if we can get the governance piece right, I keep on coming back to that as the, the master key, because if you can't get it right, it becomes the, the master not in the noose if you like. But if we can get it right, Emerging markets, countries like Bangladesh have, we know what the potential is. We're so behind our potential. We can harness technologies and management techniques and the learnings that we just heard about and really use that for our fast tracking. Growth, which is the title of our session, we can really do that because we are so far behind our frontier. It's much more difficult for some of the countries that are already at the frontier and they're only looking at efficiency drives as opposed to growing the pie. I can't believe that brings us to the end. I'm going to think of you whenever I wash my hands in the restroom. Thank you all. I'm going to use a lot of soap, a lot of towels. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you very much.