So it is. This is where we begin, with the ground truths and facts of reality—how things are. Many of these realities are hard truths, of generational poverty, of genocide, of oppression, of violent violations of human rights. But, like the literary notation “[sīc]” allows, we acknowledge, but are not distracted by, the symptomatic flaw to then get at the core, in this case the root causes of debilitating societal issues.

We believe that missing from current peacebuilding and development frameworks is a focused attention on the underlying economic, social, and cultural (ESC) dimensions at the sub-regional and local levels. We believe that startups and increased capital flows can build out that robust foundation.

This begins with seeing how it is; but only with considered interventions can we later look back and see progress from how it was, sīc erat.

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We invite you to join us in this endeavor.

There’s a confluence of 2 things that I find particularly worrying:

• growing reach of big tech companies (majority Western)
• the increasing depth of technologies embedded into an individual’s life

This confluence seems to only amplify existing power imbalances that have entrenched much of the emerging market. And as much as aid has its place, I see capital mechanisms as more empowering, giving more than just a voice, but a say.

Since my time living on the Thai-Burma border region, I’ve been looking for viable ways to blend VC with development economics, but haven’t been able to satisfactorily crack that code. Recently, I’ve had a few (potential) breakthroughs.

Simply put, it’s a VC fund that allocates the principal into a dividend ETF then uses the dividend yield to invest in emerging market startups. This may be more attractive to LPs with mitigated risk while maintaining upside — but crucially, increases the much needed capital flows to emerging markets.

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Our decisions around which country to enter are based on macroeconomic and development economics research. We look for a specific balance of financial frictions with certain macroeconomic indicators.

This has led us to the following criteria when assessing an emerging market and its compatibility with this Fund:

1. Shallow, but deepening banking system
2. Financial system opening up
3. Rising middle class
4. Significant portion of population are youth
5. STEM & business programs and grads from university
6. A moderate diaspora community

From these criteria, our working list of countries of particular interest to us are (in no particular order):

• Algeria
• Nigeria
• Morocco
• Vietnam
• Egypt
• Uzbekistan
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Japan
• Poland
• UAE
• Kuwait
• Qatar
• South Africa
• Estonia

• Principal protection: Principal is allocated to ETFs, reducing risk typically associated with emerging markets — while also able to realize the upside of venture investments
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• Evidence-based focus and sourcing: Scope of emerging markets is reduced to select economies that exhibit characteristics that, according to data and research, sit on the precipice of growth — and outsized returns for early investors|
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• Anthropological approach to sourcing and due diligence: Given the low number of active investors, sourcing deals may not be a problem. But, assessing them may require more time given the different culture and environment. We take an anthropological approach with ethnographic techniques to understand markets and their social dynamics. This may mean 6 weeks or 6 months living in that specific markets, observing and experiencing the lives of potential consumers, all the way out to the rural regions.
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• Flexible exit with a more sustainable outlook: The Fund has an option of cash distributions to investors. Rather than LPs getting money out only when the startup has a liquidity Event, LPs can get paid out as distributions from cashflow over time.