The Venture

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Feb 2025

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About the show

The Venture is an original podcast hosted by serial business builders from McKinsey. In each episode, our experts cut through the noise to show how leaders can launch new companies, testing their theories in conversations with legendary venture builders in Asia. We break down their journey – how they did it, the challenges they faced, how they built successful businesses.

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31 recent

February 4, 202526 min

Connecting patients to healthcare: A conversation with Halodoc’s Jonathan Sudharta

Jonathan Sudharta, the co-founder and CEO of Indonesian telemedicine company, Halodoc, is making healthcare more accessible in the world’s fourth-largest country.   When Jonathan started his career as a pharmaceutical sales rep, he spent a lot of time in waiting rooms, watching patients wait—often for hours—just to see a doctor. He recognized an opportunity to address a lack of healthcare access in Indonesia and, in 2016, launched Halodoc, a telehealth app that now connects millions of Indonesians to over 20,000 healthcare professionals, clinics, labs, and pharmacies. Since then, Halodoc has raised $80 million in 2021 and another $100 million in 2023. In this episode of The Venture, Jonathan speaks to McKinsey’s Timothy Yap about Halodoc’s mission-driven culture, how the company reduced patient wait times from hours to minutes, and how it rose to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

November 20, 202422 min

Defying the odds to find fintech app success: A conversation with Nays’ Ceyda Yalçın

The leader behind one of Turkey’s top banking apps shares how an initiative from the country’s largest bank disrupted a crowded fintech market. With over 600 fintech competitors, İşbank’s Nays app carved its own path by delivering a gamified user experience that attracted 1 million users in its pilot and 3 million in just 12 months. Ceyda Yalçın, leader of the Nays app, joins McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to explore how innovative features, strategic marketing, and simplicity helped Nays stand out and win over Turkey’s young, tech-savvy customers. Beyond growth, Yalçın delves into the challenges of maintaining a startup mindset, while continuing to innovate and scale in an increasingly competitive market. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

October 30, 202419 min

Harnessing AI to revolutionize healthcare: A conversation with Huma’s Dan Vahdat

Dan Vahdat, the founder and CEO of Huma, is on a mission to change how the healthcare industry approaches research, treatment, and care. Growing up in a family of doctors, Dan saw how 24/7 treatment of patients often deteriorates as soon as they leave the hospital – which is typically when complications occur. To fix this, he started Huma in 2011, a London-based company focused on making healthcare more proactive. Huma’s digital platforms are now used by over 3,000 hospitals and millions of people around the world. Recently, Huma raised over $80 million in funding to support its new AI-powered platform. In this episode of The Venture, Dan talks with McKinsey’s Timothy Yap about how AI and wearable technology are playing a key role in improving healthcare and why success still relies more on people than technology.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

February 27, 202422 min

Targeting an untapped fintech market worth trillions: A conversation with Arta Finance’s Caesar Sengupta

The CEO of a cutting-edge fintech explain how his start-up offers investment services once reserved for the ultra-wealthy to successful professionals. As the eight cofounders of Singapore-based Arta Finance got to know one other during their years together at Google, they recognized a massive market gap for investment services aimed people like themselves: successful professionals who were doing well, but not well enough to access top-tier financial services. With a total addressable market in the trillions, they decided to launch a fintech start-up offering these elite services at scale, using a digital platform powered by AI. The venture quickly attracted prominent investors and VC funding in excess of $92 million, is already doing business in the US, and will begin operating in Singapore by early 2024. Caesar Sengupta, CEO of Arta Finance, sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss Arta’s mission to automate public market investing and provide access to alternative assets by offering clients the services of a digital private bank and family office. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

January 22, 202421 min

Now is the time to create new corporate ventures: A conversation with McKinsey’s Paul Jenkins

The global coleader of Leap by McKinsey discusses the firm’s latest global survey, which finds that business leaders and investors are bullish on building new businesses. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, businesses are increasingly enthusiastic about creating new ventures, according to McKinsey’s latest global survey on new-business building. More than 50 percent of surveyed CEOs cited new-business building as one of their top three priorities—unlike in the previous two years. And a majority of CFOs see business building as the single most likely strategic action on the corporate agenda. Investors are equally excited, valuing each dollar created in adjacent businesses at two times the rate of each one generated by the core business. In this episode of The Venture, Paul Jenkins, senior partner and global coleader of Leap by McKinsey, sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the survey’s findings, which include a priority on creating green and gen AI−related businesses, why the current climate favors incumbents, and the need to adopt a portfolio approach to corporate business building. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

September 18, 202329 min

Disrupting a mature industry with a digital solution: A conversation with Mlion’s Eric Leong

The CEO of a leading Southeast Asian steel distributor explains why he decided to launch a venture designed to reuse steel, reduce carbon emissions, and disrupt his core business. If the many infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia have a common denominator, it’s steel. And in just 12 years, Singapore-based Mlion has become the region’s largest supplier of steel material for the construction of roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and underground tunnels, with offices in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China. In 2021, Mlion launched GoListid, an online B2B steel marketplace designed to solve an industry-wide problem by allowing contractors to buy and sell used steel, saving money by eliminating the need to scrap it prematurely and reducing carbon emissions by prolonging its lifespan. Mlion chairman and CEO Eric Leong sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the creation of GoListid, why he thought it made sense to disrupt his core business, the importance of culture and talent, and his plans to eventually spin it off. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

June 12, 202320 min

Mitigating climate change with venture capital: A conversation with Wavemaker Impact’s Steve Melhuish

The founding partner of a Southeast Asian VC fund explains his company’s global ambitions to create economic opportunity, promote sustainability, and reduce carbon emissions. Human activity began altering the climate in the mid-19th century, when the industrial revolution began unleashing unprecedented amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But an innovative new VC climate tech venture builder is trying to mitigate some of the ensuing catastrophic climate change with a laudable and lofty goal: reducing 10 percent of global carbon emissions by 2035. Wavemaker Impact plans to reach this goal by funding what it calls 100x100 companies, sustainability start-ups able to mitigate 100 megatons of emissions in 10 years while generating $100 million in revenue. Wavemaker Impact founding partner Steve Melhuish sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the genesis of the venture, why it chose Southeast Asia as the first of 15 global hubs, and why business model innovation is sometimes more important than technological innovation. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

May 10, 202333 min

Uncovering untreated heart disease with AI and big data: A conversation with egnite’s Joel Portice and Edwards Lifesciences’ Don Bobo

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer in every developed country, but only one in ten US patients with severe heart ailments received treatment in 2022. Egnite, a healthcare start-up, has ambitious plans to dramatically improve treatment of heart disease by harnessing the power of AI and big data to identify patients who fell through the cracks after being diagnosed. Egnite was spun out from Edwards Lifesciences, a California-based medical technology company, in early 2021. Egnite’s digital platform, CardioCare, steadily gained acceptance among clinicians, physicians, and hospitals, as the industry rapidly adopted new technology during the pandemic. Don Bobo, corporate vice president at Edwards, and Joel Portice, president and CEO of egnite, sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to discuss the CardioCare platform, the relationship between egnite and Edwards, and the lifesaving capabilities of AI and big data. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

April 10, 202323 min

A circle of sustainability: A conversation with circulee’s Thomas Gros

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Thomas Gros, CEO and cofounder of circulee, a Berlin-based distributor of pre-owned digital hardware. The German start-up provides smaller businesses with a green and cost-effective alternative to new IT devices, offering them professionally tested and warrantied hardware previously leased by large corporates. Gros sat down with McKinsey’s Tomas Laboutka to discuss the central importance of the circular business model, the challenges of pioneering a new business category, and the advantages of being backed by a corporate investor with a ready supply of high-quality, pre-owned devices. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

March 8, 202330 min

Tokenizing nontraditional assets: A conversation with Ascend Bit’s Brian Clark

In this episode of The Venture, we share a conversation with Brian Clark, chief product officer of Ascend Bit, a Bangkok start-up recently spun off from the Ascend Group, itself a part of Thailand’s C.P. Group. Ascend Bit’s mandate is to leverage blockchain solutions on behalf of the group, focusing on applications for businesses and tokenization for consumers. Current efforts focus on productizing, loyalty, and gamification, with an emphasis on tokenizing non-traditional assets for consumers. Clark sat down with McKinsey’s Andrew Roth to discuss the challenges and promise of blockchain, smart contracts and Web3. At the close of the interview, McKinsey’s Dilip Mistry weighs in. Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information