Category: United Arab Emirates

Loomni, A Knowledge Sharing & Educational Platform

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LoomniLoomni is a new service that’s being launched today for the region that promises to reshape and transform continuing education, making it more accessible and affordable to everyone.

The problem Loomni is trying to solve is that of education outside of public schools and universities being out of reach for most people as it takes the form of limited, relatively long and expensive courses offered up by training institutions.

The idea of the startup is to fill the existing gap and provide learning opportunities for people who can’t afford expensive courses, nor have the time to spend locked up for long hours in a training venue somewhere. It aims to do this by providing focused practical courses delivered in 90 minutes, at a fraction of the price available in the market.

To be able to provide these lower prices, Loomni goes after another profile of instructors, mainly experts on certain fields who can share their knowledge and experience, educating people about their areas of expertise, but also helping market themselves and their services along the way.

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AppsArabia, An Arabic Mobile Applications Development Fund

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appsarabiaAbu Dhabi’s twofour54 has recently announced it will be launching a new investment fund called ‘AppsArabia‘, which promotes and supports mobile app development throughout the Middle East and North Africa using the Software Development Kits (SDKs) of all the major mobile and online platforms (e.g. Android (Google), iPhone OS (Apple), BlackBerry, Facebook, OpenSocial and Ovi (Nokia)).

The fund will be offered by twofour54 ibtikar, which provides funding and support to start-up and early stage Arabic content initiatives.

AppsArabia is led by David Ashford, and the plan for it is to invest in the best ideas for apps from entrepreneurs, app developers and businesses, and provide commercial guidance, resources and marketing support to make these apps successful.

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Loomn.it, A New Quick Online Sharing Service

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loomnitLoomn.it (pronounced Loomnit) is a new easy to use, online sharing service that will be launching today and aims to provide users with a simple way to share anything with anyone; whether it be links, email addresses, images, videos, documents or any other digital content.

Through a very simplistic interface, users will be able to input the link for what they need to share or upload it directly to the cloud and then start sharing it with their friends on Facebook, twitter, google buzz or anywhere else on the web.

Users do not need to register for an account on the site to be able to use it, and don’t have any usage limits or quotas they have to keep within. They can start sharing right away and have their shared items live for 14 days to pass among their friends.

Once a person opens up a loomn.it link (e.g. http://loomn.it/c8); the shared page, text, image or file is displayed in a framed page with the top loomn.it frame providing stats on how many times the shared item was viewed, as well as options to share the item with others.

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DemoCamp Dubai 5 – March 8th 2010 – The Agenda

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DemoCamp Dubai 5As previously announced, the fifth DemoCamp Dubai will be taking place today at the Dubai Knowledge Village Auditorium on March 8th 2010 at 6:30PM.

The following six demos will be taking place at the event:

  • Hyzonia.com: a web platform for creating, customizing, publishing games and sending dynamic ads within games, to be played by target audiences.
  • FURNISHMarketplace.com: a web2.0 social B2B network, serving the needs of interior designers, hospitality industry professionals and real estate developers.
  • ShopMidEast: an upcoming online retailer with a big vision to become a comprehensive online retailer.
  • InTheLoop.me: a professional social network focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Mysalbum.com: a service allowing users to create urls for their images and specifying number of views, geo-targeting and timing.
  • Yebab.com: an Arab online wedding services directory catering to the whole wedding industry.

The format will be the same as the previous events, with the presenters giving 10 minute presentations of their work, with 5 minutes for Q&A.

The presenters will also be available to answer any further questions, receive feedback and share some thoughts after the event.

Startups and web applications presented at DemoCamp Dubai, and that haven’t already been covered, will be reviewed here on StartUpArabia over the coming days.

Wajhy, Create Your Own Arab Avatar

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WajhyOver the past years, every now and then a new avatar creation tool would pop up from somewhere, to let internet users create avatars of theirs in the form of South Park characters, Lego men and women, and the list continues; each time people would flock to the new service, create their avatars, and they’d spread them like fire across social networks and all sorts of other online services.

A new tool called Wajhy has been launched, in Arabic, for Arab users, that allows them to create avatars that actually look a bit more like them, and that they can dress in traditional dress too.

The user can choose whether they want to create a male or female avatar, then go in and start setting the options one by one, from shape of face, ears and nose, to what they’re wearing, what their head dress is, and the accessories they’re sporting.

The main differences between Wajhy,which means ‘My face’ in Arabic, and other such services are in the choices of clothing available for men and women, their head dress, the facial hair options for men, and such small details that give a small Arab touch to the avatar.

Wajhy

The service was launched by Remal IT (Saudi Arabia) and SOCOOOL Entertainment (United Arab Emirates), and is still in Beta, but is quite stable and smooth to use.

DemoCamp Dubai 5 – March 8th 2010 – DKV Auditorium

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After over a year since its last edition, DemoCamp Dubai is back for its fifth edition, and hoping to be even bigger than its previous editions.

The Dubai-based launch event for new products, technologies and companies will be taking place at the Dubai Knowledge Village Auditorium on March 8th 2010 at 6:30PM.

DemoCamp Dubai 5

As usual attendance is open for free for everyone, offering up an opportunity for entrepreneurs, investors, consultants, students, and professionals to get together, see what the latest projects that have been cooking in the region are, meet and network.
To confirm your attendance, just fill in this simple form: Attendance form.

Entrepreneurs and developers can join and demo a web application, a piece of software, a tool or anything that is innovative, new and can be demonstrated.
To submit your project to be demonstrated at the event, please fill in this simple form: Demo Submission.
The last date for submissions is February 24th, 2010.

This edition of DemoCamp Dubai was made possible through the cooperation and support of Dubai Internet City, Argaam and StartUpArabia.

And finally, as usual, startups and web applications presented at DemoCamp Dubai, will be covered here on StartUpArabia.

Dubai Tech Nights – February 9th – RIT University (DSO)

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Dubai Tech NightsA new tech-oriented initiative is seeing the light in Dubai in the form of meetups under the name of “Dubai Tech Nights” that are planned to be held every month on the second Tuesday of the month.

The goal of the event is to get as many techies as possible together in one place to talk about different technology issues, and the possible ways to fuel entrepreneurship and innovation in this part of the world.

The first of these meetups will be held on February 9th, 6PM at the RIT University in Dubai Silicon Oasis.

The event is being organized by Mohamed Alzubi, Tariq Al Asiri and Omar Al-Mahmoud.

If you’re a techie, will be in Dubai at that time and want to attend, just go to the Dubai Tech Nights meetup page to sign up and RSVP.

CERT-Wharton Entrepreneurial Planning & Innovation Competition (EPIC)

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CERT|Wharton Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)For the first time in the Middle East, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT), have partnered to launch a business plan competition for young entrepreneurs.

The CERT-Wharton “Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)” is open to all students from accredited academic institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and all Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) alumni.

The top eight teams will share US $50,000 in cash prizes to jump start their businesses, with the winning team receiving US $20,000.

The CERT-Wharton EPIC business plan competition offers students a comprehensive, four-month platform to help them gain the entrepreneurial knowledge and expert feedback needed to launch their new business ideas.

CERT-Wharton EPIC helps teams develop their business plans in both a collaborative and competitive environment.

The competition is structured as follows:

  • Teams need to submit an executive summary of their business plan. (Deadline: December 20th, 2009)
  • These submissions are evaluated and up to 25 teams will be selected – known as the “Top 25”.
  • These “Top 25” submissions will be further evaluated and the top eight teams will be selected to participate in the finals – known as the “Great Eight” finalists.
  • The “Great Eight” finalists will prepare and submit a full business plan for evaluation.
  • The “Great Eight” finalists will present a formal pitch to a panel of judges.  Winners will then be selected.

For further information and to register, check out the official website:  CERT-Wharton “Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)”

Egyptian Mrrha Acquired By UAE Company Creative Solutions

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MrrhaMrrha, an Arab online service  that was launched from Egypt around a simple idea to allow users to upload a file and mirror it directly on up to five popular uploading sites of choice, has been acquired by Emirati company Creative Solutions.

Mrrha was launched in November 2008 by brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed El-Masoudy from Egypt, aiming to make the process of uploading files to the internet for sharing purposes and mirroring them on the most famous file uploading services a lot easier and faster.

Mrrha depends on a parallel uploading mechanism to make this possible, which means that the file will be uploaded to Mrrha and sent to the other uploading sites at the same time, making it so that the user won’t have to wait until it’s uploaded to each site.

Creative SolutionsCreative Solutions, the acquiring company, is a web development company founded by Khamis AlSharyani in 2008, based in Alain (UAE), that provides web consulting, solutions and services for its clients. The company is a subsidiary of Bin Majed group.

The details of the deal have not been made public.

UAE Based NeuString Receives Investment From Intel Capital

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NeuStringIntel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment arm, earlier announced an investment in NeuString, a leading UAE-based telecommunications analyst software company, further reaffirming Intel Capital’s commitment to investing in the region.

The funding from Intel Capital is to assist NeuString in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending the company’s product offerings.

NeuString is a billing software company dedicated to delivering predictive analytics solutions and consulting services to mobile network operators to help them achieve greater financial performance.

NeuString currently has offices in the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Russia, and Ukraine.

The investment in NeuString follows five previous Intel Capital investments in the Middle East this year: two Jordan-based digital content companies − Jeeran and ShooFeeTV; and three UAE-based technology companies – Conservus International FZ-LLC, Pulse Technologies FZ-LLC, and Vertex Animation Studio FZ-LLC.

As has become customary in this part of the world, for some unclear reason, the amount of this investment was yet again not disclosed.

Under the Intel Capital program, Intel plans to continue supporting local entrepreneurship in the Middle East through its investments in education, digital accessibility and specialized technical competencies. The purpose being to help promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and job creation in the region.