Imagine the convenience store you frequent. What did you run in there for? To top up your metro card? Or maybe you had that nostalgic craving for a gloriously colored slushy. Teens come out of school to grab snacks before their next lessons. There is one near every metro stop, if not more. Convenience stores are ubiquitous for just that reason—convenience.

It’s a story we often hear in emerging markets: people leaving rural areas for cities in search of a better life, only to find themselves in informal settlements with unsafe water, poorly built houses, and uncertain property rights.

In 2020, LiveIn Co-founder and CEO, Keek Wen Khai (“Khai”), faced a critical moment. Just as the Malaysia-based long-stay property rental startup was set to venture into Thailand, COVID brought most industries to a sudden standstill.

Think about this: after water, concrete is the most widely used material in the world. It is everywhere–in roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, and other infrastructure. All this modern development, however, presents a big problem.

Denis Branthonne is the founder and CEO of Novade, a fast-growing company delivering enterprise apps for building and construction operations.

Wavemaker Partners celebrates 10 years this year. As we grew into the venture capital firm we are today, we wanted to look back on businesses we invested in. Silent Eight was one of our first portfolio companies, with a relationship that dates back to 2015. What we have believed in for 10 years, we now know to be true–Silent Eight and its founding team are a great example of what we mean when we say “Investing in people, not just the technology.”

90 percent of the world’s hotels are small, independent operations. B2B SaaS company ZUZU wants to empower them to compete globally and digitally. And it’s working.