MENA Moonshots: Early-stage investment to support start-ups

euronews (in English)

Lindsay Miller is the managing partner and board director of a boutique early-stage investor

Transcript

00:00 Working with early-stage startups, supporting early-stage founders, seeing

00:04 their journey, being part of their success in whatever very small ways we

00:08 were able to be, was the most gratifying thing that we could do.

00:13 During my first 11 years in Dubai, we've seen a lot of talent here in Dubai and

00:19 abroad that really just needs that extra push, and whether financially or from a

00:23 capability perspective, that really kind of got me started thinking about

00:27 early-stage investing. My partner came and said, "Let's do this, let's get more

00:31 serious and structured about how we're going to approach supporting

00:35 founders," and that's how Mina Moonshots was born.

00:38 We were looking for founders that we could have a long-term partnership with.

00:43 When we met with Cineo, the most exciting part was this idea of sustainable

00:46 packaging. If you think about all of the e-commerce packages that people are

00:50 getting to their houses, Cineo was sourcing solutions that were more

00:54 sustainable than what was available in the market. Every business that we invest

00:58 in needs something else. Some really just need pure money, and they have very

01:02 strong management teams. With Cineo, the support was first financial, but also

01:07 helped kind of getting some introductions into the market. That was

01:10 really the focus. We really wanted to back those founders and their mission.

01:14 What we found is the more we invested, the more we were contacted. When Joy

01:19 Gifts approached us, they had facilitated the opportunity for people who are based

01:23 in one city to gift to people in other cities or to family back home. So when

01:28 you're looking at the big expatriate population here, there's big

01:31 opportunities. So that idea of always being able to expand your customer base

01:36 was super compelling for us. The cloud is an interesting story. I didn't feel

01:41 comfortable with Cloud Kitchen Space, but one of the parts of the journey is that

01:45 it's the founder's business at the end of the day, and we've bet on the founder.

01:50 And because of the trust and the intelligence in his business model, we

01:55 actually went into an industry and tried to understand what are we missing. He had

01:59 achieved exactly what he had told me he was going to achieve. So it's CapEx

02:03 Lite, the cash cycle is attractive, and the food is absolutely delicious. With

02:08 Studio 14, the founder's very passionate and experienced in her industry. She

02:13 needed some support in terms of developing the business model,

02:16 developing the case, and also making the investment to launch the studio. We

02:19 really wanted to get on the journey with her and see her take it to the next

02:23 level. Living and working in Dubai had a major impact in terms of how we think of

02:28 investments. The thing for me is always about impact, so I get very excited about

02:32 the idea of people only using compostable packaging, for example, or

02:37 people being able to send their mother back in Jordan a beautiful gift and

02:41 having that lift to her day, or seeing restaurant owners who are working with

02:45 the cloud make more money and be more financially viable. These are things that

02:49 are just hugely exciting to me and they're absolutely worth working

02:53 long hours and the commitment that it takes.

02:57 (upbeat music)

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended