Emerging Markets Today

In this episode, we dive into the world of FinTech in emerging markets and discuss some key insights with our special guest, Sherry Jiang , co-founder and CEO of Bluejay Finance ,  a FinTech company that provides financial services to underbanked populations in Asia. Here are three major takeaways from our conversation: 1️⃣ Moving from Cash to Digital Payments: One of the most fascinating topics w...

This episode is all about the world of agribusiness in Africa and the unique challenges faced by small and medium enterprises in emerging markets. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Shalom Ben Or , the co-founder and CEO of Avenews , a financial super app for the 2.5 million agribusinesses in Africa. Based in Israel with operations in Kenya, Shalom shared some fascinating insights that left m...

From unbanked to crypto users, this episode we talked about the thriving financial sector of Brazil! 🇧🇷💰 I had the pleasure of speaking with Aaron Stanley , the founder of the Brazil Crypto Report . We explored the fintech scene, the cryptocurrency sector, and even Brazil's new digital currency (CBDC), the Real Digital. Here are a couple of key takeaways from our conversation: Fintech and Cry...

This episode is all about financial inclusion, from payment insfractrures to digital wallets and the token economy . In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Emmanuel Daniel , a global thought leader in the future of finance and the founder of the research company, The Asian Banker . Emmanuel is also the author of the book, " The Great Transition - the Personalization of Finance i...

In this episode is about on of the best tech innovation examples in emerging markets I've come across in the last few years. Did you know that malaria kills over 400,000 people per year globally? This is an encore episode about how a project in Uganda is reaching underserved areas where testing for malaria can be challenging and having the diagnosis early can be a matter of life or death. So I...

This episode is all about challenges and opportunities in healthcare in emerging markets! In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sylvana Q. Sinha , founder and CEO of Praava Health , Bangladesh’s fastest growing healthcare brand. Sylvana explained me the healthcare sector in Bangladesh, its challenges and opportunities for private healthcare startups. The major challenges in the sect...

This episode is all about coffee, sustainability and innovation in Colombia! I had the pleasure of interviewing Cole Shephard , the founder of The Green Coffee Company , the largest coffee production company in Colombia with a focus on sustainable coffee production. We had a fascinating conversation about Colombia's coffee production, innovation, and sustainability, and compared it to Brazil&#...

*This is episode is not investiment advice* This episode is about 2 of the most underrated investment sectors in Africa: Education Technology (Ed Tech) and Property Technology (Prop Tech) . I had the pleasure of chatting with Ijeoma Ejimadu , an MBA student at Columbia Business School. She is also the founder of Ivery Arie , a NGO providing African women with the mentorship, resources, and educati...

This is (almost) a totally AI powered episode! I asked few questions to ChatGPT, a language model trained by OpenAI, and let me tell you, this AI expert knows all about emerging markets! The text is straight from ChatGPT and the voice you will hear is from Play.ht , another AI powered tool. Here are the questions I asked: What criteria must a country meet to be considered an emerging market? Has t...

This episode is all about discovering tech talent in Central America! I sat down with Charles Fry , the founder of Code Exitos , a digital product studio based in Austin, Texas with design studios in Honduras. Charles has first hand experience in discovering and utilizing tech talent in Central America.  We talked about the potential of tech professionals in Central America and the benefits o...

In this episode, we are discussing the economic outlook for Brazil in 2023 and beyond. I had the pleasure of speaking with Thomas Samuelson , the founder of BRON , a social network community for investors and listed companies. Thomas has been traveling to Brazil for many years and has a wealth of knowledge about the Latin American investment landscape, particularly in Brazil. During our conversati...

This is the second episode of the 2022 in Review series and it is focused on sustainability in emerging markets. First up, we chat with Alexandre Lemille about the role of emerging markets in creating a socially inclusive circular economy. Alexandre is a circular economy expert and he shares his thoughts on how emerging markets can drive innovation and sustainability through circular business mode...

In this episode of 2022 in Review and we focus on innovation! I'm bringing you two clips from our full interviews with Alex Lazarow , author of "Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs - from Delhi to Detroit - Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley," and Max Cuvellier , Head of Mobile for Development at GSMA and co-founder of Africa: The Big Deal. In our conversation with Alex, we delve into th...

This episode is all about China, sustainability, and how we in the West have a distorted idea of how China is tackling environmental and social problems. Here is my chat with John Pabon , a sustainability consultant, speaker, and author of the book "Sustainability for the Rest of Us." John lived in China for 10 years, from 2009 to 2019, and he saw firsthand China going from the economic growth "Wi...

Lula was elected in Brazil on Sunday for the third time - it was a very polarized election and he won with a very small margin. So, I'm trying something different today and I'd like to hear your thoughts about Lula and what you want or hope for Brazil. You can leave me a voice message  - you don't need to register or enter your email or number, just press record and that's it! ** CLICK HERE T...

This is episode will be all about India's golden decade that has just begun! Here's my chat with Ian Herbison , the CEO of the Speyside Group , the leading global emerging markets corporate affairs and public policy specialists. We talked about opportunities for India in two different respects:  as a high growth domestic market of 1.3bn people and as a crucial cog in the global supply chain,...

Hi everyone, I'm Ana Paula Picasso and here is a quick message to say, I will be back with new episodes and insights from Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. And I'd like to share the news that the EMT team is growing with new writers so, in the meantime you can check out emergingmarkets.today. ======================================== Let’s keep EMT ad-free: You can support the podcast by d...

Here is the second episode of the Summer Edition and for this episode I decided to focus on Latin America so I selected 2 clips from 2 very interesting conversations about different aspects of the Latin American continent. I want to start by mentioning the clip from the episode about Suriname - that will come on the second part of this episode, so stick around to learn about Suriname’s economic de...

We are half way through 2022 and I selected a few clips of the episodes featured so far this year. For this episode I decided to turn my focus to Africa and I grouped 3 clips from episodes where we talked about different sectors and innovative companies within the African continent. The first clip is from the episode Unleashing the Power of Data in Emerging Markets where I interviewed Joseph Rutak...

*Disclaimer: this episode is NOT an investment advice!* This episode is all about emerging markets investments and what to look out for.  Here is my chat with André L. Havas , CEO of CIMalgo , a fintech company providing a web based solution for professional investors.  We talked how the definition of emerging markets evolved and became more broad, especially in the past 20 years. The de...

This episode is about tech innovation in emerging markets beyond the big headlines! I invited Max Cuvellier , Head of Mobile for Delopment at GSMA and co-founder of Africa: The Big Deal. We chose 3 tech startups that are solving real life problems with innovative solutions in sectors that don't get the big headlines like fintech companies do. 1. Twiga Foods (Kenya) : simplifying the supply chain b...

This episode is all about Suriname!  Here is my chat with Monique Pool , the founder of Green Heritage Fund Suriname. We talked about everything from economic development to how urbanization is affecting the country's wildlife. Monique told me that Suriname is one of the 3 carbon negative countries (along with Butan and Panama) and how she envisions Suriname's future, hopefully with a green e...

This episode is all about circular economy and what comes next for emerging markets! I interviewed Alexandre Lemille , a circular economy expert advocating for a more socially inclusive circular economy.  We also talked about regenerative societies and its meaning and why Alexandre believes that emerging markets can leapfrog from the linear economy to a more socially inclusive circular econom...

This episode is all about financial inclusion! I invited Eric Osuorah , the founder of AFOMA , "the goodwill token". He wanted to empower artisans and small businesses in different African communities, so he started Sellitic - a more financial inclusive eCommerce marketplace using a crypto token called AFOMA. He told me that these craftsmen and artists want to sell outside of their native countrie...

This episode is all about Innovation in Emerging Markets ! Here is my chat with Alex Lazarow , author of the book Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs - from Delhi to Detroit - Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley. We talked about why emerging markets took over Silicon valley in tech innovation, why being a "camel startup" is sometimes better than an unicorn startup,  what means to be...