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. --- 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/ --- Available on: Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/@VCReactPodcastSpotify:https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vc-react-podcastApple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vc-react-podcast/id1764834384 --- 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/ --- #startups #vc #tech #ai #investments #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #venturedebt #business #ipo #acquisitions #fintech #edtech #accelerator #web3 #crypto #blockchain #defi --- 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 --- 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?! ---(أحمد طقاطقه)---
