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Emerging Forward Podcast

Emerging Forward Podcast

By: Adi
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How capital truly flows for investors and founders bridging emerging markets including Europe, MEA and APAC.

emergingforward.substack.comAdi Economics
Episodes
  • Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE

    Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE
    Jun 16 2026

    Episode 11 – Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE (with Petr Šíma, DEPO Ventures) Prague, Czechia

    00:00 – Intro & setup

    Welcome to Emerging Forward and introduction to Episode 11.

    Who is Petr Šíma and what DEPO Ventures does at pre‑seed across CEE and Baltics.

    01:00 – Europe’s fragmented early‑stage market

    Why Europe has “many problems,” but early‑stage financing is the one Petr is trying to fix.

    Local angels, local funds, and the structural fragmentation across regions.

    01:35 – Building a pan‑CEE pre‑seed platform

    60 investments in six years; moving from angel funds to a VC fund while staying at the first round.

    Why there are still very few groups investing across the region at this stage.

    02:15 – “Helping founders by helping investors”

    The problem of occasional angels, family offices and “equational investors.”

    Why investing is a professional job, and how bad early‑stage investing harms founders.

    04:00 – Educating angels and emerging investors

    Petr’s work in teaching angels and investors to join the right groups, networks and co‑investors.

    Why talking to startups as a fund manager is often clearer than as a loose group of angels.

    10:00 – Fund + angel network mechanics (DEPO model)

    How DEPO combines an institutional fund with an angel network.

    Decision‑making, co‑investment rules and why co‑investors’ specific knowledge matters.

    26:50 – Co‑investors and going beyond your home market

    Why “early‑stage investments are always cooperative.”

    Using co‑investors to invest in countries where DEPO is not fully present, and what each party brings beyond money.

    28:00 – US PowerPoint vs European deep tech

    Petr’s comparison of the typical US deal (“everything looks amazing… just PowerPoint”) vs. deep‑tech in Europe (“terrible presentation, amazing substance”).

    Why pre‑seed investors in European deep tech can’t be superficial and must be willing to go deep.

    28:45 – Where the next generation of investors will come from

    Operators and exited founders as Europe’s future “real business angels.”

    Nordics/Baltics vs traditional economies like Germany and Czechia; who believes in startups as an asset class.

    29:30 – LP risk appetite and resilient Europe

    Traditional European LPs’ risk aversion vs American LPs’ appetite for European resilience plays.

    Why it’s “crazy” to see a huge European resilience opportunity where ~70% of LPs are American.

    30:30 – Light closing: food & global tastes

    A quick detour into Italian and Thai food as Petr’s comfort go‑tos.

    31:10 – Closing thoughts: a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity

    Petr’s message that European resilience is a huge, time‑bound opportunity.

    Final encouragement to listeners to engage with this moment.

    About Petr Sima:Partner of DEPO Ventures, pre‑seed fund investing in European tech startups building resilient Europe. Board member of European Business Angel Network.

    Links:

    DEPO Ventures website - https://depoventures.cz/

    Petr’s LinkedIn profile - https://cz.linkedin.com/in/petr-sima-a294681

    EBAN (European Business Angels Network) - https://www.eban.org/

    Episode 10 (last week’s exits‑focused episode) - https://emergingforward.substack.com/p/cee-liquidity-lab-viktor-manev-ipo-beginning



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
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    32 mins
  • CEE as a Liquidity Lab: What LPs and Emerging Managers Still Miss About Exits

    CEE as a Liquidity Lab: What LPs and Emerging Managers Still Miss About Exits
    Jun 10 2026
    CEE as a Liquidity Lab: Why the IPO Isn’t the ExitShort episode intro:After a short break, Emerging Forward returns with Episode 10, a deep dive into what real liquidity looks like in ecosystems that never had enough growth capital in the first place.I’m joined by Viktor Manev, Co‑Founder and Managing Partner at IMPETUS Capital, to explore CEE as a “liquidity lab”: using small, disciplined IPOs as funding rounds rather than ceremonial exits, building quality of revenue and earnings before chasing mark‑ups, and asking harder questions about continuation funds, secondaries and real portfolio value.What we coverWhy Series B barely exists in much of CEE – and what founders actually do when they hit the growth cliff.The idea of an IPO as a beginning, not an end – and how that changes founder, LP and exchange behaviour.CEE small IPOs as a missing rung in the funding ladder, underwritten by local wealth, AMs, and pensions rather than mega‑banks.Viktor’s “quality of revenue → earnings → valuation → liquidity” ladder – and why clever liquidity engineering can’t fix weak fundamentals.The “conductor” role IMPETUS plays in small IPOs: coordinating banks, auditors, exchanges and lawyers so the whole “symphony” works.How continuation funds and secondaries solve liquidity for GPs/LPs but may not answer the question “is there real value in this portfolio?”.What LPs and emerging managers are still missing about exits and time horizons in CEE and similar markets.A fun closing detour into Viktor’s agnostic travel‑food philosophy – always eat where the locals eat, whether it’s gondoliers in Venice or a canteen in Amman.Timestamps00:00 – Intro and who Viktor is. IPOs as a beginning, not an end.05:00 – How “IPO = exit” became dogma – and why IMPETUS is going back to an older model where public markets fund growth.10:30 – Big vs small IPOs: 4% of deals get 100x the media coverage; the hidden world of sub‑€25m listings.13:00 – Acting as a “conductor” for €10–20m IPOs: aligning banks, auditors, exchanges and lawyers to create real liquidity.16:00 – The niche: profitable, 40–50% growth companies that are “too boring” for VC but perfect for public funding.22:00 – Shelly Group: from “nobody will buy us for €10m” to €1.2B SDAX company and what that journey actually looked like.32:00 – Continuation funds, secondaries and the hard question: is there real realizable value behind the marks?40:30 – What LPs and emerging managers still miss about liquidity in CEE and similar markets – and why many managers will fail.41:30 – Viktor’s agnostic approach to food when he travels – and why he always asks what the locals actually eat.About Viktor ManevViktor Manev is Co‑Founder and Managing Partner at IMPETUS Capital, a private equity firm focused on early‑growth and scale‑up companies in Central and Eastern Europe. He previously served as chief financier of Bulgaria’s Center for Mass Privatization, overseeing the institutional financing of more than 1,000 enterprises and participating in the privatization of roughly 18% of state‑owned assets. Since 1994, Viktor has been involved in structuring corporate‑finance and M&A deals with an aggregate value of over €900m, and has been engaged in the listing process of more than 1,100 companies as a public official, adviser and institutional investor. He holds a BS in Finance from West Virginia Wesleyan College and completed comparative studies at the University of Oxford, and sits on several boards as a non‑executive director.Links & references :📝 Viktor’s thoughts – “The IPO as a Beginning, Not an End: Rethinking Capital Formation in Central & Eastern Europe” (0100 Conferences).🌐 IMPETUS Capital – firm website: https://www.impetus.capital/🔗 Viktor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktormanev This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
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    42 mins
  • Power Laws at SEA Scale: Why 50–250M Exits Matter More Than Unicorns

    Power Laws at SEA Scale: Why 50–250M Exits Matter More Than Unicorns
    May 12 2026

    In this episode of Emerging Forward, I sit down with Kevin Brockland, CFA, Founder & Managing Partner of Indelible Ventures, a seed-stage fund focused on Southeast Asia’s B2B ecosystem. We unpack what power-law investing actually looks like in a nascent region, why 50–250M exits matter more than unicorns right now, and how emerging managers and founders should recalibrate their mental models.

    We cover:

    Why Southeast Asia is still in an extended funding winter – and why each market (Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore) has its own funding “personality”.

    The “single-source funding” trap created by government money, CVCs, or family groups dominating early capital – and what that does to the early-stage pipeline.

    How Kevin designs Indelible’s fund model around realistic 50–250M exits – and why power law still holds even when the numbers are smaller than in the US.

    Failure rates as a structural fact of life, and where value-add can and can’t move the needle.

    What this all means for emerging managers trying to raise their first fund in SEA or comparable markets.

    A grounded discussion of programs like VC Lab: how they help compress the emerging-manager learning curve without replacing the need for deep local context.

    If you’re an LP, GP, or founder operating between Europe, Southeast Asia, and other emerging markets, this episode offers a candid look at how to think about power-law returns at the scale your ecosystem actually operates in.Episode links

    Indelible Ventures - https://indelible.vc/

    Kevin on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/kbrockland

    Emerging Forward newsletter – https://emergingforward.substack.com



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
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    37 mins
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