Almost a third of all the food available to us is thrown away. In Hong Kong alone, 3,300 tonnes go to landfill every single day, nearly a third of everything the city bins. And most of it is perfectly good. Bakeries bake for the last customer who might walk in, hotels lay out a full buffet until closing, so ten to fifteen percent of what they make is surplus by design.

In this episode we speak with Louis-Alban Batard-Dupré and Mahima Rajangam Natarajan, an HEC Paris graduate who spent a decade scaling tech companies across Europe, the US and Southeast Asia, and a growth marketer who built customer acquisition at Lazada and Eatigo.

Yindii is Asia's surplus food marketplace. Shops list what they haven't sold as a "surprise bag" at 50 to 70% off, you reserve it in the app, and collect it in the last hour before closing. The merchant recovers money on food that was heading for the bin, pays nothing to join, and Yindii only earns a commission when a bag actually sells. For the customer it is the cheapest good food in the city, plus a small thrill: you don't know what's inside until you open it.

1.1 million meals rescued so far across Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore, with Seoul launching. More than 1,000 merchant partners including Pret A Manger, Paul, Marriott, Accor and Circle K. Revenue has tripled three years running, and the company turned profitable in 2025.

Their vision: to become the platform Asia's food businesses run all their surplus through, from the bakery on the corner to the warehouses upstream.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

Listen to the story of Marinella Pinate, Daniela Lascurain and Fernanda De La Colina from Zumma. Based in Mexico, they are taking on one of the most hated jobs in corporate finance: chasing the government-stamped invoices every company needs.

In Mexico, an expense is not deductible without the official invoice, the CFDI, for every single transaction, and this kind of mandatory e-invoicing is now spreading across more than 60 countries. Zumma tackles this with a workforce of AI agents: an employee simply sends a photo of a receipt over WhatsApp, and Zumma retrieves the official invoice and pushes the data straight into the company's accounting system. Sold both directly and embedded inside corporate cards and banks such as Clara, Jeeves and Konfío, Zumma already serves around 550 companies and is already at breakeven.

Their goal is to free finance teams from manual work and, step by step, build a company's entire finance back office run by AI, what they call the future of autonomous finance.

Angel investors Jimena Colin and Vicky Yu are joining the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute XX).

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

In Pakistan, bank CEOs have a ready answer for why women don't have access to credit. They call them "not economically viable." So 60 million women built their own system. No bank needed. No credit score. No permission. $14 billion moves through these informal savings circles every year — entirely in cash, entirely invisible to the formal economy.

In this episode, we speak with Halima Iqbal, founder and CEO of Oraan — a Pakistan-based fintech that digitised that $14 billion system, and then found something even bigger hiding inside it.

Oraan's digital committees platform has 600,000 users and a lifetime default rate of 1.89% — compared to 12-13% at microfinance banks. These women are the best credit risk in Pakistan. The formal system just never looked. In November 2025, Oraan launched Oraan Gold — fractional gold savings starting at $10 a month, price locked at first payment, physical delivery when the plan completes. In seven months, the gold book grew 74 times. On minimal marketing spend.

Oraan holds a full NBFC licence and is expanding its savings and wealth stack into other emerging markets through partnerships with financial institutions.

Their vision: financial inclusion for women — not just in Pakistan, but across every emerging market where women have been told their money doesn't matter.

Angel investor Sarah Fairhurst joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute 33:00).

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

Listen to the story of Avika Narula and Abhi Agarwal from Living Roots. Based in Thailand, they taking on the large and real-world problem of food safety. Growing pressure on soil health, rising fertilizer costs and supply chain fragility, fuels the demand for regenerative agriculture. Living Roots tackles this problem by starting from first principles in science and farming economics by combining biology, agronomy, local manufacturing, and AI-assisted formulation to create what they call “crop protocols”: a system of biological products paired with an intelligence layer that adapts formulations by crop type, soil conditions, and growth stage. Their goal is to help farmers improve yields, reduce dependency on synthetic fertilizers, and restore soil health, while maintaining or improving farmer profitability.

Angel investor Megha Jindal joins the Investor Talk at the end of this podcast (minute 53:30).

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

In Pakistan, 36% of women never see a doctor in their entire lifetime. The doctors exist — Pakistan trains more female doctors than male. But 80% never practice after marriage. They're called "doctor brides." The supply is there. The connection isn't.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Sara and Dr. Iffat — both physicians, both former "doctor brides" — who built Sehat Kahani (meaning "story of health"), a digital health platform connecting female doctors to patients across Pakistan in 60 seconds. B2B model: corporates and insurers pay a flat fee, employees get instant access via app. And for areas where the nearest doctor is 100km away, 82 telemedicine clinics on the ground. Nearly 5 million consultations, 1,200 corporate partners, a Harvard Business School case study, and the first all-female team in Pakistan to close a Series A. Now expanding to the UAE — contracts signed, doctors licensed, GCC market growing 21% a year.

Their vision: quality primary healthcare for everyone, everywhere — powered by women doctors who refused to give up their careers.

Followed by Investor Talk with Karin Welbrock, executive leadership coach and one of Epic Angels' most active angel investors.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

The average car in Latin America sits idle 90% of the time. Renting one still means queuing at a counter, signing paper forms, and arguing about insurance. For 650 million people, that is still the only option.

In this episode, we speak with Juan Manuel Pancic and Juan Andrés Vico — MIT-trained data scientist and tech lead veteran of BlackRock and McDonald's — about TripWip, the peer-to-peer carsharing app turning idle cars into income across Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay. 23 months in: 130,000 users, 4X year-on-year growth, and Toyota, Kia, and Turo insiders already at the cap table. We also hear from COO and first-ever employee Sabina Balestrino on building a team across three countries.

Followed by Investor Talk with #EpicInvestor Luisa Ladrón de Guevara, former Head of Operations Latin America at Uber.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. 550 million people have it. 80% don't know — because the only reliable test requires an $80,000 machine, a specialist, and 40 minutes of forced breathing that many patients simply cannot do. Most people find out they have COPD after they've already lost 40% of their lung function.

In this episode, we speak with Colombia / Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Dr. Maria Artunduaga and Ricardo Garcia — a Harvard and Berkeley-trained physician-scientist and an MIT-educated audio engineer who spent a decade at Google — about Sylvee, the world's first AI-powered active acoustic wearable for lung diagnostics. The device presses against your chest, sends sound waves into your lungs, and delivers clinical-grade results in under five minutes. No specialist, no lab, no forced breathing. Validated in Protected by 18 granted patents, and already generating commercial contracts with global respiratory pharma Chiesi and strategic investment from Suramericana, the fourth largest health insurer in Latin America.

Their vision: bring hospital-grade lung diagnostics to the one billion people worldwide living with respiratory disease — from any setting, anywhere in the world.

Followed by Investor Talk with #EpicInvestor Paula Restrepo.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

Alkemio is an Argentina-based deep tech company rethinking rare earth refining at a time when global supply chains are under pressure. With over 90% of refining capacity concentrated in China, industries and governments are seeking independent access to critical minerals essential for EVs, semiconductors, defense systems, and energy transition infrastructure.

In this episode, we speak with founders Federico Pereyra Bonnet and Ailin Svagzdys, about the company’s proprietary molecular recognition platform and its modular, climate-friendly, refining model as an alternative to capital-heavy legacy plants. With a 15-year commercial framework in place at Iron Duke Mine, Alkemio is positioning itself at the intersection of science, geopolitics, and infrastructure.

Followed by Investor Talk with Laetitia Marcadé, our Investment Committee, #EpicInvestor, and principal at Dalus Capital, the lead investor.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

TeenCare is a Vietnam-based technology company rethinking how families support teenagers during the most difficult years of growing up. As academic pressure, digital exposure, and emotional challenges intensify, parents are expected to guide their children with little real-time insight into what their teens are actually experiencing.

TeenCare tackles this by combining live human mentors with AI-powered personalization. Weekly 1-on-1 mentoring sessions generate real behavioral data, which the platform translates into ongoing insights about each child’s motivations, triggers, and patterns. Instead of generic advice or one-off solutions, parents receive continuous, personalized guidance tailored to their teenager.

Founded by Linh Hoang, who previously scaled WeGrow to 80,000 paid students, TeenCare scaled to an ARR of 1 million USD in just nine months, and has been cash flow positive since May 2025. Backed by Ascend Vietnam Ventures and Iterative, the company is now expanding into the Philippines and Singapore. In this episode, we explore how emotional AI is reshaping parenting, why trust is central to TeenCare’s model, and what this means for the future of family and youth development.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.

Companies rely on thousands of suppliers, yet struggle to answer a simple question: do we really know who we’re doing business with right now? With 2,677 ESG and sustainability policies globally, supplier diligence has become a moving target, turning supplier intelligence into core enterprise infrastructure.

Givvable addresses this by embedding continuously verified supplier data directly into procurement, ERP, and risk systems. Instead of one-off surveys or static reports, enterprises can continuously screen, vet, and assess suppliers using trusted credential data at the point where decisions are actually made.

In this episode, Frances Atkins and Naomi Vowels, co-founders of Givvable, share how they built a supplier intelligence platform now supporting 65+ enterprise customers across APAC, the US, and the UK, and why supplier data is becoming unavoidable infrastructure in an increasingly regulated world.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer & Hester Spiegel, founders of Epic Angels.