Tag: funding

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

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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.

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All eyes on you, there’s never been a better time to start-up than now

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Governments support, communities, talent, funds, role models & case studies, cutting edge software n’ tools, and soon, better broadband & higher Internet penetration, and a great deal of awareness/coverage by media. You’ve got it all.

Take it back to the days when Web meant that big Blue “e” icon. That’s exactly when we read all about the .com boom in the US and all we could think about was if that was real, spending millions of dollars on some Websites?

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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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What major obstacle did you face while looking to fund your project? [Poll Results]

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In the latest poll on StartUpArabia, the question that was addressed to the entrepreneur readers was:

What major obstacle did you face while looking to fund your project?

The result of reader voting came out as follows:

Major obstacles getting funding

Out of 89 readers who responded to the poll:

– 37% of them responded that it was initiating contact with potential investors
– 29% said it was allocating and finding the right investors
– 18% think it was measuring the seriousness of the investors
– 8% believe it was the cost of connecting with investors (traveling and attending conferences …etc)

The remaining 7% cited other obstacles.

What do you think? Do you share the same view? What solutions do you see for these obstacles?

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority To Launch Global Technology Fund

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Dubai Silicon Oasis AuthorityDubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the region’s largest integrated technology park, is planning to launch a global technology fund middle of next year.

“Some of the investments will be from ourselves, some from local and regional investors and also international investors,” said Ray Milhem, the new chief technology officer of technology investment at DSOA.

He said, it will largely target companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as global companies. The fund’s amount has not been finalised yet.

The fund is another means to attract research and development and manufacturing companies to set up a base in Dubai Silicon Oasis. And they are already talking to a number of companies to establish manufacturing in Dubai Silicon Oasis, with a concentration on start-ups.

Even though the focus is on the Middle East and North Africa, there are some start-ups in Europe and North America that they are looking at for potential investments, in order to get them to open higher-engineering offices in Dubai Silicon Oasis.

Earlier, the authority announced a budget of Dh25 billion set aside for investment in the coming years at DSOA. The whole project has already attracted foreign investments worth Dh1.4 billion. It has set aside about Dh500 million to invest in start-ups that will be spent over the next five years.

Additionally, private investment into real estate at DSOA is Dh13 billion, while Dh10 billion is budgeted for the third phase of the project’s development.

According to Milhem, the authority is in talks with several companies and should be making some decisions and announcing some deals soon.

[Source: Gulf News]

Twofour54 Ibtikar Launches Creative Lab Media Industry Grant Fund For Young Arabs

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twofour54twofour54 ibtikar, the media industry funding and support pillar of twofour54 Abu Dhabi, has launched twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab, a grant funding scheme aimed at engaging with young Arabs and stimulating creativity in order to build a long term sustainable media industry in the Arab world.

twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab offers grant funding and business support to talented Arab individuals from the UAE and across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, helping great media and entertainment ideas that would benefit from seed funding, development guidance and planning to get off the ground.

It offers funds ranging from US$1,000 to US$50,000 for creative and original ideas across all media platforms including television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming and animation.

twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab and young Arab funding recipients will engage in regular brainstorming sessions to develop ideas into fully fledged creative projects. A key part of this collaborative process will include budget creation and training in project execution and support throughout.

Tarek Ghattas, twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab manager, added: “We want people to come forward with their media and entertainment ideas. We are looking for passion and originality and there is no such thing as a bad idea. This is an opportunity for young Arabs to unleash their inner creativity and have a go at turning vision into reality – coming to us means never having to look back and wonder what you could have been.”

twofour54 ibtikar: creative lab expands twofour54 ibtikar’s funding portfolio, which also includes ibtikar ventures, an investment fund that focuses on start-up and early stage media and entertainment initiatives.

What major obstacle did you face while looking to fund your project? [Poll]

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A new poll has gone live on StartUpArabia, you can find it on the sidebar on the right or vote straight from this post.

This poll is more targeted at startups and entrepreneurs who have sought funding for their project/business at one point or another, and tries to determine what kinds of obstacles they faced while doing that.

What major obstacle did you face while looking to fund your project?

Feel free to further expand on your response in the comments section of this post.

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]

Bayt Launches Intilaq, Gets Into Early Stage Funding For Internet Startups In The Arab World

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IntilaqBayt.com, the leading job portal in the Arab world, is launching a new and very interesting initiative called Intilaq, that aims to fund, mentor and support aspiring entrepreneurs with early-stage technology startups.

Intilaq is interested in funding and supporting startups based in the Arab world, or who are interested in relocating to the region, that drive regional internet adoption, usage and functionality.

Intilaq is not an incubation program, nor a competition, what they’ll be doing is evaluating ideas and people on an on-going basis, looking for the right fit, and funding chosen projects in exchange for equity in the company. Depending on how much progress the entrepreneurs have made, the funding could be at a seed round or at a follow-up round.
There is also no defined amount with which they are seeding the fund, choosing to remain flexible and acting on a case by case basis.

Intilaq is interested in hearing from both technology geeks, who have technical talent and a great innovative idea looking to start a company, as well as business people, who have great business aptitude (e.g., operations, sales, marketing, business development, finance) and who want to work with technical people to build a great company.

By doing this, Bayt is looking to invest some of the experience and money it has gained over the years, building their own success, into new startups in return for equity, or the benefit of a strategic acquisition, or even to just help grow regional Internet usage and winning by growing the online employment market for Bayt.com.

Besides funding, experience and mentorship; Bayt also offers to help with invaluable industry contacts from around the region, and even workspace in some cases whether at their offices in Dubai Internet City or one of their other offices around the Arab world.

The Intilaq team is made up of Rabea Ataya, the CEO of Bayt.com, and Dan Stuart, the Head of Strategic Initiatives at Bayt.com; both as managing partners, with Dan running the day-to-day operations.

# Intilaq

How much money do you need for your startup? [Poll]

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A new poll has gone live on StartUpArabia, you can find it on the first sidebar on the right or vote straight from this post.

This poll is mainly aimed at Arab entrepreneurs who have already launched their startups and are looking for financing, or those who have yet to launch their projects and will be needing some funding.

The question is: How much money do you need for your startup?

The poll gives a number of ranges that are based on some of the feedback I’ve gotten from entrepreneurs I’ve met and talked with around the Arab world.

Feel free to further expand on your response in the comments section of this post.