Blockchain is spreading everywhere and seems to be connecting everyone. Our DAA manager ArabFolio.Capital is trying to bridge the gap between Eastern investments and Western opportunities. Read more about ArabFolio.Capital’s views about Arabian buying power and the blockchain environment below.

What is happening in the Middle East regarding the crypto ecosystem? Are there many meetups? Many investors?

Middle Eastern governments are split in half: those who support crypto and blockchain and are trying to embrace it, and those who feel threatened by it. This is not good for start-ups and blockchain projects based in this region and is why we won’t see many Arabian blockchain ICOs or start-ups for at least the next 3–5 years.

From a community perspective, however, it’s growing enormously everywhere around the Middle East, mostly in the Emirates, where there are innumerable conferences and meetups happening every single day.

You are a serial entrepreneur and have been involved in a couple of start-up accelerators. What did you learn from these experiences, and did you learn anything you use when evaluating crypto projects?

Every crypto project is a start-up. I learned that the failure rate of start-ups is very high — up to 90%. But why?

According to CB Insights, 42% of start-ups fail because there is no market need. Only 29% fail because they run out of cash. This is how I look at it. I don’t really care how much money a project has raised with their ICO or how much they want to raise.

I ask myself two questions:

1. Does the world really need this solution right now?

2. Will the world still need this solution in five years?

If the answer to both questions is “yes,” that’s a green light to start my due diligence (how experienced the team is, partners and marketing, etc.).

Arabfolio Capital is the first DAA in the Middle East. How do you see crypto developments in the Middle East? What is the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge is the regulatory side. The moment governments decide to be friendly with crypto investors is the moment we will see billions of dollars entering the market.

Arabian buying power is no less than buying power in countries where crypto is very popular, such as Korea — in fact, it’s enormously more.

Which projects do you think are too important to miss? Why?

If I could only choose one, I would choose PundiX, which already has a working product.

PundiX is solving a real problem: allowing crypto investors and normal people to use crypto for daily payments. When PundiX launches their point of sale devices, they will drive a huge number of everyday people to this market, and we will finally have a solid, real-life solution for crypto to be used in daily life.

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