i2i Ventures

Happy Monday! For Episode 3 of our i2i Ventures podcast The Comparable (that came out last week), we delved into the very complex space of freight & trucking, spotlighting two companies tackling this part of the supply chain -- CARGON, co-founded by Niko Turabelidze, Vano Chaladze & Shako Jalabadze and Truck It In, co-founded by Muhammad Sarmad Farooq, Raza Afzal & Haider Navid. Story time: i2i Ventures is an early investor in Truck It In, but we actually passed on their pre-seed round. I remember Misbah Naqvi & I being really impressed by Sarmad, Raza & Haider (who all worked together at Careem) but being a bit wary of the space. In Pakistan, trucking represents a $17B opportunity, but it's *very* fragmented, paper-based, and relational. Huge opportunity to be disrupted, yes, but not a space that is easy, by any means. So we passed, but stayed on their update list, and tracked how the company grew, how the founders tackled the challenge ahead. When they went out to raise their seed round, we were so impressed by their progress and how thoughtful they had been in adapting to the market, that we wrote the check. Moral of the story #1: no isn't always a never, it's a not yet. Keep investors warm and on an update list, and keep checking in. Moral of the story #2: There were a lot of trucking companies that came up in emerging markets in 2021/2022, when growth at all costs was the drumbeat of EMs, and startups all over were launching the "Uber for Trucking." The companies that have survived that era realized quickly that the uberization approach wouldn't take you very far, and, to thrive, needed to build deeper products that were more nuanced for their market realities. Both TIN & Cargon (a Sturgeon Capital investee) understood the assignment, and built accordingly. Link to watch/listen to the whole episode, chock full of insights, in the comments. Please like, subscribe & share The Comparable! 🚛 💫 Tashfeen Khan Ailia Naeem Jawwadali Mundrawala

Happy Monday! For Episode 3 of our i2i Ventures podcast The Comparable (that came out last week), we delved into the very complex space of freight & trucking, spotlighting two companies tackling this part of the supply chain -- CARGON, co-founded by Niko Turabelidze, Vano Chaladze & Shako Jalabadze and Truck It In, co-founded by Muhammad Sarmad Farooq, Raza Afzal & Haider Navid. Story time: i2i Ventures is an early investor in Truck It In, but we actually passed on their pre-seed round. I remember Misbah Naqvi & I being really impressed by Sarmad, Raza & Haider (who all worked together at Careem) but being a bit wary of the space. In Pakistan, trucking represents a $17B opportunity, but it's *very* fragmented, paper-based, and relational. Huge opportunity to be disrupted, yes, but not a space that is easy, by any means. So we passed, but stayed on their update list, and tracked how the company grew, how the founders tackled the challenge ahead. When they went out to raise their seed round, we were so impressed by their progress and how thoughtful they had been in adapting to the market, that we wrote the check. Moral of the story #1: no isn't always a never, it's a not yet. Keep investors warm and on an update list, and keep checking in. Moral of the story #2: There were a lot of trucking companies that came up in emerging markets in 2021/2022, when growth at all costs was the drumbeat of EMs, and startups all over were launching the "Uber for Trucking." The companies that have survived that era realized quickly that the uberization approach wouldn't take you very far, and, to thrive, needed to build deeper products that were more nuanced for their market realities. Both TIN & Cargon (a Sturgeon Capital investee) understood the assignment, and built accordingly. Link to watch/listen to the whole episode, chock full of insights, in the comments. Please like, subscribe & share The Comparable! 🚛 💫 Tashfeen Khan Ailia Naeem Jawwadali Mundrawala

We are LIVE with Episode 3 of Season 2 of our i2i Ventures podcast The Comparable and for this episode we're digging into the very complex and meaty space of Trucking, spotlighting CARGON operating from Georgia for Central Asia/Caucasus/Europe region, and Truck It In operating in Pakistan (disclaimer: i2i Ventures is an investor in TIN 🙂) Trucking/freight is a very important but also very broken part of the logistics supply chain across emerging markets, and yet it represents a massive opportunity to disrupt and innovate ($40B in Central Asia and $25B in Pakistan!). In this episode with Cargon's Co-founder & COO Niko Turabelidze & TIN's Co-founder & CEO Muhammad Sarmad Farooq, we dig into: 🚚: While many models 6-7 years ago started as the "Uber for Trucking", the Uberization approach fell away quite quickly given how complex and nuanced this space is. I personally find it interesting how many early biz models in EMs were the "Uber for X", often to make it palatable for international investors, but for the players who survived & became winners in their markets, they needed to evolve past that. Both Cargon & TIN have or are moving into financing, launched transport management solutions (TMS) and more. 🪖 The impact of the Russia/Ukraine War, the Iran conflict & macroeconomic uncertainty on logistics players (esp trucking) is important to underline, and how Cargon & TIN navigated & bred resilience in their organizations has been key. 🤖 AI-first won't work in trucking, given how human and relational this industry is. At the same time, both Sarmad & Niko are leveraging AI in order to optimize their processes and workflows, and we dig into that. Link to watch/listen in the comments, please subscribe & share! Many thanks to Robin Butler CFA & Pedro Santos Vieira for the connect to the Cargon folks & shout out to Tashfeen Khan on our team who did a lot of heavy lifting on this episode! Misbah Naqvi Ailia Naeem Jawwadali Mundrawala

Had a really fun convo with Rishaad Currimjee for Paklaunch (PL) - was so interesting learning about the evolution of India's deep tech industry & the kinds of companies & innovations coming up in that sector from the market. Also great to learn about Golden Sparrow broadening their Fund II mandate to include Indian-origin founders given that we're layering in a similar focus (Pakistan-origin) in our i2i Ventures Fund II. ☺️ Link to watch: https://lnkd.in/eGbmSdmH

ICYMI: Last week, we released Episode 2 of our i2i Ventures podcast The Comparable, an interview with Pedro Arnt, CEO of dLocal, one of the largest payments players for emerging markets. dLocal was founded in Uruguay in 2016, achieved unicorn status in 2020 and went public on the NASDAQ in 2021, and that was only the start of their growth story. Today, dLocal works with 60+ countries, with operations in 44 markets with 1000+ payment methods. 🌍 🚀 In Pakistan, you may have noticed you can now subscribe to Netflix locally and purchase products from Shein and Temu more seamlessly. That's thanks to dLocal, which brings international businesses into markets like ours (their local payment processing partner in Pakistan, btw, is our i2i Ventures portco Safepay HQ ☺️). I personally learned so much from this episode, from leadership transitions (Pedro became CEO of dLocal in 2023 taking the company into a new era post going public), to how/why they enter markets when they do, how they build a distributed team globally & foster culture, and more. It's a masterclass for emerging market founders on how to build and scale. Link to listen/watch in the comments -- please like, subscribe & share so we can continue putting out content like this! Misbah Naqvi Tashfeen Khan Ailia Naeem Jawwadali Mundrawala

We are LIVE with Episode 2 of The Comparable Season 2! In this episode, I sat down with Pedro Arnt, CEO of dLocal, one of the most important & significant payments players for emerging markets, closing the innovation gap between international merchants and emerging economies. dLocal was born out of Uruguay in 2016, grew to unicorn status in 2020 and went public on the NASDAQ in 2021. Today, they work in over 60 countries, with operations in 44+ markets, and with 1000+ payment methods. (In Pakistan, they partner with one of i2i Ventures portcos Safepay HQ!). It's a success story, one born from emerging markets designed FOR emerging markets. I really loved this conversation with Pedro, who spent years at LATAM's iconic e-commerce player Mercado Libre before joining dLocal as CEO in 2023. His leadership transition is fascinating, an important case study for other startup founders to study. In this episode we discuss: 👫 Lessons in culture and leadership from Pedro's time at Mercado Libre, his own transition as CEO at dLocal, and how he's shepherded the company in this new chapter 🌍 How dLocal has scaled across emerging markets -- when, why & how they enter a country & how they hire & foster a distributed team (Endeavor gets a shout-out!) 🚀 How dLocal keeps evolving with the ever-changing fintech landscape globally. Link to listen/watch in the comments (please subscribe + share!), and a special thanks to my buddy Tomas Denecken for the intro to Pedro!