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

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...

Nina Curley • 16 January, 2014

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...

Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 15 January, 2014

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...

Gulay Ozkan • 09 January, 2014

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...

Wamda • 07 January, 2014

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...

Glen Dalakian II • 29 December, 2013

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...

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

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...

Eman Mostafa • 26 December, 2013

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...

Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 11 December, 2013

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...

Aline Mayard • 09 December, 2013

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...

Samir Abdelkrim • 12 December, 2013

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....

Fatim Zahra Biaz • 12 December, 2013

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,...

Jonathan Labin • 09 December, 2013

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...

Hanan Solayman • 16 December, 2013

E-commerce Daily Deals Egypt

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...

Glen Dalakian II • 02 December, 2013

Electronics Hardware littlebits

4 must-watch documentaries for entrepreneurs [Wamda TV]

The year is almost over, and many entrepreneurs take this time to reboot, take a step back, and get out of the bubble. For those looking...

Zeina Tabbara • 05 December, 2013

Scaling

How an Egyptian traffic app partnered with the Kuwaiti government [Wamda TV]

If you ask a random big city resident about their city’s main problem, it’s very likely that their response will be the traffic. With more a...

Gulay Ozkan • 01 December, 2013

istanbul traffic wasalny

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...

Wamda • 28 November, 2013

Mix n Mentor

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...

Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 27 November, 2013

crowdinvestment liwwa Jordan

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...

Ahmed Gabr • 28 November, 2013

Egypt Travel

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...

Akram Dweikat • 25 November, 2013

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...

Aline Mayard • 25 November, 2013

shots of me teenagers Social Networks

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...

Stephanie d'Arc Taylor • 19 November, 2013

uae entertainer Dubai