Investor Talk

Chile farms almost a third of the world's salmon. In 2024 its farms used more than 330 tonnes of antibiotics, nearly all of it against one bacterial disease, SRS. Vaccines given to young fish wear off long before harvest.

In this episode we speak with Daniela Allerbon, who co-founded Aquit with scientists Jörn Bethke and Cristián Valenzuela, each with more than 15 years of fish immunity research.

Aquit's first product, InnBoost, is a protein the salmon already makes as part of its own immune system. Made with yeast and mixed into the usual feed for seven days, it primes the fish before the riskiest weeks. Other immune boosters have to be fed for months and cause inflammation.

In Aquit's controlled trials, InnBoost had the best survival result against SRS reported in the market. In December it goes into its first commercial farm trial with Multi X, one of Chile's largest producers, with Cargill making the feed.

Their vision: the same approach for shrimp, tilapia and poultry, so farms everywhere need fewer antibiotics.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer, founder of Epic Angels.

Solar is going up on factories, warehouses and farms faster than any other way of making electricity, and those panels are meant to stay there for 30 to 40 years. Keeping them producing is the hard part. In Mexico, three out of four installed sites underperform, and most owners can't tell whether the cause is dirt, a broken part, a new building throwing shade or simply a cloudy week.

In this episode we speak with Morgan Babbs and Manuel Wiechers, who spent a decade bringing pay-as-you-go solar to rural homes in Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and the US, in companies that today power close to 35,000 homes and small businesses.

Popular Power is software for the companies that own and look after solar portfolios. It connects to the major inverter and battery brands, reads what the panels already report, and adds weather and maintenance data. It cuts thousands of alerts down by 97% and tells the operator which site is losing money, why, and what the crew should fix. It also registers projects for renewable energy certificates, which earns customers in Mexico an extra $6 per kilowatt per year.

Popular Power is at about US$1 million in annual recurring revenue, with customers across Mexico, Central America and Colombia, and as far away as Nepal and South Sudan. Customers see on average a 7 percentage point lift in performance, worth at least $30,000 per megawatt per year, and Popular Power is behind 22% of the Mexican projects registered for renewable energy certificates.

Their vision: to become the operating system and system of record for solar, trusted by the operator, the investor and the company with the panels on its roof.

Followed by Investor Talk with Silke Weber.

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

Listen to the story of Jo Ingram Morris and Kelly Spoerk from Matilda Health. Based in Perth, Australia, they are filling a gap most women know first-hand: a knee replacement comes with a full preparation and recovery program, but a woman going into endometriosis surgery, a hysterectomy or a caesarean usually leaves with a pamphlet. Matilda is the support layer around gynaecological surgery: education, exercises, coaching and a community, prescribed by her own gynaecologist, who pays for every surgical patient on her list. Jo, a pelvic health physiotherapist for over ten years, founded Matilda with Kevin Wernli, a physiotherapist with a PhD in chronic pain; Kelly, joined as COO from the VC world. More than 1,200 women across eight countries have been through the program, revenue has doubled every quarter since the surgeon model launched in January, and the hysterectomy program exists because the surgeons asked for it. Epic Angels first invested in 2024, and this episode is the story of why we are going in again.

Hosted by Maaike Doyer, founder of Epic Angels.

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.