Integra Talks

On this month’s episode of Integra Talks: Sabiha Sultan, Venture Partner talks to Dr Sara Saeed Khurram and Dr Iffat Zafar Aga, founders of Sehat Kahani.They discuss how they came to set up a telemedicine company in Pakistan, the journey they have undertaken and where they are today.  They share their idea of working in remote areas of Pakistan through clinics and how they are now branching out into the corporate sector.  With the dynamics that exist in Pakistan, Dr Sara and Dr Iffat share their journey as women entrepreneurs and how they've been able to successfully raise venture capital for their company. Sehat Kahani is an an all female health provider network that provides quality healthcare in Pakistan to those in need. 

On this month’s episode of Integra Talks:  Alberto Pelliccione, CEO and Co-Founder at ReaQta, reveals the tactics behind what one writer called the “Pearl Harbor of American IT”: the recent Solarwinds hack that breached the security of top American government agencies and tech companies.Alberto talks to Jennifer Ho, Principal at Integra Partners about the wide net that the attackers cast in order to get to their intended targets, the emerging threat of supply chain attacks like Solarwinds, what makes them more effective but also more difficult to execute than other attack vectors, what the average person needs to worry about in the aftermath of Solarwinds, and how companies can better protect themselves in an evolving environment. ReaQta is an AI-powered cybersecurity platform that detects and remediates known and unknown threats, used by organizations from financial institutions and critical infrastructure to SMEs. 

On this month’s episode of Integra Talks: David Rosa, Co-founder and CEO at Neat, discusses the role of the US$ in global commerce with Christiaan Kaptein, Partner at Integra Partners.David explains why a lot of global trade settle in US$, the difference between dollars and eurodollars, and why it is cheapest and fastest to settle USD in Singapore with a handwritten cheque. We also explore what the future might hold, will the world move to accept more global currencies for trade and how does blockchain, and Central Bank Digital Currencies relate to this all?Neat powers commerce globally, focusing on SME exporters, a huge market that is underserved by traditional financial services providers. 

On this month's episode of Integra Talks: Arun Pai, Head of Sales and Strategy at Flow, discusses ethical and digital debt collection in Southeast Asia with Christiaan Kaptein, Partner at Integra Partners. Most of the venture ecosystem has been focused on the development of new lenders, in the form of P2P, buy now pay later, gig worker lending, vehicle financing, and across all Southeast Asian markets, the launch of regulated digital banks. Collections has been much overlooked, despite it being a most important part of the lending value chain. Traditionally, originators partner with dozens of local, offline collections agencies who are paid on a success basis. This comes not only with operational challenges, but also carries substantial reputational risks for lenders. As collectors get paid on the basis of total value collected, the incentive is to push as hard as possible for maximum repayment, as soon as possible. This has led to instances of harassment, intimidation, and even physical harm. Flow exists to change this and to work with originators and borrowers alike to ensure collection is fair, ethical, with overall improvement in the livelihood of borrowers as well as the financial health of the originators.  https://www.flow-tech.ai/