"It's a really great time to be deploying capital. There are candidly fewer opportunities than there might've been years ago, but I think there's also fewer ‘silly opportunities’ and less temptation to do some things that I think a lot of us in this industry had done in 2020 and 2021. And so, I'm pretty excited about deploying capital over this year and the next year. I do feel this market is starting to turn. There may be the arrival of some international investors looking to these markets as well. So maybe it's not the same ilk of US investors, but I think these markets still have very strong growth. And I think there'll be people willing to deploy capital in these markets, which will lead to a good outcomes in the medium term." - Fady Abdel-Nour
"It was a really interesting time because you could take a look at those business models and really invest based on what was happening forward. It was almost like you had a crystal ball. At the time, I was still pretty early in my career. I didn't really appreciate how good we had it because now, in Southeast Asia, China, and India, a lot of these business models are starting to innovate and leapfrog the the things happening in the US. Back then, there were years between developments in the US and China, allowing for benchmarking and comparison. Now, you have weeks, maybe months before these business models are replicated. You just know that it's attractive venture funding and it's grown well." - Fady Abdel-Nour
"We talked about penetration thesis. Although we're in a world where trends get replicated a lot more quickly, when you have regulated businesses, sometimes that's harder. You need to get licenses. You need to deal with local regulators to allow you to execute what you want to do. So I think we spent a lot of time on payments and alternative lending in the space because these markets had massive gaps in terms of digital payments and credit. And so, we spent a lot of time on India, specifically on financing companies and payments, and watching digital adoption trend grow." - Fady Abdel-Nour
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on the Antler Partner ($285M AUM) outlook, Naspers and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan learnings, and India versus China versus Southeast Asia VC.
Keywords: Fady Abdel-Nour, Antler Partner $285M AUM Outlook, Naspers and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Learnings, India vs China vs Southeast Asia VC, Southeast Asia, VC, Founder Story
