Wamda

Lebanon

Japan's Cookpad to acquire Lebanon's Shahiya for $13.5M to enter the Arab world

Japan's largest recipe portal Cookpad is set to acquire Lebanon's Shahiya for a reported $13.5 million in a landmark deal for the Arab...

cookpad acquisition Shahiya

Jordan

Turkey's Yemeksepeti acquires a majority stake in Jordan's ifood.jo

Yemeksepeti, a leading Turkish food ordering site based in Istanbul, has announced its acquisition of majority shares in the Jordanian...

ifood.jo Acquisitions Jordan

From Saudi to the US: selling camel milk as the new superfood

A Palestinian raised in Saudi, Walid Abdul-Wahab moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to study at USC, where he discovered how health-conscious a...

Marketing in Ramadan: do well by doing good

In the UAE and MENA region, Ramadan is usually a slow month for most startups. But for charitable causes, Ramadan is an ideal time for...

carpool arabia moti roti cause marketing

Fighting infrastructure and politics, this entrepreneur built Beirut's first coworking space

At one of AltCity's seemingly ubiquitous events, participants collaborate on a project. (Image via Facebook) As he sits with his beat-up...

Central Bank Lebanon Altcity beirut

4 tips for cracking the F&B market

The Arab region is teeming with local and international restaurants offering various types of cuisine to match the increasingly demanding...

franchise list Food & Beverage

How Elmenus is leveraging the trend of Egyptian food going digital

Egyptians are increasingly combining their love of food – the product on which they the majority of their yearly incomes – with the sur...

ElMenus Food delivery Delivery

Palestinian juice startup Ardy takes on market leader with a hyperlocal approach

In a Palestinian entrepreneurial scene gaining recognition for its globally minded tech startups, Ardy, a beverage company whose name...

israel west bank palestine

3 lessons in startup culture from Beirut's sudden success, Jai Kitchen

This is the first in a series on the business of starting a food & beverage company in the Middle East. Check back periodically for...

jai kitchen f&b beirut

Narise Kamber, founder of Bahrain's Saffron Cafe, on scaling, funding, and passion [Wamda TV]

Saffron Café is one of Bahrain's fledgling success stories, having grown from one to four cafes over the course of just one year. The ...

wamdatv saffron cafe

10 amazing holiday gifts from innovators in the Middle East

Whatever your religious beliefs, we all worship at the altar of buying new things, especially at this time of year. We compiled a list of...

gift gift guide morocco

Looly's takes home Startup Cup Maroc

It’s official: the Moroccan startup of the year is Looly’s! At least, it’s the startup that won the first edition of Maroc Start...

events Competitions

Voucher book The Entertainer bets on a new mobile app for global expansion

While daily deals are no longer as popular as they were a few years ago, the prospect of getting more for less is a perennial hit. Voucher...

uae entertainer Dubai

Women's portal HawaaWorld spins out new iPad recipe magazine

HawaaWorld is one of the oldest and most popular user-generated content portals targeting women in the Arab region. The platform,...

Food & Beverage

Foodonclick enters Saudi and Lebanon. Can they replicate their success in Turkey and UAE?

Who will own online food delivery in Saudi Arabia? With Foodonclick, the Arab arm of Turkish giant Yemeksepeti, announcing expansion into...

Food delivery Food & Beverage

Is Algeria ready for an online supermarket?

Despite significant challenges for e-commerce sites in Algeria – including the fact that only 14% of Algerians are internet users – t...

algeria

A look at Just Falafel's recipe as it (potentially) readies for an IPO

Fadi Malas of Just Falafel is working overtime lately. “We’re finishing work these days quite late, I think around midnight,” he expla...

IPOs Franchising Scaling

How Lebanese recipe portal Shahiya is empowering women in Saudi Arabia and abroad

Since we last checked in, Shahiya, the Beirut-based community recipe board, has made some serious strides. The site has grown to over...

expat cooking Saudi Arabia

Michel & Augustin at New Work Lab, Casablanca

New Work Lab, the Casablanca-based coworking space, is hosting a talk with Michel & Augustin, the two entrepreneurs who disrupted the...

The challenges of bootstrapping a mobile app as a single female founder in Lebanon

This piece is part of a new series on the challenges of young entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping their startups. If you know someone who's...

Incubator Competitions Mobile

Will the new MAKE Business Hub kill business by charging for WiFi?

After founder Leith Matthews left MAKE Business earlier this year, (under what many say were difficult circumstances), the...

Cafe Coworking Coworking Spaces

3 startups tackling grocery e-commerce in Egypt

Over the past decade, online grocery stores have been popping up in the U.S. and around the world with relative success. Even Amazon.com...

Food & Beverage E-commerce

Meet the family business supporting food & beverage startups in Egypt [Wamda TV]

While it's easy to think 'tech' when you think about startup incubation, supporting non-tech startups is also critical for making an...

Incubator Accelerators Food & Beverage

Challenges to scaling in Dubai: A look at Wild Peeta [case study]

This is the third post in our new case study series, in partnership with the El Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC) at the A...

Scaling Food & Beverage

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