Investor Talk

Epic Angels

Epic Angels is globally the largest women-only angel investment network, investing in APAC & LATAM. Epic Angels provides women with a platform to invest, learn, and help incubate more female angel investors who want to be part of the thriving startup scene. This show demystifies angel investing by allowing you to look behind the scenes, meet the startup founders, hear from the investors, and learn about the world of venture capital. Hosted by investors Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

  1. Oct 7

    Popular Power - Building the system of record for Latin America's rooftop solar

    Solar is going up on factories, warehouses and farms faster than any other way of making electricity, and those panels are meant to stay there for 30 to 40 years. Keeping them producing is the hard part. In Mexico, three out of four installed sites underperform, and most owners can't tell whether the cause is dirt, a broken part, a new building throwing shade or simply a cloudy week. In this episode we speak with Morgan Babbs and Manuel Wiechers, who spent a decade bringing pay-as-you-go solar to rural homes in Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and the US, in companies that today power close to 35,000 homes and small businesses. Popular Power is software for the companies that own and look after solar portfolios. It connects to the major inverter and battery brands, reads what the panels already report, and adds weather and maintenance data. It cuts thousands of alerts down by 97% and tells the operator which site is losing money, why, and what the crew should fix. It also registers projects for renewable energy certificates, which earns customers in Mexico an extra $6 per kilowatt per year. Popular Power is at about US$1 million in annual recurring revenue, with customers across Mexico, Central America and Colombia, and as far away as Nepal and South Sudan. Customers see on average a 7 percentage point lift in performance, worth at least $30,000 per megawatt per year, and Popular Power is behind 22% of the Mexican projects registered for renewable energy certificates. Their vision: to become the operating system and system of record for solar, trusted by the operator, the investor and the company with the panels on its roof. Followed by Investor Talk with Silke Weber. Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

    Popular Power - Building the system of record for Latin America's rooftop solar
  2. Aug 2

    Yindii - Rescuing a meal a minute from Asia's bakeries, hotels and supermarkets

    Almost a third of all the food available to us is thrown away. In Hong Kong alone, 3,300 tonnes go to landfill every single day, nearly a third of everything the city bins. And most of it is perfectly good. Bakeries bake for the last customer who might walk in, hotels lay out a full buffet until closing, so ten to fifteen percent of what they make is surplus by design. In this episode we speak with Louis-Alban Batard-Dupré and Mahima Rajangam Natarajan, an HEC Paris graduate who spent a decade scaling tech companies across Europe, the US and Southeast Asia, and a growth marketer who built customer acquisition at Lazada and Eatigo. Yindii is Asia's surplus food marketplace. Shops list what they haven't sold as a "surprise bag" at 50 to 70% off, you reserve it in the app, and collect it in the last hour before closing. The merchant recovers money on food that was heading for the bin, pays nothing to join, and Yindii only earns a commission when a bag actually sells. For the customer it is the cheapest good food in the city, plus a small thrill: you don't know what's inside until you open it. 1.1 million meals rescued so far across Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore, with Seoul launching. More than 1,000 merchant partners including Pret A Manger, Paul, Marriott, Accor and Circle K. Revenue has tripled three years running, and the company turned profitable in 2025. Their vision: to become the platform Asia's food businesses run all their surplus through, from the bakery on the corner to the warehouses upstream. Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

    Yindii - Rescuing a meal a minute from Asia's bakeries, hotels and supermarkets
  3. Jun 10

    Oraan - Giving Pakistan's 60 million unbanked women their first financial identity

    In Pakistan, bank CEOs have a ready answer for why women don't have access to credit. They call them "not economically viable." So 60 million women built their own system. No bank needed. No credit score. No permission. $14 billion moves through these informal savings circles every year — entirely in cash, entirely invisible to the formal economy. In this episode, we speak with Halima Iqbal, founder and CEO of Oraan — a Pakistan-based fintech that digitised that $14 billion system, and then found something even bigger hiding inside it. Oraan's digital committees platform has 600,000 users and a lifetime default rate of 1.89% — compared to 12-13% at microfinance banks. These women are the best credit risk in Pakistan. The formal system just never looked. In November 2025, Oraan launched Oraan Gold — fractional gold savings starting at $10 a month, price locked at first payment, physical delivery when the plan completes. In seven months, the gold book grew 74 times. On minimal marketing spend. Oraan holds a full NBFC licence and is expanding its savings and wealth stack into other emerging markets through partnerships with financial institutions. Their vision: financial inclusion for women — not just in Pakistan, but across every emerging market where women have been told their money doesn't matter. Angel investor Sarah Fairhurst joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute 33:00). Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

    Oraan - Giving Pakistan's 60 million unbanked women their first financial identity

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Epic Angels is globally the largest women-only angel investment network, investing in APAC & LATAM. Epic Angels provides women with a platform to invest, learn, and help incubate more female angel investors who want to be part of the thriving startup scene. This show demystifies angel investing by allowing you to look behind the scenes, meet the startup founders, hear from the investors, and learn about the world of venture capital. Hosted by investors Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.