October 2010 – StartUpArabia

Intel Capital Invests In Three Middle East Companies: Nymgo, Jeeran And ShooFeeTV

October 28, 2010October 28, 2010 MMM

The World Economic Forum in Marrakech yesterday witnessed some really interesting news from Intel Capital, which announced 3 new investments in the Middle East; UK-Lebanon based Nymgo, as well as Jordanian companies Jeeran and ShooFeeTV.

This investment marks a second round of investment from Intel Capital in both Jeeran and ShooFeeTV (both also IV Holdings portfolio companies), after the previous investment that was announced in May of last year.

The investment in Nymgo also marks Intel Capital’s expansion of its portfolio in the Arab world to a total of eight companies: Nymgo, Jeeran, ShooFeeTV, Conservus, Pulse Technologies, Vertex Animation Studio, NeuString and Sphere Networks.

Dubai Silicon Oasis Technology Incubator To Support Startups

October 23, 2010October 23, 2010 MMM 3 Comments

Dubai Silicon Oasis, the integrated free zone technology park, has launched a new big project in the UAE, the ‘DSO Technology Incubator’.

The incubator’s goal is to support new start-ups and encourage entrepreneurs in the field of technology by stimulating the development of successful companies, and chart a new avenue for investment in technology in the Arab region.

The incubator comes as part of DSO’s hi-tech ecosystem and the six technology sectors that remain the focus of the technology free zone.

TechWadi Marks Launch Of Entrepreneurship Initiative In Egypt

October 22, 2010October 22, 2010 MMM 5 Comments

On October 25-26th, 2010; TechWadi, the Silicon Valley-based non-profit organization working to promote entrepreneurship in the Arab world, will be hosting two days of free events that are focused on developing the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in Egypt and the MENA region.

On October 25th, at the Smart Village Convention Center in Cairo, Egypt; hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives and investors will join together at the Rising Tide Forum to build their networks, discover synergies, and learn from US and regional business leaders. [Agenda]

Panel leaders will address targeted topics of direct value to entrepreneurs and investors alike: venture capital and angel financing best practices; challenges and opportunities in Egypt; the role of mentors, incubators, and entrepreneurship education; mobile and Facebook applications; enterprise software; and a host of proven strategies ready to be transplanted into the MENA region.

Dubai Internet City To Host Next DemoCamp Dubai On Nov. 24th

October 14, 2010October 14, 2010 MMM 1 Comment

Dubai Internet City just announced that it is preparing to host another edition of DemoCamp Dubai, the event enabling tech entrepreneurs, students, professionals and engineers to showcase and launch their new products in front of the tech community, and obtain valuable feedback from a like-minded audience comprising venture capitalists and angel investors.

This next edition of DemoCamp Dubai will be held on November 24th, from 6.30pm – 9.00pm, at Dubai Internet City; probably at the Knowledge Village Auditorium as usual. It is planned to include six demos from entrepreneurs.

Applicants will be screened by a panel of industry experts, including the organisers and business partners of DIC. Shortlisted applicants will be required to demonstrate their product and highlight its market opportunity, stage of corporate development, and identify the competitors. Demonstrations need to convey working software, hardware, network services and other features.

Edufina: A University Research Portal For The Arab World

October 13, 2010October 13, 2010 MMM 2 Comments

Edufina is a newly launched startup that aims to fill in an empty space providing comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information about universities around the Arab world.

The portal targets both students and parents, and enables them to access very detailed university data and statistics, as well as use a set of comparison tools in order to compare between all options that match their needs and interests.

What’s great about Edufina is that it collects all this information that is freely available from universities but still cumbersome to get a hold of into one place, in a clear and structured way, through a simple and really nice interface, that enables users to run and filter searches on, run comparisons between different universities on, and come to their final decision on which university better suits them.

GoSolo Entrepreneurial Workshop: Raising Capital for Your Startup

October 13, 2010October 13, 2010 MMM

Tandem, the Dubai-based business advisory company, will be hosting a 5th installment of GoSolo at The Shelter in Dubai, today Wednesday October 13th, 2010 at 7PM.

GoSolo is a series of entrepreneurial workshops organized by tandem and that aim to help and guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the different challenges of launching a startup and give them answers to all their various questions.

This month’s session, titled ‘Raising Capital for Your Startup‘, will include a discussion led by the founders of tandem, Rabih Brair and Amir Farha on the industry, and insights on what investors are looking for in today’s market. The topics include the regional investment landscape, the selection criteria that investors look at and a Q&A session with one of the founders of Duplays.

Areeb: A Free Arabic E-Learning Project Providing Video Lessons

October 12, 2010October 12, 2010 MMM

Areeb School is a new non-profit educational project for the Arab world, which aims to provide good education for all Arabic speakers, at different stages of their lives and covering various topics and natural sciences.

The site aims to explain the various scientific subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry and others in a simplified and easy to understand manner, all in the form of short video clips that do not exceed 15 minutes, that should be enough to simply deliver the information and get it across to the learners.

The goal of the site is to build and provide an extensive library of tutorial videos that cover hundreds of explanations and lessons in various fields of science; this is to facilitate access to information and clearly explain all these topics to a large number of people from around the Arab world, whatever their financial situation is or how advanced the educational system is in their countries.

ReKrute Signs Exclusive North Africa Partnership Deal With Viadeo

October 12, 2010October 12, 2010 MMM

The online recruitment platform ReKrute; which operates in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria; has signed a partnership deal with Viadeo, the professional social networking service, by which it becomes the exclusive representative for Viadeo in North Africa.

Under the agreement ReKrute will be able to expand its range of e-recruitment solutions, to start reselling and providing Viadeo’s recruitment solutions: jobs, profile and resume databases, as well as its other HR services.

Viadeo is one of the large professional social networks in Europe, that was founded in May 2004 and based in France, targeting a global audience, although it focuses more on Europe and emerging and growing countries. It has reached 30 million members so far, the biggest chunk of them from China at 4.5 million members. 10% of the users are based in France.

Mobily Launches Developers Community To Enrich Arabic Mobile Applications & Content

October 11, 2010October 11, 2010 MMM 2 Comments

Saudi Arabia’s second mobile operator Mobily (Etihad Etisalat) has launched a new project dubbed “Mobily Developers Community” that aims to help developers build mobile applications and software that support Arabic content.

It’s been a hot topic in almost every web or mobile event in the region that there is a big lack in Arabic applications and content, and Mobily hopes this project will play a role in enriching the offering of Arabic content available.

The program is focused on encouraging developers, both professionals and hobbyists, as well as software companies, to unleash their talents and develop quality apps with valuable content for the different smartphone platforms. They also wish for it to become a club for Arabian software talent where members can get their hands on all the resources they might need to create innovative mobile apps.

Du Launches Anayou A Central Social Platform For The Arab World

October 10, 2010October 10, 2010 MMM 11 Comments

Du, UAE’s second mobile operator, has just launched a new big online project branded Anayou, which seemingly aims to position itself as a central destination for users. Some are describing it as a social networking service, and even though that’s the biggest piece of it, there are other pieces to this puzzle that Du seems to be putting together.

The first thing that you’ll notice from Anayou, before even getting to know what it does and doesn’t do, is how slick and neat it looks; it’s a well designed service that stands out from many of the other services that were previously launched in the region in the same area of focus.

Anayou offers a variety of features, covering the different functionalities you’d expect from a social network like finding and connecting with your friends, following their updates on Anayou as well as on services like Twitter and Facebook, leave comments (shout outs) on their profile pages, as well as messaging them in private.