CapQuest, founded by Antoine Bruna, Marco Banfi and Anvita Varshney, is tackling one of the most overlooked challenges for startups: equity management. Built from firsthand experience, the platform replaces fragmented spreadsheets and complex tools with a single, intelligent system. By combining financial modelling with local market relevance, CapQuest is helping founders across MENA gain clarity, save time, and approach fundraising with confidence and precision.

1. Every startup begins with a moment of insight. What problem or experience first inspired you to build this company?

The inspiration came from living the problem firsthand. In 2018, Marco and I co-founded Repeat, a restaurant loyalty app that went on to raise north of $12M. At our peak, we had 47 investors across different share classes and over 60 employees on an RSU plan In practice, this meant a constant administrative burden: onboarding investors, managing RSUs, preparing reports, tracking voting rights, modelling dilution, and closing rounds. 

All of it took time away from actually building the business. We tried every solution on the market, and none delivered the level of automation, clarity, or time-saving we needed. That was the lightbulb moment. After exiting Repeat, it became clear that a fundamentally better solution had to exist. CapQuest is built on that conviction, solving a problem we experienced ourselves.

2. What is the core problem your company is trying to solve, and why do you believe existing solutions haven't fully addressed it?

 We are solving the equity blindspot. Most founders in the MENA region are managing their cap tables in Excel files, scattered PDFs, or expensive law firm portals designed for different markets. Global tools, largely designed for Silicon Valley, often bring unnecessary complexity, pricing, and legal frameworks that do not reflect how companies operate here. MENA founders deserve a purpose-built solution that speaks their language: local entity structures, regional compliance, and workflows designed for deal-making realities CapQuest is not a regional clone, it is a focused, intelligent platform built for how this ecosystem actually works.

 3. Your platform sits at the intersection of technology and innovation. Can you explain how your solution works in simple terms and what makes it technically unique?

CapQuest gives founders a single source of truth for their equity. You can manage your cap table, model funding rounds, issue ESOPs, and provide investors with a real-time view, all in one place.

What differentiates us is our approach. Most platforms are built with a legal-first mindset, focused on structuring and compliance. That matters, but it is not where founders lose time. They lose time using Excel.

With a finance background, we approached this with a CFO mindset, focusing on automating complex financial modelling and delivering clear, actionable outputs. Our goal is for CapQuest to act as an equity expert agent, doing the analytical work and surfacing answers, not just data, while remaining fully compliant locally.

We do not ask you to become an equity expert to use us. We become that expert for you, making CapQuest a unique offering.

4. Can you share a real-world example or use case that best demonstrates the value your technology brings to users or businesses?

One of our earliest design partners was a founder here in Dubai preparing to enter his Series A. He came to us having managed his cap table manually, and the complexity had quietly caught up with him. He had a mix of discount, pre-money, and post-money SAFEs, without a clear view of how they would convert or impact dilution. That is an uncomfortable position to be in when you are about to sit down with institutional investors. We onboarded him onto CapQuest, cleaned and validated his cap table, modelled the full SAFE conversion across every instrument, and gave him a clear, investor-ready picture of his post-money structure. He entered Series A with full clarity and closed under strong terms. That founder is now one of our most vocal advocates and the outcome captured what CapQuest is really built for.

5. What has been the most difficult challenge your team has faced since launching, and how did you overcome it? 

The hardest challenge has been earning trust in a market traditionally dominated by law firms and advisory relationships. Founders are cautious about moving sensitive equity data onto a new platform. We overcame this by doing the opposite of what most SaaS companies do: we slowed down sales and prioritized relationships. We brought in early customers as design partners to understand their specific structures, and built features that solved their actual problems. That approach, combined with the institutional credibility that comes from being selected for programmes like MBRIF and SANDBOX by Oraseya Capital, gave us the proof points that early adopters needed to take the leap.

Ultimately, we believe trust is a product feature. It has to be built into how you operate from day one. 6. Your company operates in a rapidly evolving industry. What major trends do you believe will shape the sector over the next five years? Three trends stand out. First, the democratisation of equity as a compensation tool. ESOP adoption across MENA is accelerating fast, driven by regulation, competition for talent, and a maturing founder mindset, and the infrastructure to support it needs to keep pace. Second, AI-powered financial intelligence, where platforms move from storing data to actively guiding decisions. Third, the rise of cross-border capital, with founders needing to meet global standards of transparency and reporting. The platforms that win will be those that make a Dubai founder look as sophisticated to a London or New York investor as any Silicon Valley company does today. 

7. Looking ahead, what is the long-term vision for the company, and how do you hope it will reshape your industry? 

Our vision is to become the equity infrastructure layer for every high-growth company in MENA and beyond, the platform that founders, investors, and employees all rely on to understand, manage, and realise the value of their ownership. If we execute on that vision equity will shift from being a source of complexity to a transparent, real-time system of record. The ecosystem has played a key role in our journey. Being part of MBRIF has provided access to a strong network of mentors and partners, while SANDBOX by Oraseya Capital has helped us build and scale with conviction.

The ambition is large, but the foundation is strong.