 We're here at ITU Telecom World 2015 in Budapest in Hungary, and I'm very pleased to be joined by Nadim Sheikh, who is founder and CEO of Anthemist. Nadim, thank you very much for being with us in the studio today. Thank you so much for having me. Now the theme here at ITU Telecom World is accelerating innovation for social impact. Perhaps I can start off by asking you, how do you see ITT innovation directly impacting on social economic development? Sure. I think there is a major transformation going on in industry, and it started with the consumer and what we call a digit-native consumer. And this digit-native consumer is no longer just the young ones, they're everyone, every age, every creed, every culture and nationality around the world. And what is happening there is a really fundamental shift going on in the business model and the organizational model that goes with it. So the hierarchies we have from the 20th century are disappearing, which also means that the impact of social along with the technology and along with the business environment allows us to really reconfigure solutions that we never thought possible before, even five years ago. And so we're seeing startups coming in, which are really formulating a very different way of doing economics. So stuff that was considered out of reach, out of price for consumers is becoming a reasonable and making very profitable propositions. And then combine that with the scale, then you have a whole different ballgame. Tell me a little bit about Anthemist. What are you mainly focusing on? So we are a financial services space. We invest in disruptive startups around the world, where we invest in new banks, new type of insurance companies, payment wealth management, mobile plays. Then we also have an advisory business to really help the industry figure out how does new innovation going to impact them. So we take the ideas from zero to one in terms of from really early stage and seed them to really then helping them scale them up from one to N. So it's a combination of really how do you reconfigure financial services for the 20th century from both angles, both from the industry as well as the innovators. And what do you think is the key of encouraging entrepreneurship and fostering the growth of SMEs in the ICT sector? I think it's very important. I think so. On the panel this morning on the industry SME panel, the SMEs must really, really focus on is developing good businesses. That basic premise of a good business has to be there. I am seeing so many SMEs now because it's very easy to start up these days. A lot of half-baked ideas, which are mostly products and features, and there's a lot of noise about saying how we're not getting funding around this. For the folks that are really setting up good businesses in whatever segment of it and understanding how to approach a customer, who the customer is, how to make a profit business, how to scale it, they have no issues with funding. They have no number to ever. In fact, they are the other way around. They are sitting there and saying, why should I take money from you? And the debate as opposed to why should, please give me money. And then also is why should I partner with you? I don't need to partner with you. And so we are seeing, so what I really focus on when we do our investments and stuff, we really focus on the founders, what are passionate about them, because they require tenacity to build these businesses. It's not an easy thing to do, but I would encourage folks to really think about business as opposed to products and features and looking for the nearest exit to get some money in. It doesn't work that way. And how easy is it to sort out the weed from the chaff? How are you making your decisions? Yeah, it's not easy unless you have a thematic focus around this. We have been looking at this industry for nine, ten years. So we started investing in what we call fintech really eight, nine years ago when there wasn't such a thing, right? There were maybe 50 companies worldwide and now there are thousands of companies. And you have to have really a thematic focus and a good understanding of the fundamentals of this stuff and really absolutely look at this as a business and saying what are the right businesses and all the metrics that go for a business. This is not the internet age of the 2000s where people just investing really nearly in good technology. This is really about focus on that basic fundamental stuff. A lot of people are turning to crowdsourcing. Is that the answer? I think it's one of the answers for certain things, you know, but it's not necessarily the answer for all businesses. There are some lending models which are turning into from crowdsourcing models. There are also some insurance model, which is crowdsourcing data information. So there's applications of that. But we shouldn't get carried away as being that being the solution to everything, right? Now, you're based in the UK. I mean, what about in a worldwide perspective? So we are based in, you know, UK and Geneva as our fundamental officers, but we invest globally. So we invest a lot of investments in the US and Europe. We have investments in Asia and Africa. We also do advisory businesses with clients around the world. Really, really exception of Latin America. We're present pretty much. I think what's changed is that this idea of innovation only happening in a couple of places in the world like Palo Alto is changed. Now we're seeing really a cross-aboard from Lahore to Kenya to, you know, to Thailand and Estonia to Bali and Indonesia. Lots of places where people are, you know, communities are forming, the ecosystem being reconfigured. The social part of our world allows us to do it very differently. So the accessibility to good ideas and good execution, good teams doesn't have to be in a physical space anymore. So that connectivity is changing the way we operate and where the innovation is happening. So we see it happening globally and there's disruption going on everywhere. And what about the gender question? What about gender balance? I mean, we at ITU heavily promote girls in ICTs and their involvement and how they should be enthusiastic and involved in ICTs. I'm just wondering if you've seen the growth of female entrepreneurs in this field? We've certainly seen that. You know, one of my colleagues runs a foundation out of Pratislava, which is focused on women entrepreneurs. But really, I think it's we are seeing good ideas come from everywhere and women entrepreneurs are suddenly becoming that. I think the traditional hierarchy of the networks is changing. And again, in our world of digital and social connectivity, those networks no longer apply. So which means that people were not traditionally focused on network and now work, right? So we're seeing really ideas from all kinds of places and some new women entrepreneurs are some of the leading license in our industry. And what's the value for you attending events such as ITU, Telecom World? I think it's about sharing, it's about network, it's about getting ideas. I met someone who's apparently following one of our portfolio companies as their partners with them. I didn't know. Just randomly ran into them. So it's a great forum to really connect, make some new connections, and share some ideas and thoughts and kind of hopefully go back a little bit enriched. Nadim, thank you very much. Dave being with us in the studio today. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. That's great. Thank you. Thank you.