Economy of Scale: SMEs & Startups (Sponsored Content)

0:00Because you're listening to this Bloomberg podcast, we thought you'd be interested in a sponsored podcast called Economy of Scale. Produced by Bloomberg Media Studios and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, it delves into the changing dynamics of business growth from innovation to capital and investment. Here's a recent episode. Scale has become synonymous with Dubai, a metropolis shaped by constant growth. In 2025, the Emirate retained its position as one of the world's leading destinations for greenfield foreign direct investment. But scale isn't just, about size. Globally, it can be the difference between success and failure, whether bringing breakthrough technologies to market or building smart infrastructure that will shape the cities of tomorrow.

0:45Welcome to Economy of Scale. In this series, we'll explore one central question. What does it really take to scale? I'm your host, Jacob Greaves, and in this episode, we'll be looking at the first stage where scale is truly tested in SMEs and startups. to discuss this and more. I'm joined here in Dubai by Sandeep Sani, CEO and co-founder of Valeo Health, a health tech provider that recently surpassed the milestone of 1 million orders. And by Rahman Asensou, managing partner of Antler, an early stage VC fund with a global footprint of enterprising portfolio companies. Sandeep, Rahman, thank you so much for joining us.

1:24I want to start with a global outlook when it comes to SMEs and startups. 2025 saw an increase when it comes to global venture capital funding, the likes of Bain & Company reporting quarter-on-quarter increase for Q4 2025, around 12%. Roman, does that track with what you've been seeing in reality? And do you expect that growth trajectory to continue? Yes, we do about 400 investment every year across 27 places in the world. It gives you a decent antenna to see what's happening. I think what we see is that we deploy capital all across the regions with a few nuances. One is there is a concentration in certain regions of the world.

2:07The second is there is concentration in certain types of businesses as well. AI has been taking the lion's share and that's something that we foresee, we believe will continue to happen. And with AI taking that lion's share, Sandeep, is that a challenge facing new startups, especially those who aren't operating necessarily directly in the AI universe? So I think more than a challenge, I think it's an opportunity for the startups or for the SMEs, especially pre-2024. You need to incorporate AI, maybe even start thinking or rethinking and becoming an AI first company. You know, the most similar situation of like this happened to me in 2013 when we were building Lazada in Southeast Asia and 3G came into being and we were all like, hey, we need to become mobile first because 95 % of our customers were accessing a website from mobile phone.

2:55So all of a sudden you had this big creative team that was designing your desktop on a daily basis and changing it became redundant when all people cared about was how to squeeze everything on a smaller screen. So, you know, you really had to rethink from scratch what experience people should have on the mobile. And I think now is the same thing. We need to rethink how an AI first company would be building something similar to what we've been building for the past five years. And it's very exciting. And Roman, how do you approach this? Because there's so much noise and money surrounding AI at the moment.

3:28So how, from a VC perspective, do you find the next big thing, the next talent? I think one of the biggest shifts is the level of expectation. And back in the last other days versus today, the speed to scale is insanely different. As of today, I think the last stat was 20 % of the Unicorn post-2023 hit 1 billion in less than two years. it used to be five percent before so like the speed to scale is extremely different so many people now are trying something so the level one of i'm ai native claimed is extremely high the ability to go much deeper is not so a very simple way for us to check how good is what you built just by understanding what actually do you build the second is in a world where everyone can try.

4:20Usually no one has the depth of understanding the customers. And it's super easy to build a deck on Claude or on Gemini. It's not easy to speak to 100 people and try to really go deep on what's the level of insight that I can extract that will tell me how I should direct my business. Is that something you feel, Sandeep, in terms of having to keep pace with relentless, I guess, churn of course i mean innovation is so quick that you literally need to rewrite the book almost on a monthly weekly basis and actually be become an innovator yourself to survive so rather than trying to keep pace you you need to start building and innovating and pushing content out at the same pace to stay relevant yeah and something that feels like everyone's chasing that unicorn status.

5:11Indeed, Dubai aimed to facilitate the growth of 30 unicorns. As a founder, do you think it's helpful or a hindrance to be chasing that North Star of unicorn status early on in your journey? Well, you know, billion dollar was a great deal, I think, up until two years ago. Now, it's all about the trillion dollar startups, right? So, So the IPOs that happened in the past, in this year alone, there are$2 trillion IPOs that already happened and two more that probably will happen. I think the North Star keeps getting higher and higher for a founder. So I would say a billion today in the world post-2025 is an average ask, no longer a unicorn.

5:53I actually agree. Yeah, and I think this is for you as a founder, but also for the team to say, how can we shoot for the stars? if we have a 50 likelihood to happen you know it's it's actually pretty good but i'd create that tenement of drive and intensity which is extremely important right roman antler is part of dubai founders hq could you give a bit of insight into what that program is how it's helping founders and your role within it and dubai founder hq is a home for us in in dubai in yuri this is where we have our team this is where we bring most of our founders i mean for us is just a fantastic community.

6:31I think one of the big learnings is when you're a founder, it's pretty lonely, but actually doesn't have to be. I mean, you can be around people who share the same struggle, lows and highs, also the highs, you know, and that for us is extremely important. That's where we also meet founders that help us to figure out whether we want to make some of our investments. And just generally, it's just a fantastic place to be. and sandhu you chose to start valio health here in dubai why did you choose this market and what's it brought in terms of the ability to scale rapidly it was the only city that was open during and this was the only place we could do business while the whole world was shut dubai was a perfect place to set something up uh it was great because uh we were bringing health care at home and this was the time where nobody wanted to go to a hospital because of the epidemic and so on However, looking back and even now, I recommend Dubai to pretty much everyone I meet.

7:34And frankly, this is a launching pad for, I would say, the region or probably the rest of the world, as and when you're ready to expand. A number of digital startups supported by the Bay Chamber of Digital Economy grew around 40 % 2025, 75 % of those are global companies. So why do you both think you're seeing that increase of international talent coming here more recently to set up shop? I think we start to see scale of talent and I think it's tricky to start but once your engine has been started it's much easier to sustain and I think we reached a level now where that you have extremely high density of really good talent that's one two is a matter of opportunities I think that today you can only use that which I absolutely agree with you can use you in Dubai as a launchpad for your business literally in a five-hour flight you have like even people around that are not only fantastic market but you know could be your resources for building your company right so i think that is known now um and it is known even more that we've had some success stories that that make the region shine right and obviously recently some of the acquisition of of Uber and our friend of River here on Talabat is helping that.

9:01Karim is an obvious one. Teddy is another extremely obvious one. And what you guys are doing, you know, is paving the path, right? So talent is at scale. And I think the ability for us to access a lot of different markets around, but also globally and build these corridors, extremely important. And people know that. And third is non, the word is out. So it's not a hidden gem anymore. People know about it and actually want to be part of it. Are we increasingly seeing a new type of growth corridor open up in terms of how companies decide to scale from Dubai, where traditionally it might have been regionally and now it's towards other growth hubs?

9:46So my first relationship with Growth Corridor and Dubai was with one of our company in Singapore, Eralo, which decided to relocate here to make sure that they can cover the world. There are now 30 million users. It's a billion-dollar company and decided to actually relocate here. What I see is much more of this scale-up companies to try to relocate to the region, specifically in the Y. What I see more as well is local companies who now realize that they need to build from they want for the world. And then they are very close to building some corridors. A lot of our companies are in the US and two-thirds of the ones that go to the US actually set up an office in the US and set up operation in the US.

10:32We see corridors with Southeast Asia, specifically Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia. And obviously we see very strong relationship all across the region, North Africa, Egypt and the rest of the GCC. As a founder or builder, you know, I always put myself in different shoes. If you're a founder based in San Francisco, your expansion playbook is already kind of written. You have 50 states, so you have to everyday count, hey, how many states am I in today and go capture the remaining ones. Same thing with Southeast Asia, you have these top six countries, India, you have this top 15 cities that you have to expand before you can even think of leaving, you know, those corridors.

11:18Dubai is different because here, every expat founder has their own story. And there, I think, there's no real expansion book written. But I think that also lets you as a founder personalize it based on your own experience, especially we come from all over the world here. I moved here from Southeast Asia. So for me, when I think of expansion, I think of Singapore, Malaysia as the next corridor and the connectivity so easy that I'm able to do it rather than thinking, hey, where else can I, where should I do? Where should I go next? So one thing I would say is definitely for sure, if you're a founder in Dubai, you really need to follow the vision from Dubai to the world.

11:56And you cannot just build for Dubai. This is where that becomes a massive gap in, am I scalable? Am I going to become a unicorn? You need to think global from day one. How have you found that Dubai's SME and startup landscape has evolved over time? I think the main change is it moved from commercial outposts to actually tech companies. And that has been driven by having founders or probably much more repeat founders, much deeper in tech, much more bold in ambition. I think the types of sectors that have been looked at start to be very different it used to be the playbook that existed in other regions that actually know is much more unique in the problems that is solved for the region and much beyond so I think that's also something that has changed and honestly fundamentally just the intensity of the people we meet I think the ambition is just absolutely different it used to be, let's build something and now let's build something.

13:02That actually changes everything. And when they move here, so as Romain said, half the people that want to move here, when they leave their comfort zone, their community and move here, they just want to work and build. Thank you, Sandeep. Thank you, Romain. And thank you for joining us at Economy of Scale. Stay tuned for the second episode very soon. Economy of Scale podcast series has been brought to you by Bloomberg Media Studios and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. You