Startups Arabia

Hasan Haider has over 13 years of experience investing in MENA startups. Hasan is the Founder and Managing Partner of +VC, one of the most active early stage venture capital firms focused on the MENA region. Hasan was previously Managing Partner, MENA at 500 Startups and led the firms growth in the MENA Region, turning 500 Startups into the most active VC fund in the MENA region, raising and deploying the 500 Falcons fund, building partnerships and running programs in the region to help build the regional ecosystem. Hasan has invested in more than 250 startups in the region over the course of the last 5 years. 

Prior to 500, Hasan was the co-founder and CEO of Tenmou, the first business angel’s organization in Bahrain and one of the first in the MENA region. Hasan’s work in developing angel investment in emerging markets through Tenmou has been picked up as a case study by the World Bank and was taught to Entrepreneurship Policy makers at Babson College. Previously, Hasan’s career was in finance and investment banking at Sico where he spent a number of years.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn:Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter:@ArabiaStartups

Facebook:@startupsarabia

Youtube:Startups Arabia Podcast

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Hasan’s LinkedIn account:@Hasan Haider

+VC’s Website:https://plus.vc/

VCpreneur, at The Intersection Of VC & Data

Ahmad Takatkah is a technical founder turned VC, with a background in computer engineering, data science (AI and ML), and product management. 

Over the past 15 years, Ahmad has helped set up and operate three VC firms. For which he created new deal sourcing, startup evaluation, and exit prediction tools. 

Ahmad utilized a new AI model he customized to summarize startup pitch decks and prepare investment memos and DD reports. He utilized a new data model he designed to collect 300+ data points on startups, and then used ML to score companies based on price, market, team, differentiation, and performance, and to predict exit timelines, valuations, and fund returns. 

He's also created internal products to automate the collection of portfolio companies’ performance data, and encourage knowledge sharing among portfolio companies’ founders and teams. 

Ahmad comes with technical, entrepreneurial, and active VC investing experience, he managed small and large teams of both business and engineering talents. He is an Engineer with an MBA, and a Kauffman Fellow since 2012.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn:Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter:@ArabiaStartups

Facebook:@startupsarabia

Youtube:Startups Arabia Podcast

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Ahmad’s LinkedIn account:@Ahmad Takatkah (أحمد طقاطقه)

Ahmad’s Website:https://www.vcpreneur.com/

VC Evolve book:Navigating the Art, Science, and Future of Venture Capital, in an Ever-Evolving Startup Frontier

Rama Kayyali is CEO and co-founder of Little Thinking Minds, an award-winning edtech company with a mission to close Arabic language literacy gaps, creating digital learning platforms to improve targeting over 100 million children in MENA and over 100 million globally. Currently Little Thinking Minds platforms are used by half a million students in 800 schools in 10 countries in the MENA region in private and public schools as well as schools that cater to refugee communities.

Little Thinking Minds is a multiple globally recognized and award winning company:

2023 winner of the Innovation Award from the Saudi eLearning Center

2022 MIT SOLVE global competition

2021 Innovation Award of Abdel Hamid Shoman Foundation

2020 and 2021 Elite 200 (GSVCup Competition) representing the top “Pre-K to Gray” EdTech startups across the globe with a mission to ensure that children have access to a better future through education

2019 Selected as one of the top 100 start-ups shaping the fourth industrial revolution

2019 Queen Rania Award for Education in Entrepreneurship

Rama is an Eisenhower Fellow, an Endeavor Entrepreneur and winner of the Arab Women's Award.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Rama’s LinkedIn account:@Rama Kayyali

Little Thinking Minds’ Website: https://www.littlethinkingminds.com/en/

Wael is a Computer Engineer, serial entrepreneur, and YC alumnus who has co-founded various startups in the Silicon Valley and the Middle East. He was one of the early employees of Careem and held roles including VP of Product Management and VP of Platform Superapp Business Unit until Uber's acquisition for $3.1bn. Wael is a techie at heart and has built technology products used by tens of millions of users worldwide. He is currently a General Partner at Raed Ventures​, a VC firm ​investing in early stage startups in the region​,​ and is passionate about building tech capacity and fostering entrepreneurship in the MENA region.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Wael’s LinkedIn account:@Wael Nafee

Raed Ventures’ Website: https://raed.vc/

Dr. Waleed Kadous is Chief Scientist at Anyscale, the company behind the popular open source distributed computing platform Ray. He leads the company’s LLM efforts. Prior to Anyscale, Waleed worked at Uber, where he led overall system architecture, evangelized machine learning, and led the Location and Maps teams. He previously worked at Google, where he founded the Android Location and Sensing team, responsible for the “blue dot” as well as ML algorithms underlying products like Google Fit. He also holds more than 40 patents. 

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn:Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter:@ArabiaStartups

Facebook:@startupsarabia

Youtube:Startups Arabia Podcast

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Waleed’s LinkedIn account:@M Waleed Kadous

Anyscale’s Website:https://www.anyscale.com/

Ray:https://docs.ray.io/en/latest/

Asher Siddiqui is a tech investor with a global career spanning 25+ years, having made 100+ investments valued at $15bn+.

Asher is a General Partner at Sukna Ventures, a MENA focused early-stage VC Fund that backs exceptional teams building the software & data infrastructure layer enabling the digital transformation of industries across the MENA region.

Asher started out in the late 90’s as an entrepreneur and software engineer building J2EE B2B SaaS products (1998-2006), followed by 10 years (2006-2016) in corporate M&A, as Head of M&A and CVC at Etisalat Group (now e& Group - c.$65bn market cap) where he led $15bn of M&A and CVC (founding board member and chair of the IC at iMENA Group) deals and then switched to VC when he joined the global leadership team at 500 Startups (now 500 Global) in San Francisco (2016-2019).

Since then, Asher was involved with the development of several VC firms including Sukna Ventures in the MENA region, Lumikai Fund in India, Zayn Capital in Pakistan, Race Capital in Silicon Valley, etc..

Asher Siddiqui is also a GP coach and advisor to several VC fund managers (GP’s) and sits on the advisory board of several VC firms, including: FootPrint Coalition Ventures (led by Robert Downey Jr. - USA), Merus Capital (led by the former Head of Corp Dev at Google - USA), The Treasury (led by the cofounders of Betterment and Acorns - USA), among others. 

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources—--------:

Asher's LinkedIn account: @Asher Siddiqui

Sukna Ventures’ Website: https://suknaventures.com/

Asher Siddiqui is a tech investor with a global career spanning 25+ years, having made 100+ investments valued at $15bn+.

Asher is a General Partner at Sukna Ventures, a MENA focused early-stage VC Fund that backs exceptional teams building the software & data infrastructure layer enabling the digital transformation of industries across the MENA region.

Asher started out in the late 90’s as an entrepreneur and software engineer building J2EE B2B SaaS products (1998-2006), followed by 10 years (2006-2016) in corporate M&A, as Head of M&A and CVC at Etisalat Group (now e& Group - c.$65bn market cap) where he led $15bn of M&A and CVC (founding board member and chair of the IC at iMENA Group) deals and then switched to VC when he joined the global leadership team at 500 Startups (now 500 Global) in San Francisco (2016-2019).

Since then, Asher was involved with the development of several VC firms including Sukna Ventures in the MENA region, Lumikai Fund in India, Zayn Capital in Pakistan, Race Capital in Silicon Valley, etc..

Asher Siddiqui is also a GP coach and advisor to several VC fund managers (GP’s) and sits on the advisory board of several VC firms, including: FootPrint Coalition Ventures (led by Robert Downey Jr. - USA), Merus Capital (led by the former Head of Corp Dev at Google - USA), The Treasury (led by the cofounders of Betterment and Acorns - USA), among others. 

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Asher's LinkedIn account:@Asher Siddiqui

Sukna Ventures’ Website: https://suknaventures.com/

Ismael Belkhayat is the CEO and cofounder of Chari. He’s a serial founder who is a notable figure in the Moroccan tech ecosystem. After his time in consulting at the Boston Consulting Group, Ismael founded two companies that would kickstart his entrepreneurial career: the Venture Builder Wib.co, a startup studio, and VotreChauffeur, a leading ground transportation company in Morocco later acquired by Avis Car Rental. After gaining significant traction and recognition, Ismael went on to found Sarouty, a marketplace that facilitates real estate deals, helping people to rent or buy property across Morocco.

Within two years, Sarouty became the leading real estate platform in the country and partnered with Propertyfinder, a prop-tech startup, to scale its tech and expand to additional locations.

White serving as a Board Member for all of his previous ventures, Ismael was inspired to start his most recent company to address digital transformation in the consumer-packaged goods category. In 2020, Ismael and his wife co-founded Chari, a B2B e-commerce fintech app for retailers. Leaning on his deep expertise in logistics and marketplace, Ismael has grown Chari in size, users, and markets. Chari has succeeded in making its mark as a “Disruptor of the Year”, an award from the Africa CEO Forum, and shows positive signs of a potential unicorn status (a first for Morocco).

Ismael has a proven track record of driving business development and solution-focused ventures, and we look forward to watching where his vision and ingenuity take him next!

Want to know more?

https://techcabal.com/2022/01/21/after-two-exits-ismael-belkhayats-new-startup-is-now-worth-100m/

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Ismael’s LinkedIn account: @Ismael Belkhayat

Chari’s Website: https://chari.co/

With that we conclude the first season of the Startups Arabia Podcast. Your host, Ali Zewail, takes a moment to reflect on the podcast’s first season and the journey thus far.

Thank you for joining us and a special thank you to our wonderful guests who made it all possible.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out on: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

Eman Hylooz is the Founder and CEO of Abjjad, the first and biggest Arabic digital reading platform. Her passion for reading and solid experience in technology inspired her to create Abjjad and embark on the journey of promoting digital reading in the Middle East. Prior to establishing Abjjad, Eman worked in the IT field, where she gained valuable experience in digital marketing. She has also worked closely with entrepreneurs in three local startups and was employed at KPMG in her most recent job. Eman is an accomplished businesswoman with a proven track record of success and has been recognized as one of the top female entrepreneurs in the Middle East.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Eman’s LinkedIn account:@Eman Hylooz

Eman’s Twitter account:@EHylooz

Abjjad’s Website: https://www.abjjad.com/

Belal is the co-founder and CEO of MaxAB, after getting his BASs from Virginia Tech in the States, Belal decided to join his family business and worked there for 2 years before joining the famous ride-hailing app "Careem'', then he decided to walk out of flourishing career in the middle east's first unicorn to build an app that will transform the Egyptian B2B grocery market forever! In 2018, he teamed up with Mohamed Ben Halim (Co-founder and COO) and formed the e-commerce marketplace MaxAB to connect informal food and grocery sellers with suppliers and provide a wide range of services to underserved areas in Egypt and Morocco.

MaxAB is one of the fastest-growing B2B businesses in the retail industry in Egypt and Morocco. It provides local underserved merchants and mom-and-pop shops with the opportunity to grow and increase their revenues while enhancing their quality of life.

MaxAB offers two solutions, a B2B e-commerce mobile application called MaxAB App, which simplifies the process of dealing with suppliers for underserved retailers, and MaxAB Payments, a bill aggregator POS machine and mobile application that allows local merchants to accept payments for different services their end customers may look for.

MaxAB's mission is to provide reliable, easy-to-use, and innovative products and services while empowering local merchants and contributing to the sustainable development of the retail industry.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Belal’s LinkedIn account:@Belal El-Megharbel

MaxAB’s LinkedIn account:@MaxAb

MaxAB’s Website: https://www.maxab.io/

Roberto has over 20 years of experience working for companies such as Microsoft and Google. Roberto is now the Director of Value Creation and Transformation at the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is the engine, driving the transformation of Saudi Arabia’s economy. He is passionate about innovation, startups and people, where he thrives mentoring young people across the globe - helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset as they look to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Roberto’s LinkedIn account:@Roberto Croci

PIF’s Website: https://www.pif.gov.sa/en/Pages/Homepage.aspx

Romouz Sadeq is the founder & CEO of www.mrayti.com the Arab world's leading natural cosmetics store, funded by Oasis500, Oman Tech Fund and ISSF!

Prior to Mrayti, Romouz served as CPO of the #1 Arab world review platform Jeeran where she worked on: Revamping Jeeran's mobile apps on Android, iPhone, and the release of a windows phone app as well as Jeeran's mobile site. She's also recognized for her work on building the current monetization product that has been sold to over 200 clients so far. Between 2011 and 2013, Romouz was the regional marketing manager for LG Mobile where she planned and executed marketing campaigns for mobile devices and high-tech products in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.

Her first experience with startups was with Abjjad.com prior to and through its launch as a UX & marketing consultant. In 2012, she finally left the corporate world without looking back. Romouz holds a B.Sc degree in computer science from Jordan University.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Romouz Sadeq’s :-

LinkedIn account:@Romouz Sadeq

Twitter account:@Romouze

Mrayti’s Website: https://www.mraytistore.com/

Omar is the CEO & co-founder of Trella, a leading regional trucking platform. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Economy from the University of Oregon and then went on to work at CI Capital as an Investment Banking Analyst for three years. After this, he joined Uber as the Community Operations Manager in Cairo and then transitioned to serve as the Launch and Expansion EMEA Manager in the UK, where he set up the operations for UberEATS across EMEA in Dubai, Cape Town, Riyadh, and 40+ cities in the UK. He left Uber in 2018 to co-found Trella.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Omar Hagrass’s LinkedIn account: @Omar Hagrass

Trella’s Website: https://www.trella.app/

Ayman S. Ashour is the Founder and Principal of Newton

International Management, an advisory and investment firm

focused on technology with special focus on mobility, payment,

identification and security markets since 2000.

Ashour served as Chairman and CEO for Identiv, (US:INVE,

FRANKFURT:INV) which he joined in January 2010 following the

combination of Bluehill ID and SCM Microsystems. Ashour earlier

founded Bluehill ID AG, an RFID technology company in 2007.

Ashour’s professional experience includes several executive

positions within the security and identification technology

industries. He has served as CEO of Assa Abloy’s Identification

Technology Group (ITG), where he was responsible for building

one of the most successful RFID companies. He was Regional

Managing Director of Williams PLC. In the Asia Pacific region,

where he was responsible for the Chubb Security, Kidde and Yale

brands in Asia as well as the global operations of Guardforce and

the Chubb Physical Security Group. Ashour earlier served as

President of a number of Kidde units in North America, Global

Marketing Director of Kidde in the UK.

Ashour has B.Sc. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Diploma

in International Arbitration Law and serves as Adjunct Lecturer at

Suffolk University in Boston, MA where, he has been teaching M&A

at the Sawyer Business School for their MBA program since 2004.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent

founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired

by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they

see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Ayman Ashour's LinkedIn account: @Ayman S. Ashour

Ayman Ashour’s book recommendation: 

In an Antique Land, Amitav Ghosh

Newton International Management’s Website: http://www.newtoninternational.com/

Tambi Jalouqa is the CEO and Managing Partner at Propeller, the Jordan-based venture capital firm. He was on the founding team at POSRocket which ended up being Propeller’s first exit. Tambi is passionate about all things product, from customer discovery, refining the user experience and all the way down to system architecture.

We talked to Tambi about his opinions on regional opportunities, why he thinks product comes first, and the startup ecosystem in Jordan.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources—--------:

Tambi Jalouqa’s LinkedIn account: @Tambi Jalouqa

Tambi Jalouqa’s book recommendations: 

The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz

Thinking in Systems, Donella Meadows

The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby

Propeller’s Website: https://www.propellerinc.me/

If you are interested to learn more about Mansaf:)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansaf

Noureddine Tayebi holds a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from Ecole Polytechnique of Algiers and a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University. He also holds three Master Degrees in various disciplines of Engineering and Management. After a rich entrepreneurial and corporate experience in Silicon Valley, he returned to the region to found Yassir which is the leading super App service for on demand and payment services in the Maghreb region with recent expansions into Sub-Saharan Africa. He holds over 50 patents and scientific publications.

Yassir was founded in 2017 in Algeria as a ride-hailing app. Since then, Yassir has expanded its services going into delivery and payment amongst other things. It’s well on its way to becoming a super app. It has also expanded its operation into different countries in Africa including Morocco, Tunisia, and Senegal.

To grow at such a fast rate, it has fundraised over 190 million dollars. The latest was 150 million USD announced in November 2022 and was led by global investors. Noureddine studied engineering in his home country of Algeria before traveling to Silicon Valley where he subsequently got three masters in different fields of engineering and management, as well as getting a PhD from Stanford.

He's been both an entrepreneur as well as working in the corporate world in his years at Silicon Valley. He subsequently came back to Algeria to set up Yassir. We talked to Noureddine about Yassir’s rapid growth, the main challenges for startups in the Arab region, and bringing his silicon valley experiences back home.

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources—--------:

Noureddine Tayebi’s LinkedIn account: @Noureddine Tayebi

Noureddine Tayebi’s book recommendations: 

Only the Paranoid Survive

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind

Yassir’s Website: https://yassir.com/en/home/

Mai Medhat is the CEO and co-founder of Eventtus; an events engagement platform and the leading event technology company in the Middle East. Eventtus has been acquired in July 2021 by Bevy, a California-based enterprise software startup for virtual conferences and community events.

Mai is an Egyptian tech entrepreneur who holds a Computer Engineering degree. She co-founded Eventtus with a mission to mobilize events after a personal experience at some events that used to be managed manually. The company raised +4M in VC funding and is successfully serving 20,000+ events in 60+ cities. Mai was named “Entrepreneur of the Year" by Arabian Business in 2016 and she has been recognized by the Global Entrepreneurship Summit as one of the most promising entrepreneurs and was invited to represent Middle East startups in an iconic panel with Former President Barak Obama and Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook.

We got to hear from Mai about the story of Eventtus, the details behind Bevy’s acquisition, and her experience as a female entrepreneur in the Arab world.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction

03:42 Eventtus: how it started and driving early growth

14:33 Bevy’s acquisition of Eventtus

28:33 Fundraising and changing the business model due to COVID

45:01 Opportunities and challenges in the region

49:05 Difficulties of growing a startup and advice for founders

52:50 How to choose a co-founder and the female founder experience in the region

1:00:55 Rapid fire questions and wrap up

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

This episode is sponsored by the venture capital firm, Endure Capital. Endure Capital invests in early-stage companies that will achieve extraordinary impact. If you're a founder that fits this criterion, contact the Endure Capital team on http://www.endurecap.com. Thank you to our sponsors for making this show possible.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources—--------:

Mai Medhat’s LinkedIn account: @Mai Medhat

Mai Medhat’s book recommendation: The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Endure Capital’s Website: https://endurecap.com/

Afnan Ali is the founder of Eureka Tech Academy. Eureka Tech Academy prepares kids to be engineers, innovators, and tech entrepreneurs, and she's had an impact on thousands of kids in the process. Afnan started her career as an electrical communications engineer and has worked in research and development before starting Eureka Tech Academy. She has also won many awards including the UN's UNCTAD award for best female tech entrepreneur in 2020 and best Arab entrepreneur in 2015. We got to hear from Afnan about the story of Eureka Tech Academy and it’s impact, what she finds most important when starting a project, and how she manages a balanced life alongside her professional commitments.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction

02:45 Eureka Tech Academy: how it started and early beginnings

08:17 Experience working with children and seeing them grow and develop

10:48 The importance of having a clear vision and purpose for a project’s success

12:58 Eureka Tech Academy’s digital transition after COVID and future plans for growth

18:38 Queen Rania of Jordan visiting Eureka Tech Academy and government partnerships

24:31 Living a balanced life and the importance of happiness

27:59 Rapid fire questions and wrap up

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources—--------:

Eureka Tech Academy’s Website: https://eurekatechacademy.com/

Afnan Ali’s LinkedIn account: @Afnan Ali

Tarek Fahim is the managing partner at Endure Capital. Tarek has invested in some of the most prominent startups of the region like Careem, Breadfast, and Wuzzuf as well as investing in North American companies like Boom Supersonic and Aspect Biosystems. Tarek’s broad exposure gives him a strong insight into the world of venture. We got to hear from Tarek about his best tips for founders and investors, his experiences abroad from interacting with funds like YC, and the most promising prospects for startups in the region.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction

01:42 Early career and introduction into the world of venture

17:36 Early investments and making it into the big leagues

34:27 Most prominent challenges of the region and what you need to combat them

44:39 Emerging trends driving growth in the region

59:00 What Tarek looks for in an investment opportunity

1:02:52 Tarek’s investment experiences: Boom Supersonic, Brimore, and other interesting stories

1:21:49 The VC experience in the region as opposed to abroad

1:26:09 Rapid fire questions and wrap up

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The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the Arab region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

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Endure Capital Website: https://endurecap.com/

Tarek Fahim’s Twitter account: @trkfhm

Tarek Fahim’s LinkedIn account: @Tarek F.

As the founder of Otlob (which later became part of Talabat), Ayman Rashed is behind one of the first startups and first exits of the region. Starting Otlob in 1999 and going from idea to acquisition within a span of less than a year, Ayman stands out as one of the pioneering startup founders in the region. We got to know from Ayman about his journey as founder of Otlob, how he sees the MENA startup region today and how he predicts its growth into the future.

The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent founders, investors, and operators of the region. You will be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast

—--- Resources:

Ayman Rashed’s Twitter account: @arashed123

Mentioned by Ayman, Noon: https://www.learnatnoon.com/

Check us out here: https://www.startupsarabia.com/

Follow us on our social media platforms to stay updated and get in touch:

Twitter: @ArabiaStartups

LinkedIn: Startups Arabia Podcast

Facebook: @startupsarabia

Youtube: Startups Arabia Podcast