BNPL: Brazil (Pagaleve) & Pakistan (Qist Bazaar)

Bonus: Season 1 Takeaways w/ Misbah Naqvi (i2i Ventures)

Our first season (10 episodes!) is done, and Kals sits down with her partner at i2i Ventures Misbah Naqvi to reflect on major takeaways and how they're applying it to their work at the fund.

BNPL: Brazil (Pagaleve) & Pakistan (Qist Bazaar)

Buy Now Pay Later, or BNPL is a short-term installment loan that lets consumers buy a product immediately and spread the cost over several payments, often with no interest if they pay on time. In developed markets, platforms like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm are well-known BNPL plays, and act as a layer on top of mature credit rails, allowing consumers to shop more seamlessly online. In developed markets, with strong credit infrastructure and a highly banked population, BNPL is a tool of convenience. In emerging markets, with limited credit data and large unbanked or underbanked populations, BNPL can be seen as a tool of financial inclusion. In this episode, we spotlight two companies building robust BNPL companies at scale: Pagaleve in Brazil and Qist Bazaar in Pakistan.

b2b E-Commerce: West Africa (OmniRetail) & LATAM (Chiper)

In emerging markets, b2b “business to business” e-commerce platforms service the millions of small retailers and corner shops that power many of these economies. In Africa, the informal retail sector accounts for ~ 90% of transactions in Nigeria, 96% in Ghana & 70% in Kenya. In Latin America, there are over 3.7M corner stores that generate an annual revenue of $330 billion. While these small businesses account for a tremendous amount of transactions and commerce in these markets, these small businesses owners face a number of challenges in staying competitive, with major inefficiencies including fragmented distribution networks, limited access to working capital, unreliable logistics, and a lack of transparency in their supply chains. Digital platforms and marketplaces rose as a way to solve for these inefficiencies, digitizing and streamlining interactions among manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, allowing them to buy and sell goods and services to one another online, instead of through traditional, offline channels. These platforms streamline procurement, logistics, and payments, connecting informal and formal retailers more directly with brands, large suppliers, or manufacturers. This process removes intermediaries, reduces costs, improves efficiency, and often provides additional services such as delivery and credit.For this episode, we are highlighting OmniRetail and Chiper not only as two examples of leading players in this space, but also as two platforms that were asset light from day 1, and have showcased resilience within the highs and lows of the past 5 years. OmniRetail, founded by Deepankar Rustagi in 2019, which was named Africa's fastest-growing company by the Financial Times in both 2024 and 2025. They’ve raised $38 million in equity and debt since their inception.Chiper, founded in 2018 in Colombia by Jose Bonilla, Oscar Sarria Guerrero, and Carolina García, started as a platform and have evolved to become more of a software play, an operating system for retailers across Latin America. They’ve raised over $78 million to date.

Comparable Compact w/ Dina el-Shenoufy (F6 Ventures)

This is the second minisode in our series called The Comparable Compact, where we speak with investors on emerging market trends. Dina El Shenoufy is the co-founder & General Partner at F6 Ventures, which is part of the newly formed F6 Group that houses both this VC fund & Flat 6 Labs, which has been a player in the Middle East startup ecosystem since 2011. As a driving force in the VC ecosystem, Dina led Flat6Labs to become one of the most active venture capital firms in Africa and the Middle East. With over 20 years of experience across venture capital, private equity, and asset management, she has played a pivotal leadership role in expanding the F6's presence to 7 countries in the region, investing in 300+ startups, and managing over $90M in assets under management.

Stablecoin: LATAM (Felix) & Africa (HoneyCoin)

Stablecoin, a cryptocurrency pegged to a stable asset like a fiat (or a government-backed currency), has been proliferating for years, and received a further boost by the recent GENIUS Act signed by the United States in 2025. Stablecoins have a number of use cases, especially for emerging markets, where local currencies and markets can be volatile. Instead of holding their money in their more volatile local currency, someone can hold it in USDC (or a stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar), preserving their value. In this episode we're highlighting two companies leveraging stablecoins to move money faster and more seamlessly across borders in their respective markets. Honeycoin, founded in 2020 in Kenya by David Nandwa, is a platform that enables customers to collect payments, move money in real-time using stablecoins and traditional rails, as well as issue bank accounts, debit cards, or wallets in over 45+ markets and across four continents. In August 2025, they announced their $4.9M seed round led by Flourish Ventures, with participation from players like Visa, Stellar Development Foundation and Musha Ventures. Felix, co-founded by Bernardo Garcia & Manuel Godoy in 2021, is a fintech platform that uses Whatsapp to enable people in the US to send money quickly and safely to users across Latin America, leveraging stablecoins to reduce foreign exchange costs (FX) and operational inefficiencies. They most recently announced their $75M Series B round in April 2025 led by QED Investors with participation from investors like Endeavor Catalyst.