Karim Beguir is the co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep, a Tunisia/Africa-born company that grew into a global deep-tech AI powerhouse and got acquired by german biotech giant BioNTech for $700m.Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode00:53 - Introduction01:42 - Modeling protein folding with AI08:26 - Solving combinatorial optimization with AI12:58 - Identifying upcoming COVID variants with AI17:06 - Curing cancer with mRNA and AI?20:19 - Consulting model vs VC-backed startup?22:11 - From academic curiosity to commercialization24:30 - Overcoming the disadvantage of building from Africa27:09 - The upside of building from Africa29:01 - The reasoning behind partnering with BioNTech31:30 - Raising a Series C or getting acquired?35:01 - Preserving InstaDeep's DNA post-acquisition36:19 - Staying grounded despite fame, money, success37:43 - Making a lot of money messes with your brain?40:21 - What does Karim wanna do now?42:08 - Africa's role in the AI race45:59 - Karim's mistake46:55 - Karim's hardest decision47:21 - Karim's favorite (non-famous) founder47:42 - How to allocate a $100m investment in African tech?50:07 - Advice to African founders building in deep techReferences:Karim's book: 'LEAPFROG' - https://www.amazon.com/LEAPFROG-Building-Africas-Future-Era-ebook/dp/B0F2JBYB8DInstaDeep's research portal - https://instadeep.com/research/Nature Machine Intelligence's feature - https://www.nature.com/natmachintell/volumes/7/issues/6Listen on all platforms:Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@TheRallyCapPodcastSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3vUDH5yEH6pvRkqM1TVaxSApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rally-cap-podcast/id1731710244Where to find Karim:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karim-beguir-2350161/X/Twitter: https://x.com/kbeguirWhere to find Kyane:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyanekassiriX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/kyanekassiriLearn more about Rally Cap: https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/05/rali_cap-gets-backing-from-global-vcs-and-launches-30m-fintech-fund-for-emerging-markets/