Regional How to raise $18M in the Middle East? 5 tips from MarkaVIP founder Ahmed Alkhatib How do you raise $18 million USD in the Middle East? It’s not easy. Last week I sat down with Ahmed Alkhatib, the man behind the... Robert Carroll • 06 April, 2014 MarkaVIP
Yamsafer tackles region's payment challenge with cardless bookings Faris Zaher, CEO and co-founder of hotel bookings site Yamsafer, thinks his team may have come up with a solution to the region’s payment r... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 07 April, 2014 yamsafer payment solutions cardless bookings
Palestinian entrepreneur launches e-store and educational blog on sexual health for married couples “It started one day when I was walking in Ramallah,” Ashraf Alkiswani says. “I was stuck behind these two guys in their late thirties, and ... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 03 April, 2014 karaz sexual health ramallah
E-commerce Entrepreneurship Program in Egypt In partnership with Souq.com, Education for Employment Egypt (EEE) launches the E-commerce Entrepreneurship Program to create a group of... Wamda • 02 April, 2014 Egypt E-commerce
Can lean e-commerce site ShuGeek bootstrap indefinitely? One month was all it took to launch ShuGeek, the website for so-called geeky products in the UAE. The team, adopting a lean startup... Pamela Kesrouani • 10 April, 2014 Technology E-commerce
Lebanon ShopBuilder hopes to boost e-commerce in Lebanon After realizing the huge opportunity for e-commerce in Lebanon, Emile Boustani, a Lebanese entrepreneur who spent 20 years in the... Reine Farhat • 20 March, 2014 lebanon Payment Gateways E-commerce
From outer space to fashion e-commerce: New York's Slow Factory When Celine Semaan, back in 2012, was struck with inspiration based on NASA's images of outer space available to the public via... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 13 March, 2014
U.A.E Cary! off to a rollicking start on Eureeca; signals an increasingly complex UAE used car market UPDATE: As of April 17, 2014, Cary! has met its Eureeca goal, having raised $103,400 on the crowdinvestment platform. Eureeca investors... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 11 March, 2014 eureeca crowdinvestment crowdinvesting
Challenges and opportunities abound in the Arabic digital content sector Ninety percent of people in the Arab World want to read their internet in Arabic, say recent statistics from the Economic and Social... Hanan Solayman • 02 April, 2014 ebooks content Arabic Content
Ex-PayPal MD launches Singapore-based payment gateway for the Middle East, Africa, Asia Can a new payment gateway finally make it easy to transact online? Elias Ghanem, previously of PayPal, announced today the launch ... Nina Curley • 06 March, 2014 Telr Payment Gateways
4 proposals to develop online payments in Morocco [Wamda Debates] Entrepreneurs in the coworking space New Work Lab How can you launch e-commerce in a country where internet penetration and credit card... Aline Mayard • 03 March, 2014 Wamda Debates Debate
New mobile app greens coupon-clipping in Kuwait Kilshay is a 6 month-old mobile app, available for both iOS and Android devices, that provides an environmentally friendly alternative to ... Ahmed Gabr • 26 February, 2014 M-commerce mobile advertising Commerce
First all-things-marriage listings site in Egyptian Arabic launches in Cairo When people talk about enriching Arabic online content, they often overlook specialized listings websites that attract large numbers... Hanan Solayman • 12 March, 2014 Egypt Wedding Industry listing
What Souq has to say about those rumors, and its new mobile strategy Just as chatter is sweeping the tech world that Souq.com may be courting Amazon for a potential acquisition, the Dubai-based e-commerce... Nina Curley • 19 February, 2014 souq
Wamda launches Wamda Debates in Casablanca When a topic is good, time always runs out. We've seen that first hand at our Mix N' Mentor events where we often are forced to cut c... Wamda • 11 February, 2014 PAYMENT Wamda Debates mobile payments
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... Wamda • 27 January, 2014 ticker Rocket Internet Investment
5 tips for budding regional entrepreneurs, from Dubizzle founder J.C. Butler J.C. Butler and Sim Whatley, founders of Dubizzle, the UAE's biggest classifieds site, created a multinational, multimillion dollar... Wamda • 22 January, 2014 Dubizzle
Two new online payment options emerge in Morocco as telecom monopoly ends [Update: this article has been edited to add corrections concerning Fast Payment and the FNEM following a discussion with El Amine... Aline Mayard • 16 January, 2014 Payment Gateways E-commerce
4 ways to increase sales on your e-commerce site Which e-commerce website owner doesn’t dream of higher sales numbers? Making a plan and building a skilled team to increase sales on your w... Muhanad Sabha • 30 January, 2014 sales E-commerce
Friendshippr regulates informal P2P international shipping; secures $670,000 USD Series A round Asking friends to ship or bring back an item from overseas is a practice as popular as it is tricky. Especially in this region, with its... Aline Mayard • 29 December, 2013 crowdshipping Business Angels collaborative economy
What You Look Like to a Social Network [Infographic] Facebook makes a lot of us feel warm and fuzzy; if commenting on ‘life event’ photos and smugly stalking friends and family halfway around ... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 24 December, 2013 privacy tumblr twitter
Lebanon Can a bootstrapping entrepreneur succeed with an electronics e-commerce store in Lebanon? “I came back to Lebanon to renew my papers then decided to look for opportunities here,” says serial entrepreneur... Reine Farhat • 19 December, 2013 lebanon Bootstrapping cash-on-delivery
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... Gulay Ozkan • 16 December, 2013 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... Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 15 December, 2013 cheezu b2c b2b