Undivided Ventures: AI, Sustainability & Data Centre Technologies with Ariel Shtarkman

01/26/25 • 44 min

" Now, the beauty about the real estate industry, if you look outside and you look at the commercial buildings, you have a lot of data generated on a daily basis. The challenge is, what do you do with this data? How do you mine this data in a smart way to give you better investment decisions going forward [or] better decisions on how you run the building? Where are the opportunities to reduce your expenses? On the climate side, how do you reduce your operational carbon? How do you make those buildings better? I think that here, Gen AI, can help big time, because any solution that will mine this data smartly and will create a result, an output, that end users and owners can use to their advantage.” - Ariel Shtarkman

Fresh out of the studio, Ariel Shtarkman, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Undivided Ventures, joins us to share the mission and vision of Undivided Ventures and how the fund is driving innovation at the intersection of sustainability, PropTech, and construction technology. Beginning with her origin story, Ariel reflected on her journey from real estate private equity in New York to becoming a venture capitalist championing sustainable technologies in Asia. She elaborated on Undivided Ventures’ investment thesis, focusing on scaling sustainability-driven innovations in the built environment and shared key portfolio highlights, including successful investments like Structure Pal. Ariel also explored the transformative potential of generative AI, robotics, and data centers in addressing challenges in real estate and construction. Last but not least, she offered her insights on navigating fundraising in a challenging venture capital landscape and painted a compelling vision of what great looks like for Undivided Ventures.

Audio Episode Highlights: [00:46] Quote of the Day: Ariel Shtarkman on data and AI in real estate. [01:40] Introduction: Ariel Shtarkman, Managing Partner at Undivided Ventures. [04:23] How she co-founded Undivided Ventures with Alex. [06:08] Lessons from her career journey. [08:06] Overview of Undivided Ventures and its investment thesis. [10:33] Recent highlights of the fund’s portfolio. [12:46] Unique insights into Undivided Ventures’ investment approach. [14:59] Lessons learned from fundraising in challenging times. [17:28] Generative AI’s impact on PropTech and sustainability. [21:00] Case study: Structure Pal’s innovative approach in PropTech. [23:35] Traits of founders that attract investment. [27:19] Red flags in startups and founders. [29:24] Approach to valuation and avoiding overblown valuations. [31:19] Insights on data centers and how to think about data center technologies globally. [37:09] Robotics and their evolving role in construction. [39:12] The one question that Ariel wishes people would ask her more about Undivided Ventures. [41:18] What does great look like for Undivided Ventures over the next few years. [42:32] Closing.

Profile: Ariel Shtarkman, co-founder and managing partner, Undivided Ventures: https://www.undivided.vc/about and LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-s-2850322/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.

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Profile: Ariel Shtarkman, co-founder and managing partner, Undivided Ventures: https://www.undivided.vc/about and LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-s-2850322/

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Previous Episode

Virtuals Protocol and the intersection of Agentic AI & Web3 with Jansen Teng

"What does great look like? For us, it's being able to achieve this vision of a society of agents. So, if you can show clearly the economic value of a society when agents can influence other agents, agents can influence humans, and humans can influence agents, that would be something that I'll be very proud to say that we've accomplished. Because that's the beauty of really combining breakthroughs on the AI, on the autonomous agent front, and the value add of crypto. This is one of those very rare moments that crypto has that true potential value add, right? As a productivity lever and an economic lever in society." - Jansen Teng

Fresh out of the studio, Jansen Teng, co-founder and CEO of Virtuals Protocol joins us to share the mission and vision of Virtuals Protocol and how the protocol intersects generative AI and web3, unlocking the world of autonomous AI agents powered by tokenization to unlock new economic possibilities. Beginning from his origin story, he explained how the Virtuals team explored and eventually come to the realization how tokenized AI agents can power entertainment, gaming and trading with Luna, the AI avatar that grew through the help of AI agents and even inspiring works of real art. Last but not least, Jansen offered his perspectives on the trends of agentic AI and web3 and elucidate what great looks like for the Virtuals Protocol.

Audio Episode Highlights: [00:46] Quote of the Day by Jansen Teng, co-founder and CEO of Virtuals Protocol [02:33] Introduction: Jansen Teng [03:46] Jansen Teng shares his origin story in crypto, gaming, and AI [06:27] Early experiments with AI agents and gaming in Roblox [07:44] Realizing AI agents as revenue-generating assets [09:15] Tokenization and Economic Innovation in Virtuals Protocol [13:17] Navigating challenges during the bear market and pivoting to virtual Protocol [17:32] Virtuals Protocol's Vision and Mission for creating and co-owning AI agents [19:46] Observations of agents mimicking societal roles and functioning autonomously [23:16] The story of Luna and her evolution as an AI influencer [31:20] How autonomous agents sparked creativity in the crypto space [40:19] Balancing innovation and scaling challenges for Virtuals Protocol [43:53] The evolving vision of Virtuals Protocol and the society of agents [47:21] Virtuals Protocol as the economic foundation for AI agents [50:56] Challenges and trends in the AI agent ecosystem [53:19] Exploring billion-dollar verticalized AI agents [57:28] Closing

Profile: Jansen Teng, co-founder & CEO of Virtuals Protocol. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansenteng Twitter: https://x.com/ethermage

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Next Episode

How Agentforce is Transforming Businesses in ASEAN with Sujith Abraham

"What's the point if it's a fast platform, but I still have to go somewhere else? And the last thing is speed. Right now, especially in our region, it's a land grab. When we think about some of the fastest-growing economies in the world—Indonesia, for example, Vietnam, the Philippines—you have hundreds of millions of people here. What we see in every customer I speak to is interest in how they use our platform to move faster, to deploy AI. They don't want to have to build a foundation level of AI, integrating all those elements themselves. They want to deploy it faster. When you think about our history, we have 250 petabytes of data being accessed by 150,000 customers every single day. When you take that set, we had to get this right. We had to because we have thousands of engineers focused on building these platforms so our customers don't have to—so they can deploy innovation and create truly unique and differentiated customer journeys." - Sujith Abraham

Fresh out of the studio, Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN at Salesforce, joins us to explore how Agentforce 2.0 is transforming enterprise AI. He shares his journey from automotive engineering to tech leadership, reflecting on the rise of AI agents that move beyond chatbots to take real-world actions. Sujith explains how Agentforce 2.0 integrates across Salesforce products like Slack and Tableau, helping businesses automate sales, customer service, and marketing. He highlights how banks, airlines, and telcos in Southeast Asia are leveraging AI for growth, alongside Salesforce’s shift to a pay-as-you-go model for easier adoption. Addressing AI trust and governance, he underscores data privacy and enterprise-grade AI security. Closing the conversation, Sujith shares his vision for AI-driven customer engagement and what great looks like for Salesforce & Agentforce 2.0 in ASEAN.

Profile: Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN for Salesforce, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sujithabraham/

Audio Episode Highlights: [00:46] Quote of the day by Sujith Abraham [01:44] Introduction: Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN for Salesforce [02:22] Sujith’s Career Journey [03:51] Career Lessons from Sujith [05:26] What is Salesforce & Its Mission? [08:27] Definition of Generative AI & AI Agents in the context of enterprises [11:22] Introduction to Agentforce 2.0 [15:37] AI Across Salesforce Products [20:22] Enterprise AI Adoption & Challenges [22:51] The Business Model of Agentforce [24:07] Industry Use Cases in Southeast Asia [25:47] AI Governance & Trust at Salesforce [27:54] Choosing the Right Large Language Model (LLM) [28:55] Advice for Business Leaders on AI Adoption [30:60] The One Thing Sujith Knows About Salesforce & Agentforce in ASEAN That Very Few Do [32:48] The One Question Sujith Wants More People to Ask: Why Salesforce? [34:45] What Does Great Look Like for Salesforce? [37:05] Closing

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