Wamda

4 lessons from Fishfishme's successful investment round

Some of you may already know that we just closed a $200,000 USD financing round from some angel investors Sim Whatley, Saif Alzarouni,...

Angel Investment Investment

Baraka Bits uses 'good news from the Middle East' to power positive change in the region

“It’s OK if we don’t see thousands of views on our articles,” says Rama Chakaki, founder and CEO of news site Baraka Bits. “We’re willing t...

baraka bits palestine Media

Here's why the Arab world needs a startup exchange program

Ten accelerators from around the world have announced the launch of a travel abroad program called Startup Exchanges. During one month, 50...

cultural exchange exchange accelerator

Palestine's only startup accelerator Fast Forward announces its second class

Palestine’s first startup accelerator, Fast Forward, announced its second class on January 20th. The new group of startups focuses on t...

Fast Forward accelerator palestine

Here's what Morocco-based video advertising agency Buzzeff learned when opening a Dubai office

Every three weeks, Casablanca-based Jérôme Mouthon makes the seven-hour flight to Dubai to work for one week at his company’s Dubai off...

morocco Dubai Video Advertising

Startup news ticker: PricePanda secures 3 million dollars from Tengelmann Group

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

ticker Rocket Internet Investment

The secret sauce for running a successful crowd investment campaign

Will 2014 be the year of crowd investment? Yes, if startups like SearchinMENA have anything to say about it. The B2B marketplace, founded...

crowdinvestment How-Tos

Lebanon's touch launches an app store; can it succeed where others have failed?

Yesterday, touch, one of Lebanon's two major telecom companies, announced the launch of its Android-compatible app store, aimed at serving...

apps app store apple

Turkey

What Turkey's economic struggles mean for its startups

Excitement about Turkey’s startups hit fever pitch last year. This time one year ago, The Economist anointed the country’s startup scene a...

Ecosystem

Startup news ticker: Integreight reaches its goal on Kickstarter in 6 hours; Kamel Al-Asmar in Forbes’ 30 Under 30

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

Egypt Crowdfunding Social Entrepreneurship

How Lebanese gaming portal At7addak is building an online empire with user-generated content

As I drove up to the town of Mansourieh overlooking sprawling Beirut, I wondered how such a successful online company could operate in...

Content Portals Arabic Content Gaming

BitPay founder Tony Gallipi on Bitcoin's bright future [WamdaTV]

BitPay is an easy-to-use platform enabling internet businesses to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. BitPay provides a plugin and makes it...

currency p2p bitpay

Jordanian custom photo album service eyes Gulf Facebook users, B2B expansion

There’s got to be a story behind a company by the name of Cheezu. “I was watching a Japanese movie,” says Tala Haddadin, Cheezu’s Jordani...

cheezu b2c b2b

Can AskNative save Egypt's tourism industry?

AskNative, a tourism service that works like a social network, is up against serious odds in Egypt, where both tourism and e-commerce are...

AskNative Tourism Egypt

PayPal brings new mobile payment option to rapidly developing East Africa

M-PESA, a mobile payment scheme launched in 2007 by Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom, has fundamentally changed the way Kenyans...

mobile payments Payment systems Kenya

Enigma thinks big data can change the world

"Dad, the president retweeted my database!" "Well, it’s great that your boss appreciates your work." "No Dad, I’m talking about the Pre...

open data big data Diaspora

3 ways the Arab tech diaspora can stimulate regional development

From the Rise Up Summit (a conference dedicated to innovation and Egyptian startups), to the MENA Innovation DemoDay (a series of...

silicon valley Diaspora

MySportner founder Kenza Bennani on her greatest challenges, and big plans for the future

The New Work Lab, a Moroccan co-working space based in Casablanca, recently held the first edition of Pitch Lab won by MySportner....

mysportner new work labs morocco

5 tips for small businesses on Facebook

Jonathan Labin is Facebook's Head of Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. He contacted us with some tips, based on Facebook's own research,...

small business sme Facebook

Egyptian daily deals site Waffarha confident amidst uncertainty

The recent shutdown of Dare’n’Deal, Egypt’s most popular website for daily deals and group buying, sparked much curiosity about whether the...

E-commerce Daily Deals Egypt

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

Global

Thought Leadership