VC React Podcast VC React E50 MENA: Qatar Backs Anthropic, Munify's Neobank for Diaspora, Intella's Digital Human
VC React Podcast:
Every week, we bring you insights and reactions from top VCs, LPs, & Angel Investors, reacting to the latest news on MENA startups, funds, and investment rounds.
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Hosts:
- Ahmad Takatkah, VCpreneur. Sign up to VCpreneur Newsletter on https://www.vcpreneur.com/
- Jamie Lane, FWDstart. Sign up to FWDstart Newsletter on https://archives.fwdstart.me/
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Available on:
- Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/@VCReactPodcast
- Spotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vc-react-podcast
- Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vc-react-podcast/id1764834384
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Guests:
1. Dina El-Shenoufy, Co-Founder and General Partner @ F6 Ventures, and a new Kauffman Fellow.
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinaelshenoufy/
- VC Firm Website: https://f6.vc/
2. Husameddin AlMadani, General Partner @ the newly launched 2Pi Ventures, after a decade of angel investing.
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/husameedinalmadani/
- VC Firm Website: https://2pi.vc/
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#startups #vc #tech #ai #investments #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #venturedebt #business #ipo #acquisitions #fintech #edtech #accelerator #web3 #crypto #blockchain #defi
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Sponsors:
💸This week’s episode is brought to you by:
- OCTA – the AI-powered accounts receivable platform trusted by 100+ companies like Careem, Lean Technologies, and ZenHR to automate collections, resolve disputes, and unlock financing with zero hassle.
Visit: www.weareocta.com/fwdstart to get your first 6 months free.
Events:
Come watch the magic happens!! Jamie Lane and Ahmad Takatkah will be RECORDING LIVE ON-STAGE at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh - September 15–17, 2025.
👉 Want a 25% discount? Register here and get it now:https://register.visitcloud.com/survey/1d9x7zrqbcfpk?actioncode=MSPK2216
#Money2020MiddleEast
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News of the week brought to you by FWDstart.
This Week On The VC React Podcast:
- Qatar joined Anthropic’s $13B dollar round — yes!! $13B — at a hundred and eighty three billion dollar valuation. Is Qatar investing for returns? influence? or maybe for future partnerships in their local ecosystem?
- With huge valuations, how do we price AI companies? Is this driven by actual performance, revenues, distribution, compute power — or just pure narrative and access?
- Meanwhile — there are over 10 million Egyptians living abroad — and remittances to Egypt topped $30 billion dollars last year.
- With a $3M dollar seed round, and backed by YC, Munify is building a neobank for Egyptians abroad. Can they win before Wise, or even Revolut decide to care? And what’s their B2B angle?
- And finally, have you seen Ziila?! Intella dropped a full Arabic digital human — not just voice, but video, face, dialect — the whole thing.
- Also, what happened to Siri and Alexa? And why didn't OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini give us a face with a name?!
- While everyone’s chasing LLMs, Intella is quietly building speech infrastructure — tailored specifically for Arabic dialects. How are they pulling this off… and why are so many others still trying, but no one won that race yet?!
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