Category: News

ATH Moves To Invest In Mobile Technology In The Arab World

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Accelerator Technology HoldingsAccelerator Technology Holdings (ATH) has announced that it is working on establishing a company to fund investment in mobile technology in the Arab region.

ATH is a holding company that acts through a group of companies established in Jordan and Bahrain to identify, invest in and help build best of breed ventures in the ICT value chain in the Arab world, and that has already funded a number of Arab startups through its IV Holdings venture capital arm.

They’re currently working on raising an initial US$10 million in funds, after which they will move on to hiring a management team to launch and run this new company.

They are particularly looking at areas like security and authentication, based on their expectations that financial transactions over mobile platforms will become very widespread in the region in the future, especially with several of the region’s big mobile network operators launching mobile payment initiatives recently.

This new company will operate as a cross between venture capitalist and commercial investor, building ties and working with foreign companies to bring new mobile technologies to the region. They’ve already started talking to businesses in the UK, Switzerland and Norway about bringing their mobile products to the Arab world.

# Source: The National

Nokia Offers $100,000 To Top Arabic Ovi Developer

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Forum NokiaNokia, through its developer community effort Forum Nokia, has launched a competition called Bil3arabi ‘Calling All Innovators’, inviting all Arab developers around the region to take part by creating local Arabic content for their Ovi Store.

The Bil3arabi competition was announced at the official launch event for their new Nokia N97 phone in Dubai.

Bil3arabi is open to all mobile and web application developers in the region who can submit local content to any category within the Ovi Store, from applications to widgets, video, personalization, games, audio, flash & active idle widgets, with a focus on internet innovation, flash, and mobile games.

The window for submissions opened today June 2nd and will run until October 30th, with the winners to be announced December 7th.

Submissions will be judged both by customers who download and rate the application and experts from Forum Nokia, with the grand prize winner taking home $100,000 for their efforts.

For more details about the competition and how to apply check the site: Bil3arabi ‘Calling All Innovators’

[Via: ITP]

Etisalat Launches Own New Instant Messaging Service

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Etisalat MessengerEtisalat, the UAE telecoms operator, announced the launch of its own IM (Instant Messaging) service for its mobile phone and internet customers.

Etisalat Messenger is similar in concept to other chatting applications like Yahoo! Messenger, MSN and Google Talk, allowing subscribers to send messages in both Arabic and English between mobile phones and computers.

With this move, Etisalat aims to target the young generation in the UAE with whom instant messaging is one of the more popular forms of communication.

Conversations in Etisalat’s messenger can also include multimedia; for example pictures, video and sound clips. Messages sent while recipients are offline are delivered to them as SMS or MMS messages.

Etisalat Messenger comes in two packages; one with unlimited usage at a fixed monthly rate and another which enables users to send and receive unlimited messages for a fixed session period of 15 minutes at a per session cost.

For more details about Etisalat Messenger, pricing and activation; check the product page on the official site: Etisalat Messenger.

[Via: ITP]

Jordanian Government To Launch Two Venture Capital Funds

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Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO)The Government of Jordan, represented by Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO), has launched a Call for Proposals to pre-select one or two fund managers to provide services in relation to the establishment and management of the up-coming Early Stage and Capital for Growth funds in Jordan.

The Funds are part of the Jordan Enterprise Venture Capital Programme 2009 aiming at developing the emerging venture capital service industry in Jordan and at improving access to equity and quasi-equity financing for SMEs in Jordan.

The Funds will have minimum sizes of EUR5M/US$6.9M (Early Stage) and EUR20M/US$27.5M (Capital for Growth), of which 60% and 35% respectively have been committed in-principle by anchor investors.

The Funds will be managed by the private sector with the anchor investors being treated on a pari passu basis with private sector investors, in terms of risks and rewards. Selection of Fund Manager(s) will be determined on a competitive basis.

Bidding for the management of these funds is open to Venture Capital fund management companies, consortia, new management teams or promoters in a position to demonstrate their ability to:

  • Formulate investment strategies matching the Funds’ investment policies;
  • Mobilise a management team with relevant track-record;
  • Raise additional funds from private and institutional investors;
  • Source deals and actively manage the portfolio to create value.

The guidelines for submitting applications are available under the Venture Capital section on the JEDCO website: http://www.jedco.gov.jo.
The final closing date for receipt of proposals is on 15 June 2009 at 15:00 hrs. GMT + 3.

This is a great move by the Jordanian government to try to help build and enrich a professional VC industry in the country. A move worth following closely, and we’ll make sure to keep an eye on it and bring you any updates and news on how things develop.

[Source: Economist]
[Via: Sindibad] 

The 10 Finalists Of MIT Arab Business Plan Competition 08-09

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MIT Arab Business Plan CompetitionThe MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is a competition designed to encourage all entrepreneurs in the Arab world to start their own company and, ultimately, create a nest of leading firms in the Arab world.

The current version of the competition officially started on November 10th 2008, by opening up registrations. Now, after two rounds of selection, the following 10 finalists from around the Arab world have made it to the final round of the competition (in alphabetical order):

  • AqarMap.com: Amad Almsaodi, Mohamed Hareth, Redwan Mohamed (Yemen)
  • Blog Souq: Ahmad Takatkah, Adey Salamin, Ammar Ibrahim (Jordan)
  • Digital Security Innovations: Adel Bouhoula, Seifeddine Aloui, Amine Ben Khalifa, Mohamed Abid (Tunisia)
  • EnglEasy: AbdulAziz Ahmed Al-Sulaima, Ahmed Siddiqui, Ayman Makki Hoho (Saudi Arabia)
  • HAYATI Healthcare LLC: Michael Matly, Tariq El-Titi, David Matly (United Arab Emirates)
  • Rice Straw Fertilizer Company: Ibrahim Khater Youssef, Ahmed El Dorghamy, Mohamed Abdel Raouf (Egypt)
  • Syphir (GFMail): Husain Al-Mohssen, Courtland Allen, Ghassan Fayad, Faisal Alibrahim (Saudi Arabia)
  • Transterra Media: Irina Prentice, Hassan Ibrahim, Eli Andrews, Jonathan Giesen, Raya Mamarbachi (Egypt)
  • Vaxeal Therapeutics: Ahmed Bouzidi, Bernard Maillere, Giampietro Corradin, Wassim Chehadeh, Mohammed Bouziane, Francois Spertini (United Arab Emirates)
  • White Smile Whitening Boutique: Jomana Musmar, Lamis Maddur, Nigah M. Ajaj, Saoussen Besrour (United Arab Emirates)

The final round consists of oral presentations of the finalists’ business plans to the jury panel in Dubai, on June 11th 2009. The awards ceremony will take place the following day in Dubai, on June 12th 2009.

The winner of the competition will receive prize money of USD 50,000. The check will be issued in the name of the company. The members of the winning team will also be given the opportunity to attend the MIT Global Startup Workshop (GSW). 

The first and second runner-ups will receive a check of USD 10,000 and USD 5000 respectively. 

Besides the financial reward, the winning teams will be provided with coaching/mentoring from the members and network of the MIT Enterprise Forum who will also help the winners get their businesses up and explore further funding opportunities by introducing them to business development centers, financing institutions, and similar organizations. 

Launch Of Global Business Opportunities Program’s 2nd Version

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QRCE

The second version of the Global Business Opportunities program was officially launched yesterday by the Al-Ahli Holding Group in partnership with the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), in a ceremony presided over by HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El-Hassan.

The program aims to train a group of young entrepreneurs of various nationalities in order to prepare them for the launch of global companies. The opening ceremony was attended by a number of prominent figures, businesspeople, ambassadors and participating delegations from Jordan, Argentina and South Africa.

The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Al-Ahli Holding Group signed an agreement earlier this year to cooperate on this version of the Global Business Opportunities program; and this launch is a step forward in the frame of that cooperation.

Joi Ito, the CEO of Creative Commons, who was present at the launch ceremony, gave a motivational speech for participants, in which he emphasized the role of entrepreneurship in achieving comprehensive development and the significance of creativity in the success of companies starting up and increasing their ability to compete in global markets.

Husni Khuffash, Google’s UAE Country Manager, went over the different challenges facing entrepreneurs in their endeavors to establish global corporations, and offered solutions for these challenges.

There are 25 young men and women participating in this program from Jordan, Argentina and South Africa. They will be undergoing intensive training for three weeks, during which they will be introduced to administrative, marketing, financing, financial and human resources skills, along with others, presented by the Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute at the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship.

Participants will then be divided into a number of groups made up of people from different nationalities to work on a complete business project, using the skills and ideas acquired throughout the program.

The first version of the program took place in Argentina with the participation of 20 young men and women from the United Arab Emirates and Argentina. Preparations are underway to implement the program in Brazil and South Africa in an expanded capacity and with a larger participation of youth.

IIT Forum 6: The Arab World’s Top 10 Investment Ready Startups

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Investing in Technology ForumThe 6th Investing In Technology Forum; an event that aims to be a networking opportunity for entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, regional corporate CEOs, and all technology leaders in the region to get together to share experiences, develop relationships and explore business opportunities; took place in Cairo, Egypt, last week.

One of the items on the event’s agenda was a series of pitches by Arab technology startups to a panel of the region’s most prominent angel investors and venture capitalists, in hopes to be selected among the top 10 investment ready startups in the Arab world.

There were 33 startups from around the region who pitched their businesses, and the panel evaluated each startup and gave them a score, rating them by their potential and readiness for investment.

The following ten startups came out on top: 

  • Droubi: A company that has invented and patented a new method of dental surgery.
  • Glocalizer: A company that provides free wireless and technology advertising based products.
  • Applied Research Institute: A company that works on new technologies for water treatment and organic food.
  • eSpace: For WeNear, their framework for location based mobile services.
  • MobiLaps: A company that develops network applications for internet service providers.
  • Talasim: An online social network and photo gallery for comedy/funny content.
  • Aboker: A company that works on technology to produce biofuel and silicon carbon from environmental waste.
  • Vertex: A company that builds customised three-dimensional virtual worlds for education, real estate …etc.
  • SilMinds: A company that provides hardware acceleration technology thats speeds up intensive computing processes.
  • Kindisoft: A company that helps businesses to better protect their Rich Internet Applications based on Adobe Flash.

Quite an interesting mix of startups covering different fields, some who were only recently launched, and some that date back to the late 80’s, early 90’s (Droubi: 1989, Applied Research Institute: 1990).

After the selection happened, a number of the top startups were approached by some of the present investors who were interested in their businesses.

A list of these top 10 startups and their full descriptions can be downloaded in PDF format here. (Courtesy of Beep Beep.)

[Via: Beep Beep]

Intel Capital Invests In Two Jordanian Companies Jeeran And ShooFeeTV

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Intel
Jeeran
ShooFeeTV

In a joint press conference today in Amman, Jordan, Intel Capital‘s latest investments in the Arab internet scene were announced.

These new investments from Intel Capital are in Jordanian internet companies Jeeran, one of the leading user generated content portals in the Arab world, and ShooFeeTV, a free online Arabic television guide. Both companies are also IV Holdings portfolio companies.

This comes among Intel Capital’s ongoing push in the region, supporting local entrepreneurship in the Middle East and funding companies in the internet and technology sectors through its $50 million Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey Fund, which is aimed to assist the companies in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending their product offerings.

Under the umbrella of this fund, 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.

As has become custom for most such investments in the Arab world, the size of these investments has not been disclosed.

Tunisie Telecom To Launch Venture Capital Arm ‘Diva Sicar’

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Tunisie TelecomMontassar Ouaili, the CEO of Tunisie Telecom, the first Tunisian telecom operator in Tunisia, recently announced that the company will be launching a venture capital arm in partnership with STB Bank and BH Bank.

The new venture will be called “Diva Sicar“, and will be officially established as a subsidiary of Tunisie Telecom on May 19th.

It will have 20 Million Tunisian Dinars ($US 14 Million) in capital, and will be concentrating on projects in the development, innovation and value-added services areas.

Tunisiana, which is Tunisie Telecom’s only competitor so far in the mobile space, also recently announced a new fund for value-added services.

Tunisie Telecom is 65% owned by the Tunisian state, with the remaining 35% owned by TECOM Investments and Dubai Investment Group, which they acquired in 2006.

Tunisiana Launches A New Fund For Value-Added Services

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TunisianaTunisiana, the first private mobile operator in Tunisia,  just announced the launch of a fund for value-added services projects.

This move follows the recent publication of a new law in Tunisia relating to the sharing of revenue between telecom operators and value-added services providers.

So in an effort to empower and encourage more entrepreneurs and startups to launch such value-added services, it has created this fund, wherein each project can benefit of up to 30,000 Tunisian Dinars of funding.

The announcement of the fund was made a few days ago at the opening of Tunisiana’s value-added services event where a number of new services were announced by a number of companies, mainly in the areas of business solutions, entertainment and accessibility.

It’s a really smart and welcome move by Tunisiana, and it should be interesting to follow and see how well it goes and how many projects will see the light of day because of it.

I definitely think it’s a model other mobile operators around the Arab world should experiment with for the benefit of everyone: theirselves, these new businesses and their clients.

[Source: WebManagerCenter]