April 23, 2025 • 30 mins
As global trade becomes increasingly protectionist, New Zealand’s tech sector faces a welcome anomaly for now: digital exports are tariff-free.
Unlike goods, software and digital services still move relatively freely across borders, and nowhere is this opportunity greater than in India—a vast, fast-growing market hungry for innovation.
The story of Valocity Global, founded by Auckland-based serial entrepreneur Carmen Vicelich, is a masterclass in how Kiwi tech companies can thrive in India which with its 1.4 billion people, youthful demographics (over 50% under 28), and ambitious “housing for all” and financial inclusion policies, is digitising at speed.
Valocity Global now offers services to 20 banks in India, streamlining the process of valuing property with an app-based system that replaces manual and time-consuming valuation processes. Carmen joins me on episode 94 of The Business of Tech to explain how Valocity cracked the indian market, and how other Kiwi digital exporters can do the same.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This week in the Business of Tech powered by two
Degrees Business. We're talking India, a market of one point
four billion people, and one our Prime Minister has at
the top of his wish list of countries he wants
to seal a free trade deal with.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We've had an economic breakthrough in the relationship economic relationship
with India with the announcement of our comprehensive free trade agreement.
Negotiations able to commence, and so it's a really good win.
It's a great win for New Zealand. Obviously it forms
part of a desire to have a deeper and broader
relationship with India.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, that's a great idea, and particularly at a time
when the US is wielding tariffs as a geopolitical weapon
around the world, doing more trade with countries that truly
value free trade is a win for small trading nations
like New Zealand. But agriculture and dairy in particular is
a bit of a stumbling block in the way for
free trade deal with India, where hundreds of thousands of
(00:59):
dairy farmers with small holdings are naturally terrified at the
prospect of Fonterra undercutting them with our more efficiently produced
dairy products. But my guest on the Business of Tech
this week argues that agriculture shouldn't be the focus of
our trade negotiations with India anyway, as Indian society and
the economy rapidly digitizes, the real opportunity lies in the
(01:23):
knowledge economy and selling software and digital services into India.
Carmen Visilich is doing exactly that with Velocity Global, her company,
which has transformed how property valuation from mortgage lending and
real estate deals is done here in New Zealand, in
Australia and also in India, where it provides its services
(01:45):
for twenty banks. Carmen was on the Prime Minister's trade
delegation to India last month. During that trip in New
Zealand signed a five year deal with Tata Consultancy Services,
the Indian IT services giant. It will advise the airline
on its use of cloud services, artificial intelligence, data analytics
(02:05):
and automation. Spark has since done a deal with Emphasis,
another major Indian player in IT services. Again, that's great
free trade, but what about tech related trade going the
other way?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Carmen, who is also the founder of a couple of
other interesting startups data insight and generate zero reckons. There's
huge potential for our startups to take advantage of India's
massive wave of digitization. It isn't an easy market, she
told me. Basically, if you can crack the Indian market,
you can succeed anywhere. But she's got some great advice
(02:44):
on how to approach this vast and promising market. So
without further ado, here's my interview with Velocity global founder
Carmen Vicilage. Carmen, welcome to the business of Tech.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
How are you doing.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I'm super Peter. Great to have you, Thanks for having me.
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, great to have you on. This is a company, Velocity,
that I think is doing fantastic things from New Zealand,
but very much an international company now operations or using
your software and services and something like three five hundred cities,
so it's literally global.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We're going to get to that.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But you are an exporter, you are spending a lot
of time around the world. Really keen just to start
off with to get your perspective on what's going on
in the world of trade, particularly with all these tariffs
that the US has leveraged on other countries in the
way that they've responded. Does this directly affect any of
(03:48):
your businesses? You are essentially a digital exporter. They haven't
been hit by tariffs.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, that's right, and I guess yeah. We're very happy
with where we are as a digital exporter, particularly play
in the Mena region. We're in the UAE as well,
which is just so innovative and you know, they just
embrace technology and digital and very much India, which is unusual,
having just been on the Prime Minister's trip as one
of the rare companies exporting tech to India as opposed
(04:16):
to using tech resources to support you know, functions back
in New Zealand. And at the same time also having
Data Insight, the other company that I founded that's run
by an amazing team that also leverages data and AI.
And I think if we look at what's happening in
the world, you know, there's there's some really big themes
(04:37):
and we can't ignore tech and digital and the AI.
You know that we're going to look back at this
era as this amazing revolution of how we use data
and how we use digital, underpinned by the capability of AI.
And that's obviously the area that we're playing in with
both all three of my companies that I've founded. But
there is a trade war and it is back to
primary industries, and I think there there's there needs to
(05:02):
be the recognition that value creation isn't no longer just
about exporting things. Really, especially for a small nation. Value
creation is exporting exponentially and starting that same thing multiple
times for high margin And there's some great examples of
businesses doing exactly that. Obviously Zero is one of the
(05:22):
best examples. And the value creation that rock Juries created
from scratch from New Zealand. He didn't have to move
the company or the head office. You know, it's such
a great test case, and you know, they were a
global brand around the world, Rocket Labs. And so when
we think about that, it's actually, well, how do we
think things about things differently? And it's very much was
the conundrum when we were in India that India doesn't
(05:45):
need more cows, India doesn't need more milk, India doesn't
need more apples. They're really wanting to say, how do
we turn those things? You know, how do we turn
milk into yogurt and export that around the world and
partner around technology and capability and IP and it's a
different way of thinking. And when we see the trade wars,
we see that real protectionism, anti globalism that's happening overnight,
(06:06):
and we really have to recognize we need to adapt
our thinking to play to the macroeconomics that are happening
around us.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, digital trade is really at the moment is the
last bastian of free trade. I mean, you know, we
do charge gst on digital imports in the form of
Netflix subscriptions and Microsoft fees for using Azure and the like,
but essentially it's you know, the World Trade Organization has
a moratorium on charging tarifs on digital trade, which is fantastic,
(06:37):
as you say. You know, it's been good for us
with the likes of zero. So Paul Callahan said twenty
years ago, he said, get off the grass. We need
to embrace the knowledge economy, and we've sort of done that,
you know, tech, which includes a lot of hardware and telecommunications.
But it's now our second biggest export market behind dairy,
so it's sort of working. I guess the nightmare scenario is,
(06:59):
you know, if Trump decides to go after services as well.
Having said that they are a big exporter of services themselves,
you know, it's seven hundred billion dollars last year, about
about a quarter off US traders services. So they're not
going to shoot themselves in the foot like that, are they.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
No, they're the largest exporter of services, and you know
that's where they've had also the most accreative growth over
the year as an overtaken you know, since nineteen forty
is overtaken Japan, and that is the value creation. The
most valuable businesses in the world are no longer of things.
It's no longer mobile Coca Cola and a brand. The
world has changed. The most valuable businesses are technology businesses
(07:42):
that leverage the power of data and connectivity and make
our lives easier and they've changed the way that we live.
And there's so many examples in that, and I think
it's really great to see the understanding of that. And
that was also a lot of the conversation in India
actually that we just had that minute. Todd had a
meeting with the Commerce commission Minister in India and chose
(08:05):
just a couple of companies to join them, and we
were very privileged to be one of those companies. And interestingly,
their minister also brought a couple of companies to join them,
and the companies he brought right away, we had opportunities
to partner and it was showing that we were thinking
outside of primary industries, and both ministers were very aligned
that that was the opportunities to create value for both countries.
(08:28):
And their company was a drone company doing the surveying
for properties and for climate and you know when we
obviously work with banks and we're a platform for banks
for people making decisions. So it's a real natural partnership.
And they're so fast in India. Whatsappened me by the
end of the meeting to go, let's meet, let's partner,
and to see the alignment of the two governments on
(08:49):
that was really exciting, which I think probably feeds into yours. Well,
how do tech companies go to India and what do
you need to think about?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, there was one big deal announced out of that,
a five year agreement between Air New Zealand and Tata
Consultancy Services, a big IT consultancy. You know, that's really interesting.
Huge IT capability exists in India and Tata will be
helping Air New Zealand sort of upskill you know, the
engineering workforce and that and things like artificial intelligence use
(09:19):
of cloud tool So that's really cool. But what we
really want to see is digital experts going to India,
and it's been very little discussion of that because it
is sort of an immature area of trade. But you've
been India in India now with Velocity for several years.
First of all, tell us about the sort of the
common problem that Indian landowners and banks have that you've
(09:45):
been solving in New Zealand, which you've now taken to India.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah. I think it's a really good question, and I
think you know the lessons is a common problem, but
it's also about localizing and telling the story differently so
that it's relevant to what they're China achieve. So every
bank in the world has to validate the value of
a property before they can lend money on it, and
in New Zealand and Australia we help banks do that
better and faster than ever, and we have really good
(10:10):
data here where we can use AI and automated valuation models,
or we can connect a bank to their valuers digitally
when they need to send a person to go and
validate that property. Well, in India, when we went there,
they had the same problem, but at massive scale. They have,
you know, urbanization. Modi said, there's one hundred million shortage
(10:31):
of housing. And you know, the overy bank is growing rapidly.
You know, there's demographics. Fifty percent of the population is
under twenty eight and people are buying their first home.
They don't have a credit score because it's very much
a cash society, so the bank really has to rely
on the value of the collateral of the property to
say yes. And what they were doing is they were going,
(10:52):
we were going, well, how do you do it today?
And the value was going into a branch, capturing, picking
up the documents, going to the property and bringing back
a whole copy, or in some instances they were emailing
through a PDF and sending back a PDF and then
keying that into the banking system. And it was taking weeks.
And the worst thing was there is no data. So
(11:12):
if you've been to India, there isn't an address start
when you go somewhere. It's on the corner of behind
this building. And when we first went, they kept going,
but what about the data? And I'm like, well, what
about the data? Is that a question? There is no data?
How do you do quality control. So how does a
bank that's scaling rapidly in this market the size of
Europe and as complexes Europe with different states, how do
(11:34):
you even know if it's right or wrong? And so
the regulator mandated over a certain value, you have to
get two valuations and you just and I'm like, well,
what do you do then? And they just compare the
two valuations and check the lower or the average. Sometimes
they get three. And I was sitting there in my
mind going click, click, click, And so we wasted a
lot of time trying to buy data and partner with
(11:55):
companies that said they had data, and we realized no
one had data, and we realized we had to change
our solution for India to really solve their problem. Well
is it worth us changing it? At the same time,
we also saw the macroeconomic things that Modi was building,
housing for all financial inclusion, massive tailwinds, fastest growing market
in the world, so very much like a tech any
(12:15):
tech company saying well, why will someone give me this information?
We thought, well, every day, tens of thousands of valuers
are going to properties, So how do you digitize that
when they have no technology? They don't have big budgets
to build their own. So we built, especially for India,
an app that the valuer gets the job. In our app,
(12:35):
it pre populates the template for the banks, so we
digitize their template and when they go to the property,
it geotags the address, It timestamps the photographs. They can
drag and drop and they can finish the calculation. It
sends it straight back and so suddenly overnight, this process
takes hours and is instant with data instead of taking
weeks with PDFs and hard copies and WhatsApps and things.
(12:58):
So it was revolutionary. Obviously there was is to make
it use a friendly for valuers had to work online,
had to work offline. They started dragging and dropping four
hundred fields and doing valuations for plants and machinery for
hospitals and using our app for everything. And then obviously adoption,
well you know, what's this foreign owned company doing with
the data and all of that data privacy things. But
(13:18):
you know, the long story short is today we have
twenty banks. But it was very much We created a
localized solution for India that now means for emerging markets,
we can go anywhere and digitized property and addressing and
data capture at scale, which is really phenomenally exciting.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's incredible. Were there any sort of regulations or legal
issues you had to overcome? Sort of taking India on
this transition from very manual property valuation processes into the
sort of app driven version of it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Very much so. So some banks weren't using cloud det
so we had to help them do their cloud policy. Obviously,
everywhere we go in the world, it needs to be
cloud local cloud. The data can't leave the country, and
I think it's important for anyone in tech to recognize
the right to growth, the right to scale, and think
(14:11):
about that from day one. So you know, we were
building world class global from day one. Because New Zealand
is a small market. There's only so many million houses.
There's only four big banks and then a few small ones.
So we were building this is a global problem that
we're solving, and we were doing this from day one.
So when they want us to do those things, they're
kind of the right to do business. And I think
(14:33):
that's what we really need to emphasize, and that's what
when we were in India with the ministers and the
Prime Minister, certainly my message was most good New Zealand
tech companies are global from day one. We're building to scale,
we're building to export because we recognize New Zealand's a
small market and so that's where we're such a great
test case for the world because it works here and
(14:54):
then we can scale it and that's the opportunity to
partner with these large markets where something has proven. But
we're all so very agile and very fast.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And yeah, look, you talk to any software entrepreneur in
New Zealand and that mantra is imprinted in their in
their brain. Global from day one. Having said that, most
software entrepreneurs don't sort of go New Zealand, Australia, India.
They go to North America, maybe Singapore or Europe. But
I mean it must have been incredibly daunting for you, thinking, look,
(15:25):
there's an opportunity that's a fast growing market in India,
but how do you get a foothold there when it's
so different.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah, you're right, and lots of people think you're crazy
that New Zealand's you know, taking New Zealand tech to
India is definitely not the usual trodden entrepreneurial path. And
I think it's really important to recognize that you know, firstly,
is the size of the market worth it well one
hundred percent? You know, go big or go home. There's
nowhere bigger than India. But you really have to recognize
(15:54):
you're not going to be an overnight success. You have
to get on the airplanes. You have to appoint the
local advisory board that will tell you what you don't know.
You have to keep making sure you find the right
team on the ground. Certainly, being locked up for three
years and not being able to travel internationally really slowed
down growth for so many tech companies where you can't
do multimillion dollar deals over zoom and teams. You just
(16:17):
cannot and you can't get the nuancewers of meetings in
the room for those deals of what you need to
do to make it happen from a solution perspective without
being on the ground. So that was really that really
set us back. But you know, and certainly the success
that we've had has been quite daunting and just absolutely
(16:38):
quite surreal. Probably I would say, I mean I'm an
optimistic entrepreneur, but we were we were nominated and as
startup of the air and I think there's some phenomenal
number of startups that start up every single day and
it was a global competition, you know, from Israel and
India as well as the US and Asia, and we
won Startup of the Year. We didn't even have any
(16:58):
people with us. We just didn't expect to win. And
then two years later we one scale Up of the
Year in India because no fintech company went nationwide across
India that you have to be a little bit crazy.
And so you know, the success has been phenomenal, and
now we really want to encourage other New Zealand tech
companies to see the opportunity in India that it is
just you know, in English speaking, democratic and incredibly innovative
(17:21):
market that really wants to digitize everything. And then from India,
once you've done India, you get this credibility across the
region that nothing will be as hard as India. If
you've done it in India, must be able to work here,
and that's where that opportunity for companies going into emerging
markets is really massive.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, so you've clearly explained now how you adapting to
those local conditions is crucial, and you've successfully done that.
The other side of it, I guess, and that was
the reason for the trade mission was government support, as
Christopher Luxen put it, removing the binnacles off the boat.
So things like visa improvements to allow the flow of
(17:59):
skill people between our countries, even having more direct flights
between India and New Zealand is really going to facilitate trade.
What did you get a sense when talking to Indian
business people up there, what do they really need to
facilitate that business to do more and have a deeper
(18:20):
relationship when it comes to business between the two countries.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Well, I think you know, everything is about relationships in India,
and you know, we really underestimated the opportunities there. And
it was you know, the last time that I was
there five years almost to the day previously with Winston
Peters when he was Deputy Prime Minister, and at the
(18:44):
time five years ago, Trump was there, the Australian Prime
minister was there, the Canadian Prime minister had been there,
and everybody was wooing India. So it was quite disappointing
to have five years of no support of governments building
relationships closely getting on a plane and going there. And
I first met Christopher Luxen before he was Prime Minister
and told him what we were doing in India and
he said to me, if I become Prime Minister, you
(19:07):
and I are going to go and we're going to
build this relationship. And he shook my hand and when
the trade delegation was announced, it was really privilege to
be included with such an amazing group of you know,
who's who of New Zealand business to go. So I
think what was done was phenomenal in terms of the
amount of events that we did in one week, the
(19:28):
understanding of what needs to happen, and we didn't come
in with this arrogance or expectation of an agreement overnight.
We came in with where he had to build a relationship.
And that's really important because five years ago when they're like,
oh we didn't get trade agreement, you can't just have
one date and expect to get married. You have to
do a little bit of wooing in relationships, and that
(19:49):
is really important from not just a government level, from
a companies level. You have to build the relationships and
then the opportunities will come. And you have to also
understand what's the shared value exchange. So in our example,
is the same old these policies or housing for all
financial inclusion building one hundred million properties. We've continued to
innovate to deliver on their needs. So, for example, thirty
(20:12):
percent of properties in India are new builds under construction
and it takes three to five years and it's such
a manual process to release the funds as the building
progresses and everybody is having so many touch points. So
we created build iq specifically for India to deliver on
this need, which has now been on board with some
of the largest lenders to allow the lawyer, the builder,
(20:35):
the developer, the value and everybody to load the plans
and interact in velocity. And so I think you really
have to get to know the market and really build
the relationship so you understand the problem that you're solving,
and then you have to solve it better than ever
before and be innovative because there's no room for something
that's like MVP minimum viable product or something, because the
(20:57):
bar is really high and it's probably higher than New
Zealand and Australia. The compliance is really high and go
that's a given. We're working with banks, so you have
to set a really high bar. But the innovation and
the drive that you'll get from that market will make
you better globally, and I think it's important to recognize that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, so we're hearing, you know, the primary exporters are
already starting to sort of band together to think strategically
about how do we how do we leverage this sort
of appetite for more trade with India. So that makes sense,
you know, whether it's you know, the Kiwi fruit growers
and our dairy exporters sort.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Of talking to each other.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Beef hopefully will will be in the mix at some point,
do you see any scope for our digital exporters sort
of or companies banding together to leverage their collective strengths.
I think there were a few others on the trip,
and Keta Dakar, for instance, capture the bug. I think
she's actually employing Indian Indian IT export experts over there
(21:59):
to work on identifying bugs and weaknesses and New Zealand
companies IT systems. So it's sort of the trade is
sort of going going the other way to some extent.
But were there other companies there that are in the
digital space where you thought, wow, maybe we could do
something together.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So Darren from CIRCA was also on the trip, and
you know, they're a little bit quite different in that
they're using tech resource there to build you know, where
they're going. And you know, just seeing how he's built
the culture and scale the culture across different countries and
done it so well is really great. So it's always
really great to learn from companies that are ahead of you,
(22:39):
that have been around for longer and you know some
of those lessons learned. So I think they are a
great example. And you know, and then it's really more
how do we remain relevant And it's I think the
technology the thinking has to change for us adaptable thinking
around It's not just about what ever, it's not about things,
(23:01):
it's about bringing together digital with those things. And so
I think that's where the thinking needs to expand and
we're seeing a lot of that here in New Zealand
with the work Data Insights doing around. You know, how
do companies become data driven and leverage AI and understand
digital because nothing that people you know, certainly you know
(23:22):
that have left school quite some time ago, nothing that
they learned is going to be relevant for the short
near term future. And we're seeing companies like shop Off
I say, everybody needs to use AI, even Circo who
was on the chip. You know, Darren and Bob have
said everybody in Circo needs to use AI, and you
know we're doing that across all three on my companies.
So thinking has to change, and that's where you know,
(23:45):
we're even seeing Data Insights doing a lot of work
as an academy to say, well, how do you become
data driven and how do you change you think? Because
what does digital even mean for large media companies, for
large banks, for large talcos, large utilities that everyone of
the business doesn't normally use data, doesn't normally make data
different decisions? Normally digital was enough team and they did
that and suddenly you want everyone to know that. So
(24:06):
it's a massive organizational shift and cultural shift that needs
to happen in parallel with the technology shift. And that's
in every industry, but I think primary industries. There's some
great examples. Obviously Holter is one of those, you know,
some great examples that are digital first, but then there's
others that really need to embrace that to be able
to compete globally.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, I just wanted to finish off talking about one
of your other businesses you've mentioned, you know, Data Insights.
There that's obviously data analytics and business insights that's hugely popular.
Generate zero is another one of your businesses, and you know,
cluster of New Zealand companies again doing really innovative things,
(24:48):
in this case in sustainability, tracking your carbon footprints using
smart tools like AI. On the flip side, I guess
you know, we've just seen recently Trump sort of ramping
up mining and coal, going back to those dirty industries.
In the US, We've seen in the last couple of
years a little bit of a waning of the sustainability
(25:10):
mantra in the boardroom and that. So what's the sense
you have around the appetite for these sorts of services
that were all rage three years ago? You know, corporate responsibility,
we have to track this, we have to report on this.
Rules were introduced for our listed companies to report on
that in their financial record keeping. Is there still that
(25:33):
appetite for it or are they sort of paying lip
servis to it?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
It's a really good question. One hundred percent is still
appetite for it? Not driving the appetite is the world
isn't run by boardrooms and charms only in for four years,
you know, it doesn't change, climate change. It doesn't change
the expectation of our children. And there's to say, actually,
the world is changing, there's an increase of climate impact.
(25:59):
And you know, when we look back and they say
to us, did we do all that we could? Did
you do everything that you could, we want to be
able to say yes. So Generate zero was driven over
the need to suddenly report and capture data on something
that was intangible and there was no way to do it.
We all know banks have data across different silos, and
yet suddenly they had to do this climate reporting and
(26:20):
we were hearing all about greenwashing and there was no
way to do it. It was very manual. So it
wasn't that I suddenly needed to start a third company.
It was like, well, this is a data problem, and
so Data Insights spun out Generate zero. That basically enables
AI to go in and capture all this data from
all the silos, pull it together in a platform. The
auditor can then look and see the reporting all automated.
(26:43):
But more importantly, the reduction module can also predict and say, well,
you know, use simulation to say how do you get
to your targets? And everybody in the company can see
your progress. And it's all data driven and it's been
a game change. And we have nine banks, five insurance,
whole of government, et cetera, and road Drewry from zero
as our investor in that business. And you know, so
(27:04):
those companies are not saying suddenly, we don't care about
this and we don't want to measure it. And it's
because their customers will judge them. So even if your
bored is not expecting it, your customers are expecting you
to do the right thing. And that is an enduring,
increasing thing. And we just recently had the Open Planet
Sir David Attenburgh film crew visiting here for a week
and they said the company countries that are most embracing
(27:28):
this well, those that are seeing the impact firsthand, India, Africa,
they are seeing the impact of climate change, you know
in the Amazon they see what happens and to article
where they see, you know, the number of dry months
where snow months, et cetera, and ice months, et cetera.
So the data is immutable and the waver is immutable.
(27:48):
One person's somewhat view, I'll try not be derogatory. Can't
change the world. And we're seeing the increase near the
rest of the world and particularly India where you know
they will be hosting a cop and they really are
wanting to embrace and lead the way we're seeing us
in the Mena region and the UAE, where you know
they are doing phenomenal things in Saudi and Niol where
(28:12):
they're boulding sustainable cities, And it's just because that's the
way that we can leap frog and do it, and
that's a better way to do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, as you say, four years, one thousand days essentially,
and then it may be a completely different story. So
credit to you for pursuing that business. It's a great
business to be in, I think for New Zealand and
companies around the world to be able to make it
easy basically for them to do sustainability. Well, thanks so
(28:40):
much for coming on the business of tech. Good luck
for all your aspirations in India and beyond. You're in
UAE now as well.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Thanks. Yeah, we really love the UAE and they're leading
the world and AI and digital and they you know,
they are future thinkers. Everything that they do is pretty
much future thinking. So it's great to be driven by
innovative clients globally that make us better, and then we
bring that back to New Zealand and make New Zealand better.
So we're proud of the work that we're doing. Thanks
so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well then, thanks so much, Carmen. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Velocity now a scale up company with a large business
in India. No reason why more of our startups and
more established tech businesses can't see India as a potential market,
particularly in those fast growing areas like fintech and health tech,
both niches of tech that we do very well in
here in New Zealand. So thanks to Carmen for coming on.
(29:42):
Thanks to two degrees for sponsoring the Business of Tech
enabling me to do these interviews and bring them to
you each week. You'll find the show notes, including my
top ten tech reads of the week, on the Business
Desk website. Just go to the podcast section at Business
Desk dot co dot enz. We're streaming each week on
iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Please like the pod,
(30:06):
rate it and let other people know about it if
you find it useful. Get in touch with me with
ideas and feedback at Peter at Peter Griffin dot co
dot nz or look me up on LinkedIn. I'm on
there every day. Next week a return visit to the
podcast from Paris Marx, the Canadian author, journalist, and tech
commentator who is increasingly asking, you know, I think a
(30:29):
valid question in his own journalism, given what's going on
in the US at the moment, can we still trust
the American tech stack our government and most of our
businesses rely on. That's next week's episode. Paris is thought
provoking and eloquent as always, so tune in next Thursday
to catch my interview with him, Paris Marks.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Till then, have a great week.
This week in the Business of Tech powered by two
Degrees Business. We're talking India, a market of one point
four billion people, and one our Prime Minister has at
the top of his wish list of countries he wants
to seal a free trade deal with.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We've had an economic breakthrough in the relationship economic relationship
with India with the announcement of our comprehensive free trade agreement.
Negotiations able to commence, and so it's a really good win.
It's a great win for New Zealand. Obviously it forms
part of a desire to have a deeper and broader
relationship with India.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, that's a great idea, and particularly at a time
when the US is wielding tariffs as a geopolitical weapon
around the world, doing more trade with countries that truly
value free trade is a win for small trading nations
like New Zealand. But agriculture and dairy in particular is
a bit of a stumbling block in the way for
free trade deal with India, where hundreds of thousands of
(00:59):
dairy farmers with small holdings are naturally terrified at the
prospect of Fonterra undercutting them with our more efficiently produced
dairy products. But my guest on the Business of Tech
this week argues that agriculture shouldn't be the focus of
our trade negotiations with India anyway, as Indian society and
the economy rapidly digitizes, the real opportunity lies in the
(01:23):
knowledge economy and selling software and digital services into India.
Carmen Visilich is doing exactly that with Velocity Global, her company,
which has transformed how property valuation from mortgage lending and
real estate deals is done here in New Zealand, in
Australia and also in India, where it provides its services
(01:45):
for twenty banks. Carmen was on the Prime Minister's trade
delegation to India last month. During that trip in New
Zealand signed a five year deal with Tata Consultancy Services,
the Indian IT services giant. It will advise the airline
on its use of cloud services, artificial intelligence, data analytics
(02:05):
and automation. Spark has since done a deal with Emphasis,
another major Indian player in IT services. Again, that's great
free trade, but what about tech related trade going the
other way?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Well.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Carmen, who is also the founder of a couple of
other interesting startups data insight and generate zero reckons. There's
huge potential for our startups to take advantage of India's
massive wave of digitization. It isn't an easy market, she
told me. Basically, if you can crack the Indian market,
you can succeed anywhere. But she's got some great advice
(02:44):
on how to approach this vast and promising market. So
without further ado, here's my interview with Velocity global founder
Carmen Vicilage. Carmen, welcome to the business of Tech.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
How are you doing.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I'm super Peter. Great to have you, Thanks for having me.
Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, great to have you on. This is a company, Velocity,
that I think is doing fantastic things from New Zealand,
but very much an international company now operations or using
your software and services and something like three five hundred cities,
so it's literally global.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We're going to get to that.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But you are an exporter, you are spending a lot
of time around the world. Really keen just to start
off with to get your perspective on what's going on
in the world of trade, particularly with all these tariffs
that the US has leveraged on other countries in the
way that they've responded. Does this directly affect any of
(03:48):
your businesses? You are essentially a digital exporter. They haven't
been hit by tariffs.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Yeah, that's right, and I guess yeah. We're very happy
with where we are as a digital exporter, particularly play
in the Mena region. We're in the UAE as well,
which is just so innovative and you know, they just
embrace technology and digital and very much India, which is unusual,
having just been on the Prime Minister's trip as one
of the rare companies exporting tech to India as opposed
(04:16):
to using tech resources to support you know, functions back
in New Zealand. And at the same time also having
Data Insight, the other company that I founded that's run
by an amazing team that also leverages data and AI.
And I think if we look at what's happening in
the world, you know, there's there's some really big themes
(04:37):
and we can't ignore tech and digital and the AI.
You know that we're going to look back at this
era as this amazing revolution of how we use data
and how we use digital, underpinned by the capability of AI.
And that's obviously the area that we're playing in with
both all three of my companies that I've founded. But
there is a trade war and it is back to
primary industries, and I think there there's there needs to
(05:02):
be the recognition that value creation isn't no longer just
about exporting things. Really, especially for a small nation. Value
creation is exporting exponentially and starting that same thing multiple
times for high margin And there's some great examples of
businesses doing exactly that. Obviously Zero is one of the
(05:22):
best examples. And the value creation that rock Juries created
from scratch from New Zealand. He didn't have to move
the company or the head office. You know, it's such
a great test case, and you know, they were a
global brand around the world, Rocket Labs. And so when
we think about that, it's actually, well, how do we
think things about things differently? And it's very much was
the conundrum when we were in India that India doesn't
(05:45):
need more cows, India doesn't need more milk, India doesn't
need more apples. They're really wanting to say, how do
we turn those things? You know, how do we turn
milk into yogurt and export that around the world and
partner around technology and capability and IP and it's a
different way of thinking. And when we see the trade wars,
we see that real protectionism, anti globalism that's happening overnight,
(06:06):
and we really have to recognize we need to adapt
our thinking to play to the macroeconomics that are happening
around us.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, digital trade is really at the moment is the
last bastian of free trade. I mean, you know, we
do charge gst on digital imports in the form of
Netflix subscriptions and Microsoft fees for using Azure and the like,
but essentially it's you know, the World Trade Organization has
a moratorium on charging tarifs on digital trade, which is fantastic,
(06:37):
as you say. You know, it's been good for us
with the likes of zero. So Paul Callahan said twenty
years ago, he said, get off the grass. We need
to embrace the knowledge economy, and we've sort of done that,
you know, tech, which includes a lot of hardware and telecommunications.
But it's now our second biggest export market behind dairy,
so it's sort of working. I guess the nightmare scenario is,
(06:59):
you know, if Trump decides to go after services as well.
Having said that they are a big exporter of services themselves,
you know, it's seven hundred billion dollars last year, about
about a quarter off US traders services. So they're not
going to shoot themselves in the foot like that, are they.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
No, they're the largest exporter of services, and you know
that's where they've had also the most accreative growth over
the year as an overtaken you know, since nineteen forty
is overtaken Japan, and that is the value creation. The
most valuable businesses in the world are no longer of things.
It's no longer mobile Coca Cola and a brand. The
world has changed. The most valuable businesses are technology businesses
(07:42):
that leverage the power of data and connectivity and make
our lives easier and they've changed the way that we live.
And there's so many examples in that, and I think
it's really great to see the understanding of that. And
that was also a lot of the conversation in India
actually that we just had that minute. Todd had a
meeting with the Commerce commission Minister in India and chose
(08:05):
just a couple of companies to join them, and we
were very privileged to be one of those companies. And interestingly,
their minister also brought a couple of companies to join them,
and the companies he brought right away, we had opportunities
to partner and it was showing that we were thinking
outside of primary industries, and both ministers were very aligned
that that was the opportunities to create value for both countries.
(08:28):
And their company was a drone company doing the surveying
for properties and for climate and you know when we
obviously work with banks and we're a platform for banks
for people making decisions. So it's a real natural partnership.
And they're so fast in India. Whatsappened me by the
end of the meeting to go, let's meet, let's partner,
and to see the alignment of the two governments on
(08:49):
that was really exciting, which I think probably feeds into yours. Well,
how do tech companies go to India and what do
you need to think about?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, there was one big deal announced out of that,
a five year agreement between Air New Zealand and Tata
Consultancy Services, a big IT consultancy. You know, that's really interesting.
Huge IT capability exists in India and Tata will be
helping Air New Zealand sort of upskill you know, the
engineering workforce and that and things like artificial intelligence use
(09:19):
of cloud tool So that's really cool. But what we
really want to see is digital experts going to India,
and it's been very little discussion of that because it
is sort of an immature area of trade. But you've
been India in India now with Velocity for several years.
First of all, tell us about the sort of the
common problem that Indian landowners and banks have that you've
(09:45):
been solving in New Zealand, which you've now taken to India.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah. I think it's a really good question, and I
think you know the lessons is a common problem, but
it's also about localizing and telling the story differently so
that it's relevant to what they're China achieve. So every
bank in the world has to validate the value of
a property before they can lend money on it, and
in New Zealand and Australia we help banks do that
better and faster than ever, and we have really good
(10:10):
data here where we can use AI and automated valuation models,
or we can connect a bank to their valuers digitally
when they need to send a person to go and
validate that property. Well, in India, when we went there,
they had the same problem, but at massive scale. They have,
you know, urbanization. Modi said, there's one hundred million shortage
(10:31):
of housing. And you know, the overy bank is growing rapidly.
You know, there's demographics. Fifty percent of the population is
under twenty eight and people are buying their first home.
They don't have a credit score because it's very much
a cash society, so the bank really has to rely
on the value of the collateral of the property to
say yes. And what they were doing is they were going,
(10:52):
we were going, well, how do you do it today?
And the value was going into a branch, capturing, picking
up the documents, going to the property and bringing back
a whole copy, or in some instances they were emailing
through a PDF and sending back a PDF and then
keying that into the banking system. And it was taking weeks.
And the worst thing was there is no data. So
(11:12):
if you've been to India, there isn't an address start
when you go somewhere. It's on the corner of behind
this building. And when we first went, they kept going,
but what about the data? And I'm like, well, what
about the data? Is that a question? There is no data?
How do you do quality control. So how does a
bank that's scaling rapidly in this market the size of
Europe and as complexes Europe with different states, how do
(11:34):
you even know if it's right or wrong? And so
the regulator mandated over a certain value, you have to
get two valuations and you just and I'm like, well,
what do you do then? And they just compare the
two valuations and check the lower or the average. Sometimes
they get three. And I was sitting there in my
mind going click, click, click, And so we wasted a
lot of time trying to buy data and partner with
(11:55):
companies that said they had data, and we realized no
one had data, and we realized we had to change
our solution for India to really solve their problem. Well
is it worth us changing it? At the same time,
we also saw the macroeconomic things that Modi was building,
housing for all financial inclusion, massive tailwinds, fastest growing market
in the world, so very much like a tech any
(12:15):
tech company saying well, why will someone give me this information?
We thought, well, every day, tens of thousands of valuers
are going to properties, So how do you digitize that
when they have no technology? They don't have big budgets
to build their own. So we built, especially for India,
an app that the valuer gets the job. In our app,
(12:35):
it pre populates the template for the banks, so we
digitize their template and when they go to the property,
it geotags the address, It timestamps the photographs. They can
drag and drop and they can finish the calculation. It
sends it straight back and so suddenly overnight, this process
takes hours and is instant with data instead of taking
weeks with PDFs and hard copies and WhatsApps and things.
(12:58):
So it was revolutionary. Obviously there was is to make
it use a friendly for valuers had to work online,
had to work offline. They started dragging and dropping four
hundred fields and doing valuations for plants and machinery for
hospitals and using our app for everything. And then obviously adoption,
well you know, what's this foreign owned company doing with
the data and all of that data privacy things. But
(13:18):
you know, the long story short is today we have
twenty banks. But it was very much We created a
localized solution for India that now means for emerging markets,
we can go anywhere and digitized property and addressing and
data capture at scale, which is really phenomenally exciting.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's incredible. Were there any sort of regulations or legal
issues you had to overcome? Sort of taking India on
this transition from very manual property valuation processes into the
sort of app driven version of it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Very much so. So some banks weren't using cloud det
so we had to help them do their cloud policy. Obviously,
everywhere we go in the world, it needs to be
cloud local cloud. The data can't leave the country, and
I think it's important for anyone in tech to recognize
the right to growth, the right to scale, and think
(14:11):
about that from day one. So you know, we were
building world class global from day one. Because New Zealand
is a small market. There's only so many million houses.
There's only four big banks and then a few small ones.
So we were building this is a global problem that
we're solving, and we were doing this from day one.
So when they want us to do those things, they're
kind of the right to do business. And I think
(14:33):
that's what we really need to emphasize, and that's what
when we were in India with the ministers and the
Prime Minister, certainly my message was most good New Zealand
tech companies are global from day one. We're building to scale,
we're building to export because we recognize New Zealand's a
small market and so that's where we're such a great
test case for the world because it works here and
(14:54):
then we can scale it and that's the opportunity to
partner with these large markets where something has proven. But
we're all so very agile and very fast.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
And yeah, look, you talk to any software entrepreneur in
New Zealand and that mantra is imprinted in their in
their brain. Global from day one. Having said that, most
software entrepreneurs don't sort of go New Zealand, Australia, India.
They go to North America, maybe Singapore or Europe. But
I mean it must have been incredibly daunting for you, thinking, look,
(15:25):
there's an opportunity that's a fast growing market in India,
but how do you get a foothold there when it's
so different.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah, you're right, and lots of people think you're crazy
that New Zealand's you know, taking New Zealand tech to
India is definitely not the usual trodden entrepreneurial path. And
I think it's really important to recognize that you know, firstly,
is the size of the market worth it well one
hundred percent? You know, go big or go home. There's
nowhere bigger than India. But you really have to recognize
(15:54):
you're not going to be an overnight success. You have
to get on the airplanes. You have to appoint the
local advisory board that will tell you what you don't know.
You have to keep making sure you find the right
team on the ground. Certainly, being locked up for three
years and not being able to travel internationally really slowed
down growth for so many tech companies where you can't
do multimillion dollar deals over zoom and teams. You just
(16:17):
cannot and you can't get the nuancewers of meetings in
the room for those deals of what you need to
do to make it happen from a solution perspective without
being on the ground. So that was really that really
set us back. But you know, and certainly the success
that we've had has been quite daunting and just absolutely
(16:38):
quite surreal. Probably I would say, I mean I'm an
optimistic entrepreneur, but we were we were nominated and as
startup of the air and I think there's some phenomenal
number of startups that start up every single day and
it was a global competition, you know, from Israel and
India as well as the US and Asia, and we
won Startup of the Year. We didn't even have any
(16:58):
people with us. We just didn't expect to win. And
then two years later we one scale Up of the
Year in India because no fintech company went nationwide across
India that you have to be a little bit crazy.
And so you know, the success has been phenomenal, and
now we really want to encourage other New Zealand tech
companies to see the opportunity in India that it is
just you know, in English speaking, democratic and incredibly innovative
(17:21):
market that really wants to digitize everything. And then from India,
once you've done India, you get this credibility across the
region that nothing will be as hard as India. If
you've done it in India, must be able to work here,
and that's where that opportunity for companies going into emerging
markets is really massive.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, so you've clearly explained now how you adapting to
those local conditions is crucial, and you've successfully done that.
The other side of it, I guess, and that was
the reason for the trade mission was government support, as
Christopher Luxen put it, removing the binnacles off the boat.
So things like visa improvements to allow the flow of
(17:59):
skill people between our countries, even having more direct flights
between India and New Zealand is really going to facilitate trade.
What did you get a sense when talking to Indian
business people up there, what do they really need to
facilitate that business to do more and have a deeper
(18:20):
relationship when it comes to business between the two countries.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Well, I think you know, everything is about relationships in India,
and you know, we really underestimated the opportunities there. And
it was you know, the last time that I was
there five years almost to the day previously with Winston
Peters when he was Deputy Prime Minister, and at the
(18:44):
time five years ago, Trump was there, the Australian Prime
minister was there, the Canadian Prime minister had been there,
and everybody was wooing India. So it was quite disappointing
to have five years of no support of governments building
relationships closely getting on a plane and going there. And
I first met Christopher Luxen before he was Prime Minister
and told him what we were doing in India and
he said to me, if I become Prime Minister, you
(19:07):
and I are going to go and we're going to
build this relationship. And he shook my hand and when
the trade delegation was announced, it was really privilege to
be included with such an amazing group of you know,
who's who of New Zealand business to go. So I
think what was done was phenomenal in terms of the
amount of events that we did in one week, the
(19:28):
understanding of what needs to happen, and we didn't come
in with this arrogance or expectation of an agreement overnight.
We came in with where he had to build a relationship.
And that's really important because five years ago when they're like,
oh we didn't get trade agreement, you can't just have
one date and expect to get married. You have to
do a little bit of wooing in relationships, and that
(19:49):
is really important from not just a government level, from
a companies level. You have to build the relationships and
then the opportunities will come. And you have to also
understand what's the shared value exchange. So in our example,
is the same old these policies or housing for all
financial inclusion building one hundred million properties. We've continued to
innovate to deliver on their needs. So, for example, thirty
(20:12):
percent of properties in India are new builds under construction
and it takes three to five years and it's such
a manual process to release the funds as the building
progresses and everybody is having so many touch points. So
we created build iq specifically for India to deliver on
this need, which has now been on board with some
of the largest lenders to allow the lawyer, the builder,
(20:35):
the developer, the value and everybody to load the plans
and interact in velocity. And so I think you really
have to get to know the market and really build
the relationship so you understand the problem that you're solving,
and then you have to solve it better than ever
before and be innovative because there's no room for something
that's like MVP minimum viable product or something, because the
(20:57):
bar is really high and it's probably higher than New
Zealand and Australia. The compliance is really high and go
that's a given. We're working with banks, so you have
to set a really high bar. But the innovation and
the drive that you'll get from that market will make
you better globally, and I think it's important to recognize that.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, so we're hearing, you know, the primary exporters are
already starting to sort of band together to think strategically
about how do we how do we leverage this sort
of appetite for more trade with India. So that makes sense,
you know, whether it's you know, the Kiwi fruit growers
and our dairy exporters sort.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Of talking to each other.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Beef hopefully will will be in the mix at some point,
do you see any scope for our digital exporters sort
of or companies banding together to leverage their collective strengths.
I think there were a few others on the trip,
and Keta Dakar, for instance, capture the bug. I think
she's actually employing Indian Indian IT export experts over there
(21:59):
to work on identifying bugs and weaknesses and New Zealand
companies IT systems. So it's sort of the trade is
sort of going going the other way to some extent.
But were there other companies there that are in the
digital space where you thought, wow, maybe we could do
something together.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So Darren from CIRCA was also on the trip, and
you know, they're a little bit quite different in that
they're using tech resource there to build you know, where
they're going. And you know, just seeing how he's built
the culture and scale the culture across different countries and
done it so well is really great. So it's always
really great to learn from companies that are ahead of you,
(22:39):
that have been around for longer and you know some
of those lessons learned. So I think they are a
great example. And you know, and then it's really more
how do we remain relevant And it's I think the
technology the thinking has to change for us adaptable thinking
around It's not just about what ever, it's not about things,
(23:01):
it's about bringing together digital with those things. And so
I think that's where the thinking needs to expand and
we're seeing a lot of that here in New Zealand
with the work Data Insights doing around. You know, how
do companies become data driven and leverage AI and understand
digital because nothing that people you know, certainly you know
(23:22):
that have left school quite some time ago, nothing that
they learned is going to be relevant for the short
near term future. And we're seeing companies like shop Off
I say, everybody needs to use AI, even Circo who
was on the chip. You know, Darren and Bob have
said everybody in Circo needs to use AI, and you
know we're doing that across all three on my companies.
So thinking has to change, and that's where you know,
(23:45):
we're even seeing Data Insights doing a lot of work
as an academy to say, well, how do you become
data driven and how do you change you think? Because
what does digital even mean for large media companies, for
large banks, for large talcos, large utilities that everyone of
the business doesn't normally use data, doesn't normally make data
different decisions? Normally digital was enough team and they did
that and suddenly you want everyone to know that. So
(24:06):
it's a massive organizational shift and cultural shift that needs
to happen in parallel with the technology shift. And that's
in every industry, but I think primary industries. There's some
great examples. Obviously Holter is one of those, you know,
some great examples that are digital first, but then there's
others that really need to embrace that to be able
to compete globally.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, I just wanted to finish off talking about one
of your other businesses you've mentioned, you know, Data Insights.
There that's obviously data analytics and business insights that's hugely popular.
Generate zero is another one of your businesses, and you know,
cluster of New Zealand companies again doing really innovative things,
(24:48):
in this case in sustainability, tracking your carbon footprints using
smart tools like AI. On the flip side, I guess
you know, we've just seen recently Trump sort of ramping
up mining and coal, going back to those dirty industries.
In the US, We've seen in the last couple of
years a little bit of a waning of the sustainability
(25:10):
mantra in the boardroom and that. So what's the sense
you have around the appetite for these sorts of services
that were all rage three years ago? You know, corporate responsibility,
we have to track this, we have to report on this.
Rules were introduced for our listed companies to report on
that in their financial record keeping. Is there still that
(25:33):
appetite for it or are they sort of paying lip
servis to it?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
It's a really good question. One hundred percent is still
appetite for it? Not driving the appetite is the world
isn't run by boardrooms and charms only in for four years,
you know, it doesn't change, climate change. It doesn't change
the expectation of our children. And there's to say, actually,
the world is changing, there's an increase of climate impact.
(25:59):
And you know, when we look back and they say
to us, did we do all that we could? Did
you do everything that you could, we want to be
able to say yes. So Generate zero was driven over
the need to suddenly report and capture data on something
that was intangible and there was no way to do it.
We all know banks have data across different silos, and
yet suddenly they had to do this climate reporting and
(26:20):
we were hearing all about greenwashing and there was no
way to do it. It was very manual. So it
wasn't that I suddenly needed to start a third company.
It was like, well, this is a data problem, and
so Data Insights spun out Generate zero. That basically enables
AI to go in and capture all this data from
all the silos, pull it together in a platform. The
auditor can then look and see the reporting all automated.
(26:43):
But more importantly, the reduction module can also predict and say, well,
you know, use simulation to say how do you get
to your targets? And everybody in the company can see
your progress. And it's all data driven and it's been
a game change. And we have nine banks, five insurance,
whole of government, et cetera, and road Drewry from zero
as our investor in that business. And you know, so
(27:04):
those companies are not saying suddenly, we don't care about
this and we don't want to measure it. And it's
because their customers will judge them. So even if your
bored is not expecting it, your customers are expecting you
to do the right thing. And that is an enduring,
increasing thing. And we just recently had the Open Planet
Sir David Attenburgh film crew visiting here for a week
and they said the company countries that are most embracing
(27:28):
this well, those that are seeing the impact firsthand, India, Africa,
they are seeing the impact of climate change, you know
in the Amazon they see what happens and to article
where they see, you know, the number of dry months
where snow months, et cetera, and ice months, et cetera.
So the data is immutable and the waver is immutable.
(27:48):
One person's somewhat view, I'll try not be derogatory. Can't
change the world. And we're seeing the increase near the
rest of the world and particularly India where you know
they will be hosting a cop and they really are
wanting to embrace and lead the way we're seeing us
in the Mena region and the UAE, where you know
they are doing phenomenal things in Saudi and Niol where
(28:12):
they're boulding sustainable cities, And it's just because that's the
way that we can leap frog and do it, and
that's a better way to do the right thing.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, as you say, four years, one thousand days essentially,
and then it may be a completely different story. So
credit to you for pursuing that business. It's a great
business to be in, I think for New Zealand and
companies around the world to be able to make it
easy basically for them to do sustainability. Well, thanks so
(28:40):
much for coming on the business of tech. Good luck
for all your aspirations in India and beyond. You're in
UAE now as well.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Thanks. Yeah, we really love the UAE and they're leading
the world and AI and digital and they you know,
they are future thinkers. Everything that they do is pretty
much future thinking. So it's great to be driven by
innovative clients globally that make us better, and then we
bring that back to New Zealand and make New Zealand better.
So we're proud of the work that we're doing. Thanks
so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Well then, thanks so much, Carmen. So there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Velocity now a scale up company with a large business
in India. No reason why more of our startups and
more established tech businesses can't see India as a potential market,
particularly in those fast growing areas like fintech and health tech,
both niches of tech that we do very well in
here in New Zealand. So thanks to Carmen for coming on.
(29:42):
Thanks to two degrees for sponsoring the Business of Tech
enabling me to do these interviews and bring them to
you each week. You'll find the show notes, including my
top ten tech reads of the week, on the Business
Desk website. Just go to the podcast section at Business
Desk dot co dot enz. We're streaming each week on
iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Please like the pod,
(30:06):
rate it and let other people know about it if
you find it useful. Get in touch with me with
ideas and feedback at Peter at Peter Griffin dot co
dot nz or look me up on LinkedIn. I'm on
there every day. Next week a return visit to the
podcast from Paris Marx, the Canadian author, journalist, and tech
commentator who is increasingly asking, you know, I think a
(30:29):
valid question in his own journalism, given what's going on
in the US at the moment, can we still trust
the American tech stack our government and most of our
businesses rely on. That's next week's episode. Paris is thought
provoking and eloquent as always, so tune in next Thursday
to catch my interview with him, Paris Marks.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
Till then, have a great week.
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