Wamda

Online sports community Duplays launches new software platform, enters non-expat markets

If there's one thing Brian Sigafoos loves as much as sports, it's software. A 6'10" former professional basketball player, he's managed to...

abu dhabi playpass Dubai

Can media marketplaces disrupt traditional news outlets?

The statistics are by now familiar: newspaper and magazine subscriptions are in free fall, Facebook and Twitter are on the rise, and what...

marketplace news Media

Egypt's most famous female carpenter is breaking the mold to build a global brand

"I love the texture of wood, and the random patterns within the grain," says Maha Shoukry, a half-Egyptian, half-Italian entrepreneur who...

Artist Entrepreneurs Creativity Egypt

Sleep-deprived, failing fast, and pivoting smartly: Day 1 on StartupBus Europe

They say travel makes you wiser, meeting people opens your mind, and succeding involve trying - and even failing. What happens when the...

hackathon Startupbus

Global

This young Jordanian entrepreneur bootstrapped a funky gadget e-commerce site from home

Loay Malahmeh loves funky gifts. While shopping for one recently, he became frustrated with the overpriced products that he found...

cash-on-delivery Shipping E-commerce

Fun logistics game launches in Dubai on a lean budget; can it find distribution?

This piece is part of a new series on the challenges of new entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping their startups. “This is a game from ...

Bootstrapping Shipping Mobile Gaming

Global

Could Middle East e-commerce benefit from Pinterest?

There was nothing special about the verb ‘pin’ before Pinterest was founded in 2010. Today, online, it's most likely to...

Funding Social Networks Marketing

4 simple reasons why a young digital agency in Lebanon is turning a steady profit

Sometimes the startups seeing the most steady returns aren’t the ones that are popping up in the news, but just those with a solid model a...

CER Blog Developers

Is building hardware in China the secret to crowdfunding a huge seed round?

Devices are having a moment, and so is HAXLR8R. The hardware-focused startup accelerator, based between San Francisco and Shenzhen, China,...

accelerator haxlr8r china

How a Dutch woman became an entrepreneur in Beirut - with a little help from her friends

This piece is part of a new series on expat entrepreneurs. Last week in Beirut, a crowd of native Beirutis and foreigners...

Independant Publishing Book

U.A.E

The story of Yahoo's acquisition of Maktoob [Case Study]

This is the fourth post in our case study series, in partnership with the El Khazindar Business Research and Case...

case study Acquisitions

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

Visualizing Palestine unites activism and entrepreneurship

In 2009, Ramzi Jaber quit his job as a civil engineer in Jerusalem to organize TEDxRamallah. Upon moving to Ramallah to begin work on the...

indiegogo palestine Crowdfunding

Jordan

Can Jordan's Voga Closet scale its e-commerce store without offering cash-on-delivery?

[Update: Voga Closet is now offering Cash on Delivery] Needless to say, online payment is a serious issue for e-commerce websites in...

cash-on-delivery Shipping Payment Gateways

One woman's quest to get kids reading in the Arab world

Very few initiatives originating in the Arab world achieve international recognition: Kitaby Kitabak (my book, your book in English), a...

libraries library reading

Dubai's Dubarah is successfully helping Syrians find jobs: can it survive on donations?

There is no doubt that the million of Syrians who were forced to leave their country during the last two and a half years face several...

Social Entrepreneurship

Egyptian entrepreneur Amira Azzouz fights back against content theft

Last week, Amira Azzouz, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Fustany.com, the fashion and lifestyle site for Arab women, was doing some...

theft content scraping

5 MOOCs that can help you become a successful entrepreneur

There’s no miracle solution for success as an entrepreneur: you have to go for it, try, fail, learn, and go back in the ring. B...

MOOC

Jumia celebrates its first year, announces Mobinil partnership

Jumia Egypt celebrated its first anniversary with a full-on fashion show and party atop the luxurious Fairmont hotel in central Cairo last...

Rocket Internet Jumia

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

Meet 3 tech companies leading innovation in Pakistan

Pakistan is gradually emerging as a hub of technological innovation. Every day, I come across more companies that are...

Hardware Technology

How Dubai media machine AWI is turning traffic into transactions with new car portal ArabsTurbo

In classifieds, Egypt has become a highly competitive market, with companies like the revamped Waseet, Dubizzle, and Avito’s Bekam duking i...

classified Content Portals

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

How e-commerce site Kahenas overcame local challenges to sell stunning Moroccan designs

Preserving national heritage is a concern for many cultures today, as globalization causes the production and consumption of similar items...

Art E-commerce

Thought Leadership

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