Flip Media acquired by Publicis Groupe

It appears that Flip Media, a leading digital media agency in the MENA has been acquired by Publicis Groupe. The agency setup in 2003 by Martin Diessner and Dinesh Lalvani in Dubai will be folded into Leo Burnett Wordwide but will keep its name. Both founders will act as non-executive directors and Yousef Tuqan will remain the CEO reporting to Leo Burnett’s Middle East North... Read More

Bandoora: A place for independent and local Arab musicians across the #MENA

Bandoora.com is a music discovery website that aims to disrupt the current state of music in MENA region by presenting  independent and local Arab musicians. The site currently has over 250 Band/Musician covering over 32 Arab cities and providing 33 musical genre. We had a quick chat with Abdullah Al-Khaldi the CEO and co-founder about bandoora, and he was kind enough to share... Read More

CareZone: The #MENA’s first mobile platform with a heart

A new application from Dubai is looking to give consumers a way to feel good about their purchases. The application which is developed by the Dubai based Innoventa, a leading provider of integrated solutions in management and marketing focusing mainly on the internet and mobile spaces, was recently launched and is a great and simple idea for people to shop, get rewards and help... Read More

Q&A with Marka VIP’s Ahmed Alkhatib (Part 2 of 2)

This is a continuation of our previous article about Marka VIP’s operations and marketing the questions are answered by the founder and CEO Ahmed Alkhatib. General & Operations How does MarkaVIP view e-commerce in the region? The current state of e-commerce in the Middle East is comparable to the U.S. 10 years ago or Turkey seven years ago. However, despite the relatively... Read More

Qa2ed.com a new portal looking to find the leaders of tomorrow

So where do you go when you want to find out information about creative and bright young minds from the region? Your best bet is Google (or any other search engine). But I managed to find two very busy entrepreneurs that are hoping to change all of that, Sana Mahmoud along with her partner have recently launched a portal called Qa2ed.com (Qa2ed which translates to Leader). The portal... Read More

Menwayn.com – Your Shopping Guide to make a smart choice

How many times have you went shopping for a specific product only to find yourself visiting different stores and driving all over town to buy what you were actually looking for? This has happened to Lisa Kawar as she was looking for a 2-in-1 washing machine/dryer; she wasted some valuable hours spread over several days wandering around Amman until she finally found the product... Read More

Q&A with Marka VIP’s Ahmed Alkhatib (Part 1 of 2)

E-commerce is gaining a lot of popularity in the MENA region and the competition is heating up between a few of the bigger portals. Recently Marka VIP was in the news for raising USD 3 million in funding from high profile U.S, European and Middle Eastern investors, in order to expand and increase their presence across the region. MarkaVIP quickly captured the attention of shoppers... Read More

Chatting with Khaled Sadeddin Chief Coach & VP of Operation at @Oasis_500

I had a chance to spend a couple of days at the Oasis offices during my recent visit to Jordan and I must say the atmosphere was very exciting, you could feel the energy of all the young startups and entrepreneurs. I was also lucky enough to get a chance to sit down and have a chat with Khaled Sadeddin, Chief Coach & VP of Operation at Oasis500. Khaled runs the day to day activities... Read More

Pricefinder.ae is now live

Last week we talked about a new startup from Dubai looking to make the process of purchasing insurance less painful and more convenient. Well as of today the website looks like its up and running and open to the public, they’re starting to market the website on the major social networks, which is evident on their Twitter, Facebook and Youtube pages below:  Read More

Grosper: A new group buying website in the #UAE with a twist

Last week I met with a group of very ambitious young guys in Dubai who are working on a independently funded startup called Grosper. I know what you’re thinking why would users choose Grosper over any of the existing websites such as gonabit, cobone, etc… I asked the Co-founder of the one month old startup the same question and he had a good answer “Grosper is... Read More

Price Finder: A new way to shop for insurance in the #UAE

Back in April we covered Democamp Dubai and one of the demos that caught my attention was Pricefinder which is a comprehensive insurance comparison website. Initially the demo displayed was functional however the design was still not there. That’s not the issue anymore, they have completely revamped the design and now are in the final stages of testing and should go live to... Read More

Confirmed: Gonabit acquired by Livingsocial?

Rumor has it that Living social, the international brand and social buying company headquartered in Washington, D.C. has finalized a deal with Gonabit, the oldest group buying website in the Middle East backed by Bayt.com. The deal is still unconfirmed, but if what I heard is true than Gonabit looks to be selling somewhere between 40 – 60% stake in the company for a price... Read More

New Ventures from the #MENA: Alhodhud

Last month I was following the coverage of Democamp Amman on Twitter and read about some really good ideas, I thought I would get in touch with some of the people that were presenting their demo’s. I got in touch with AlHudhod and got a response from Mohammed Al-Bishtawi one of the Co-Founders and he was very happy to answer a few questions to give us a little bit more insight... Read More

VoilaDubai: A new discovery & sharing engine in Dubai

  Last week I came across a new startup from Dubai, called VoilaDubai, it was a neat looking website and had some interesting content but you could tell that it was either recently launched or not well managed. So I decided to get in touch with them to see what was going on and it turns out that the site had just recently launched, and I’d say that the website is managed... Read More

Hsoub new startup Focusing on the MENA

I recently found out about a startup called Hsoub founded by group of students studying in the United Kingdom. It is an internet-advertising solution that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, aiming to connect advertisers with publishers from the MENA. Hsoub Ads works in similar way to Google Adsense and is very simple to use with a clean user interface, it is built to... Read More

Q&A with Dakwak’s CEO & Co-Founder Zaid Amireh (Part 2)

This article is a continuation of yesterday’s discussion with Zaid Amireh, CEO and Co-Founder of Dakwak. Yesterday we discussed Dakwak’s background and how they came to be along with some technical details. Today we will be discussing how they secured funding to start such a venture and if they have any tips or information for anybody thinking of starting on their own. Business 1)... Read More

Q&A with Dakwak’s CEO & Co-Founder Zaid Amireh (Part 1)

A while ago I read about a startup from Jordan called Dakwak, they provide an easy and fast way to translate and localize any website to a language your audience and visitors want. I thought it was a pretty cool idea so I got in touch with them and wanted to know more about them and see if they had any advice for people starting up new ventures in the region. Below is the discussion... Read More

Democamp Amman Tomorrow

Democamp Amman will be held at 7pm (8pm UAE time) tomorrow, and according to a press release there will be around 400 people attending the event from techies, investors and startup enthusiast. The six finalists that will be demoing were chosen from a total of over 35+ submissions so hopefully people who will attend will get a chance to see some innovative demos. For the people who... Read More

Q&A with Taqwa.me CEO Kerim Nu’man

A while ago I tweeted asking if users liked our new redesign and if they had any comments or feedback, and Kerim Nu’man from taqwa.me replied giving a few suggestions (which we are currently working on), however after that we got in touch with him and wanted to know how taqwa.me is doing and what his plans are for the future. For those of you who are not familiar with Taqwa.me... Read More

Inkezny wins first place at Startup Weekend Cairo

Startup Weekend Cairo (SWC) a 54-hour event that brings leaders and entrepreneurs together was held last week in Cairo at the American University of Cairo (AUC) in partnership with National Net Ventures (N2V) and The Business School at AUC. For all the people who were following the tweets on #SWcairo the event seemed to be a huge success with loads of entrepreneurs, mentors, speakers... Read More