Category: News

Intel Capital Invests In Dubai-Based Startup Sphere Networks

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Sphere NetworksIntel Capital, Intel’s investment arm, joined Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) by announcing its investment in Sphere Networks, an emerging Dubai-based startup specialising in next generation network management software. This move marks Intel’s first investment in a company based in the Gulf region.

The investment should help Sphere to expand both its technology base, get access to Intel technologies and develop sales and marketing to deliver its products to market. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

The startup employs a team of 26 people, from different backgrounds, in Dubai; developing enterprise level network management solutions, which are already in use with a number of government customers in the region. 

The investment, announced today by Christian Morales, Intel VP Sales & Marketing and General Manager, Europe Middle East and Africa, is part of Intel’s drive to expand its economic, educational and technology-related support across the UAE. 

Under this program, Intel continues to increase its investment in four key areas: local entrepreneurship, education, digital accessibility and specialized technical competencies, to help promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and jobs creation in the UAE. 

Commenting on the announcement, Morales underlined the importance of fostering innovative, home-grown ideas and noted that today’s news illustrates Intel’s ongoing commitment to collaborate with local players that share the vision of taking entrepreneurial projects to the next level of global competitiveness. 

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FindWhere Expands Presence In MENA’s GPS Market

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FindWhereFindWhere, a pioneer and global leader of real-time GPS location tracking, announced a few days ago that its website is now fully available in Arabic at www.findwhere-me.com.

The new website arrives on the heels of FindWhere’s recently announced joint venture with Dubai-based I2TC. The partnership creates the Middle East’s leading location-based service provider.

FindWhere’s expanding presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region also includes the appointment of regional IT retail expert Dikran Tchablakian to the company’s Advisory Board. FindWhere will ratify several major agreements in the region over the coming weeks.

FindWhere’s Arabic website launched at Gitex — an annual information technology exhibition in Dubai. The new website will provide FindWhere’s MENA customers with secure, user friendly access to current and historical locations of their GPS tracked devices and mobile phones, including address, time and even speed. Services also include “on-the-move” notifications, panic alerts and notification of entry or exit of pre-determined geo-fences.

FindWhere customers can receive Arabic email and text alerts to their mobile phones with information on the location of tracked devices. Real-time location notifications are readily available to customers on demand as a text message.

# FindWhere ME

ABAN Hosts Fourth Annual Entrepreneur – Investor Matchmaking Event

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ABANThe Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN), a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital (DIC), in partnership with Young Arab Leaders (YAL), hosted its 4th annual entrepreneur-investor matchmaking event, taking forward the concept of angel or seed capital investing, a relatively new phenomenon in the Middle East.

The event, held on October 20th at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) spotlighted three aspiring start-ups:

  • White Smile, a project specializing in professional teeth whitening, oral detoxification, and cleansing therapies.
  • Chipmunk, a franchise of an eclectic range of baby products from Belgium. 
  • Khayal Interactive, an Egyptian game production company.

ABAN’s matchmaking events offer entrepreneurial ventures in the MENA region an opportunity to showcase their businesses and connect with high net worth investors seeking start-up investment opportunities. The affluent investors, termed angel investors, provide capital for business start-ups, typically in exchange for ownership equity.

In the past year, ABAN has signed up with several leading regional and international organisations to pool resources and promote entrepreneurialism, innovation and knowledge creation in the region.

Recently, ABAN joined forces with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation to foster entrepreneurship among women across the Arab region. ABAN has also collaborated with Dubai Internet City, one of the world’s largest managed ICT clusters and a member of TECOM Investments, to source new entrepreneurial ventures in the high-growth technology sector for further developing the region as a knowledge-based economy.

In addition, ABAN has partnered with Bader Group to support the establishment of a business angels networks in Lebanon. It has also signed an MoU with the Al Ahli Holding Group (AAHG) to promote developmental, cross-learning relationships between Emirati youth and the youth of other countries to help groom competent leaders for the future. 

ABAN offers a wide range of benefits to its members ranging from advice and consultancy to financial support and training for selected entrepreneurs. ABAN also supports proposal pitching to investors, and facilitates collaboration and syndication among investors to maximise investment opportunities. 

The Arab Business Angels Network is scheduled to host its next matchmaking event on December 15th for introducing yet another batch of entrepreneurs to regional investors.

Google Launches Arabic Transliteration Tool, Takes On Yamli

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Google Ta3reebGoogle recently launched a new Arabic transliteration tool, that allows users to use their Latin keyboards to type in Arabic text. This move puts them in direct competition with Yamli, a small startup that has proven very popular and generated great feedback; simulating a modern day tech reenactment of David vs. Goliath.

This isn’t the first time Google works on transliteration; they actually launched transliteration services from English to various Indian languages like Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu on Blogger and through Google Talk bots over the past year. 

Now with Google’s push in the Arab world, they’ve gone on and launched ‘Google Ta3reeb’ (Google Arabization). The new tool was one of the services visible at the Google booth at Gitex Technology Week in Dubai.

From my initial usage of the tool, and comparing it to Yamli; Yamli stills seems to maintain the advantage, by being faster and offering more relevant transliterations and word suggestions. But I expect the Google tool will get better with time, as more people use it, and its inner workings optimised.

Google Ta3reeb screenshot

According to an anonymous tip that was picked up by TechCrunch, actually searching for ‘Yamli’ or ‘Yamli.com’ on Google’s Arabic versions like (Google.ae or Google.com.sa), users get a search results page that prominently displays ads for Google’s competing service alongside the search results, which suggests that Google is using Yamli’s name to target ads for their new service.

I’ve contacted both Yamli and Google for their comments on this story and should be following up with their responses pretty soon.

Update 1: Google has gone on and retracted the above mentioned ads.

Update 2: Responding to my enquiry about the story, Yamli co-founder Habib Haddad said “We are happy to see Google serving the Arabic web and we welcome healthy competition. Our primary focus as a young Arabic startup is and will remain on innovations for the Arabic user for whom we think we can continue to make significant contributions.”

Microsoft Innovation Center To Support Another Ten Tunisian Startups Through IMPRESS Initiative

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Microsoft Innovation CenterThe Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in Tunisia has launched the second edition of their IMPRESS initiative to finance the 10 best startups in the country. The initiative is aimed at helping young businessmen develop their business by providing technological support and substantial added value.

MIC is the first centre of its kind in North Africa and was established as part of a strategic partnership agreement signed between Tunisia’s government and US software giant Microsoft in 2006; it seeks to support development of Tunisia ’s software industry through innovation and entrepreneurship by developing intellectual capital and strengthening industrial partnership.

MIC also seeks to boost the competitiveness of IT companies while also helping to build a knowledge-based economy and enhance Tunisia ’s role as a leader in new ICT in the region.  HP is an exclusive partner for MIC in Tunisia. 

The IMPRESS initiative offers the top 10 submitted startups some high level technical support, in the form of:

  • Free 1 year subscription to Empower 
  • 5 software products for internal usage
  • 1 software licence and 5 client access licences
  • MSDN Premium subscription kit + User licences
  • MSDN online services 

These startups also get managerial and technical training:

  • Software Business Management course: A two day course on analysis of the business environment, innovation, the value chain, and preparing business plans.
  • Microsoft Solution Framework: A technical training by Microsoft consultants.
  • Best practices: A technical workshop on the best practices for optimizing the development cycle and enhancing the quality of developed solutions.
  • Skills Accelerators: Technical workshops revolving around Microsoft products and technologies (Web Expression, Visual Studio, Sharepoint and SQL Server).
  • Microsoft will certify 2 persons per company, and will enroll them in MSPP (Microsoft Partner Program) to help them fully benefit from their skills building program and extend their market coverage.

The winners also get access to advanced labs to work on specfic developments, proofs of concept, demo and test their solutions in a high performance environment.

To promote the 10 winning startups and give them more visibility, Microsoft will associate them to their marketing events, and support their development locally and internationally.

Financial partners like BFPME (Small & Medium Enterprises Financing Bank), Tuninvest Finance Group and Alternative Capital Partners will complement the support, not only by eventually financing these startups, but also by coaching them and helping them develop their business plans.

To apply to the IMPRESS program, send your project details to the Microsoft Innovation Center before October 25th 2008, by email to mictn@microsoft.com, or by Fax to + 216 71 858 420.

Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17 – 23, 2008

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Global Entrepreneurship WeekThe approaching week of November 17 – 23, 2008, is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide initiative aimed at young entrepreneurs everywhere who seek to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. 

During this week, governments and partner organizations from all over the world will host events ranging from invention competitions to local entrepreneurship summits – designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The Week is a global initiative that is linking all those willing to embrace it. Host organizations in each participating country are recruiting partners and coordinating related activities. The exact type of these activities, whether online or face-to-face, is limited only by the imaginations of the partners and the participants. And while a list of suggested activities such as invention competitions, entrepreneurship film festivals, networking events, school-based activities, and local entrepreneurship summits – are available on the website, the actual activities conducted by partners will vary greatly.

And while it may be global in scope, at its heart, the Week is a local initiative that reflects the customs and entrepreneurial culture of each community. After all, what works in one corner of the world might be quite different from what works in another.

Some hosts and partners have signed up from a number of Arab countries to take part in this week, by conducting activities and organizing events. To check the hosts and partners in your country, apply to be a host, sign up as a partner or member, or add an activity; you can visit the official website: Global Entrepreneurship Week

First Online Nokia Music Store In Middle East To launch In UAE

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Nokia music storeNokia, the worldwide leader in mobility, recently announced that the first Nokia Music Store in the Middle East will be opening its virtual doors in the United Arab Emirates in December 2008.

The new online music store, to be accessible at music.nokia.ae, will feature a large array of tracks from major regional and international artists, independent labels, and up-and-coming acts.  The site will include a host of interactive features such as music browsing, personal track recommendations and streaming service. Other highlights include the ability to listen to a 30 second clip from any track on the store. Part of the Ovi by Nokia offering, the Nokia Music Store offers a compelling combination of download and streaming services, empowering users to connect to the music they want, in the way they want.

“This is a first of its kind offering in the region in terms of the scope and diversity of the content, as well as user experience. The Nokia Music Store is a fantastic way to build a music collection that is truly mobile, where users can be confident that they are legally downloading music that is high quality and risk free.  It brings a new kind of experience where people can preview, try and discover new music on their PC or on their mobile device like never before,” said Chris Braam, Vice President, Sales, Nokia Middle East and Africa. 

This is the 12th music store that Nokia is rolling out globally. Music will be provided by all major international and regional labels including Universal, Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, Rotana and leading content aggregator Qanawat, as well as thousands of independent labels.

“The UAE is a melting pot, and people here literally come from all parts of the world.  This is why we have ensured that we are offering a diverse collection of music that suits people’s different tastes covering Arabic, Bollywood and international music.  Music, by nature, is ever-evolving, and as new music comes out, we will be continuously adding and updating our catalogue,” said Ayman Chalhoub, Business Manager, Music, Nokia Middle East and Africa.

Users will be able to purchase music as individual tracks, as albums, or through a monthly subscription for PC streaming.   With a single account, music lovers will access the Nokia Music Store via their desktop computer or directly from a range of optimized Nokia devices to browse for new music, get recommendations or search for their favorite artists, songs or albums all from the palm of their hand. Once a track captures their attention, users will be able to add it to their wishlist to buy later or purchase it immediately for download to a mobile device without having to download the same song again on their computer. They will also be able to transfer purchased songs via a PC to compatible Nokia devices.

To celebrate the announcement of the Nokia Music Store in the UAE, Nokia will be presenting Kylie Minogue’s exclusive concert to take place in Dubai Festival City on 21st November 2008, as part of Kylie’s X2008 Tour. The event will be the Australian Pop singer’s first ever show in the Middle East.
As part of this sponsorship, Nokia will be conducting an online competition offering tickets and a host of other prizes.

# music.nokia.ae

UAE Second Most Socially Networked Country In The World

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SynovateA recent worldwide survey by market intelligence firm, Synovate, revealed that 58% of people don’t know what social networking is, plus over one third of social networkers are losing interest.

Over 13,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 in seventeen markets around the world took part in the survey.

Across these 17 markets surveyed, 42% of people know what online social networking is, which leaves 58% in the dark… either saying ‘no’ or ‘don’t know’.

Overall, 26% across the markets surveyed are members of social networking sites. This peaked with the Netherlands at 49%, United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 46%, Canada at 44% and the US at 40%.

Synovate’s Managing Director for the UAE, George Christodoulides, says: “The popularity in the UAE makes sense. It is a place that’s very connected to the world; a hub for cultures, business and people.”

“These sites also offer a way for people to meet — online — in a society where traditionally men and women don’t always mix freely.”

The survey also asked social networkers to name the sites they belong to. Some markets seemed to favour multiple memberships and some seemed to stick to one or two major ones. The markets where social networking aficionados favour signed up for many sites are UAE, India, Indonesia, and Bulgaria.

Thirty seven percent of all people from the UAE, 35% of South Africans and 29% of Taiwanese agreed that they had more friends online than they have in the ‘real’ world.

On a global level, users did have some reservations about social networking, with 51% saying they were aware of the dangers of social networking such as identity theft, and 36% of respondents saying they were losing interest in social networking.

# Synovate Social Networking Survey Results

More Innovative Partnerships On The Way For Etisalat’s Internet TV Solution

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EtisalatEtisalat revealed to ITP.net that more innovative partnerships are in the pipeline for their recently launched internet television solution, which gives broadcasters and content owners the ability to upload content onto Etisalat’s network.

Etisalat’s IPTV solution was officially launched on September 10th through a partnership with MBC to enable online viewing of the top nine programmes being aired by MBC during the month of Ramadan.

“This service is relatively new to the region. Our alliance with MBC is also a test of the popularity this service might gain in the future,” said Khalifa Al Shamsi, vice president of marketing, consumer & SMB at Etisalat.

“Already, we have a lot of such exciting and innovative partnerships in the pipeline, which we will disclose in the coming months,” he added.

Etisalat believes that the reach of this technology is not just limited to the UAE, as it presents an opportunity to cater to a global audience. However, content providers can easily add restrictions on exactly who can access the content.

“While the platform has the ability to geographically block users that come from certain parts of the world, imposing any such restrictions is left to the discretion of producers and owners of the content since they are the ones who control what content should be shown and who should be able to access it,” said Al Shamsi.

# Source: ITP.net

ASTF And Intel Launch 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition

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ASTFThe Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), a regional and international non-profit NGO, in collaboration with Intel announced the launch of the 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition, and the start of the 2nd Made in the Arab World Competition, across more than ten Arab countries including the UAE, KSA, Jordan and Egypt.

ASTF was established in 2000 by Arab scientists and researchers in order to identify and support outstanding scientific achievement within the region. The Foundation also seeks to promote the advancement Arab entrepreneurship by acting as a mediator between up and coming companies and investors. 

Commenting on the announcement, Ferruh Gurtas, Corporate Affairs Group Director, Intel Middle East, Turkey and Africa said: ‘The Middle East is an exciting and dynamic region with a growing number of entrepreneurs – many of whom require initial funding to launch their projects. The 4th Arab Technology Business Plan Competition does just that. It is an opportunity for young, Arab entrepreneurs to map out and transform their ideas from a concept to a tangible working company. At Intel we believe entrepreneurship is a key driver for emerging Middle East economies. As the region begins to compete on an increasingly global scale, these skills, coupled with technological expertise will help local businesses to excel in an international marketplace.’

The Arab Technology Business Plan Competition strives to support and assist Arab entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into successful ventures by providing them with access to potential investors and venture capitalist that are willing to finance promising technology start-ups through the Arab Investment Forum, which is held annually in one of the participating Arab nations. 

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