FWDstart
Jamie LaneThe FWDstart Podcast is a weekly show at the intersection of venture capital, startups, and strategic industries shaping the MENA region. Each episode features candid conversations with founders, investors, and operators behind the region’s most ambitious companies, from frontier AI and fintech infrastructure to climate tech, construction, energy, and space.
| Publishes | Twice monthly | Episodes | 20 | Founded | 8 months ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | EntrepreneurshipBusinessInvesting | |||
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Latest Episodes
One of the luckiest things about doing this podcast is getting to sit down with people I’ve admired for years and ask them all the questions I’ve been storing up.
Rabea Ataya is very much one of those people.
As the founder of Bayt, he has spent mo... more
For Anis Harb, the real barrier to enterprise AI adoption is not access to better models. It is everything that sits between a promising demo and a system that actually works inside a business.
After nearly a decade at Deliveroo, where he launched a... more
For Tewfik Cassis, Lean Technologies is not an open banking company, or at least not only that.
It’s trying to become the AWS for fintech in the Middle East, an infrastructure layer so reliable, ubiquitous and necessary that payments, verified finan... more
In this episode, we sit down with Mohammad Al-Khalili, co-founder of ClearGrid, the AI debt-resolution company quietly rebuilding one of the least glamorous, most avoided corners of finance.
ClearGrid came out of stealth in 2025 with $10 million ac... more
In this episode, we sit down with Sanjar Samiev and Denis Gavrilin, co-founders of Comfi, the B2B buy-now-pay-later platform that recently raised a $65 million pre-Series A to finance the invoices the rest of the market would rather ignore.
Sanjar a... more
In this episode, we sit down with Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif, the partners leading Speedinvest's first dedicated Middle East and Africa fund, a flagship vehicle for the Vienna-based firm that's been quietly investing across emerging markets ... more
In this episode, we sit down with Mahdi Yahya, the founder of Ori, which has just been acquired by Brookfield Asset Management and merged into Radiant, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company combining power, capital, compute, and software ... more
In this episode, we sit down with Alex Epure, co-founder and CEO of Qureos, an AI-powered hiring platform that's just raised a $5M seed round led by Prosus. Alex spent nine years at Cisco, moved to Dubai, and then went from managing global enterprise... more
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Frequently Asked Questions About FWDstart
What is FWDstart about and what kind of topics does it cover?
The show features candid conversations with founders, investors, and operators shaping the MENA region's tech and venture scene, with a recurring focus on fintech infrastructure, AI applications, climate tech, and scalability across multi-market deployments. Episodes explore origin stories, funding journeys, go-to-market strategies, and the regulatory and regional dynamics that influence growth—from AI-powered debt workflows and BNPL for SMEs to AI infrastructure, data governance, and region-specific product design. Notable throughlines include pragmatic financing plays (debt and equity), regional expansion (GCC, Saudi Arabia, MENA markets), and a strong emphasis on capital efficiency, pragmatic product-market fit, and regional collaboratio... more
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How many listeners does FWDstart get?
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Which podcasts are similar to FWDstart?
These podcasts share a similar audience with FWDstart:
1. The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
How many episodes of FWDstart are there?
FWDstart launched 8 months ago and published 20 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
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What guests have appeared on FWDstart?
Recent guests on FWDstart include:
1. Anis Harb
2. Tewfik Cassis
3. Mohammad Al-Khalili
4. Sanjar Samiev
5. Denis Gavrilin
6. Rana Abdel Latif
7. Deepali Nangia
8. Mahdi Yahya
To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.