Wamda

Dubai SME debuts the first World Entrepreneurship Forum in the Middle East

Dubai SME is set to host the UAE chapter of the World Entrepreneurship Forum to promote entrepreneurial idea exchange and networking ...

wef entreprenership Dubai

Gamification startup KidzWeekend wins Startup Weekend Dubai

Startup Weekend Dubai is quickly becoming a rite of passage for many serious startups, who come to the weekend like a band of travelers...

Startup Weekend

Global

littleBits, led by a Lebanese founder, releases Synth Kit, secures $11.1M investment

Lebanese entrepreneur and maker Ayah Bdeir’s startup littleBits, which has been hailed as the LEGO of electronics, has just released its n...

Electronics Hardware littlebits

3 ways to optimize mobile ads

Although mobile ad spend in the Middle East is lower than in most regions in the world, it's expected to grow faster than in any other...

Nabd Waveline Media

A way forward in Egypt: Rise Up Summit galvanizes entrepreneurship by Tahrir Square

Tahrir Square will forever stand as a symbol of Egypt’s revolution and its ongoing transformation, its power seared into c...

Ecosystem

Maghreb

A co-working space to develop the Tunisian entrepreneurial ecosystem

Who better than entrepreneurs to solve Tunisia’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges and contribute to t...

tunisia Coworking Coworking Spaces

Startup Weekend Baghdad reveals an early but growing Iraqi ecosystem

Editor's note: When it comes to the startup scene in Iraq, we haven't seen a lot of activity, although opportunities are growing,...

Startup Weekend

Weekly Wrap-Up: November 24-28

Announcing our Wamda Plane travelers! The Wamda Plane trip is all set, and we have very noteworthy Saudi bloggers and entrepreneurs on...

Weekly Wrap-Up

PayPal announces regional discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Buyers throughout the Middle East will have access to discounts and sales on US websites this Friday and next Monday, thanks to a new deal...

PayPal

Can SearchinMENA.com raise the funds it needs to build an Alibaba for the Middle East?

[Update: Eureeca has extended SearchinMENA.com's campaign.] After three years of building SearchinMENA.com, Syrian entrepreneur Salim...

SearchinMENA crowdinvestment

Wamda's Mix N' Mentor is coming back to Dubai!

Coming up right after our stop in Jeddah, the Mix N’ Mentor Roadshow 2013 will next head back to Dubai to close out Wamda’s 2013 MnM tour a...

Mix n Mentor

New meetup at Morocco's New Work Lab awards MySportner startup of the month

The Moroccan co-working space New Work Lab has launched a new meetup called Pitch Lab, giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch...

pitch lab new work labs morocco

Can Airbnb clone Agaztak boost tourism in Egypt?

Not every entrepreneur is comfortable admitting that his startup is a local clone of an internationally successful business idea. But...

Egypt Travel

New payment solution in Kuwait wants cloud-based tokens to replace cash registers

Some say that in order to see a new startup ecosystem really take off, you just need to build one billion dollar company. Just one...

Payment systems Payment Gateways

Ad network ikoo closes offices in Saudi, Kuwait and Egypt for strategic refocusing

Several days ago, we received confirmation that ikoo had closed its offices in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah and Riyadh), Kuwait, and...

ikoo

The Middle East gets its first peer-to-peer lending site, with Sharia compliance

Looking back at the year, 2013 has clearly been the year of crowdfunding– especially in emerging markets and the Middle East. This y...

crowdinvestment liwwa Jordan

Startup news ticker: Int@j connects Jordanian and Saudi companies; Souq.com launches Cyber Week

Welcome to Wamda's weekly startup news ticker, which will offer quick announcements and stories relevant to the region. If you have a quick...

souq ticker ict

Meet the all-woman gaming community igniting creative culture in Saudi Arabia

Gaming, they say, can make a better world. Games make us better at being hopeful, forming social bonds, being productive, seeking...

W4Women Wamda for Women Entrepreneurs Gaming

Experienced entrepreneurs battle at Startup Weekend Ramallah

The startup ecosystem in Palestine is maturing, and nowhere was that more evident than at the second Startup Weekend in Ramallah this...

Mentorship Startup Weekend

AstroLabs partners with Blackbox to send a Middle Eastern startup to Silicon Valley

AstroLabs, the startup workshop series, is now joining ranks with the organizations working to connect startups in the Middle East with...

tim draper blackbox silicon valley

Will Qatari startups adopt a more flexible work environment?

Flexibility has been a hot topic in 21st century office culture. In February, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer controversially curtailed her...

working culture office hours office culture

8 leading startups get connected with Silicon Valley at MENA Innovation DemoDay

Despite the instabilities at home, Egyptian startups are gaining global recognition for their innovations lately; it’s not just that I...

techwadi palinno disrupt

How are teenagers using social networks? Can Shots of Me surpass Facebook?

Shots of Me, the new social network for selfies (photos taken of oneself), has famously raised $1.1 million USD in a seed-funding round...

shots of me teenagers Social Networks

Global

6 of the hottest smartwatches: fashion trend or smartphone alternative?

In 1973, Motorola introduced the first wireless "hand-held cell phone." Twenty years later, in 1993, IBM and American...

wearables smartphones Trends

Thought Leadership

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