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BEHIND THE STARTUP

How Educational Platform Playbook is Closing the Gender Gap

16 Oct 2022
Bahraini entrepreneur Wafa Al Obaidat has always played by her own rules. Now she’s created a ‘Playbook’ for women across the region… [...]
The Palestinian Entrepreneur 3D Printing a Brighter Future for Gaza

The Palestinian Entrepreneur 3D Printing a Brighter Future for Gaza

20 Sep 2022
Creating medical and educational equipment through 3D printing technology, Mohammed Abu Matar and his startup Tashkeel 3D seeks to overcome barriers that so often endanger the Palestinian people. [...]
AI-Powered Instant Commerce App Botit Could Change the Way We Shop

AI-Powered Instant Commerce App Botit Could Change the Way We Shop

13 Sep 2022
This new AI-powered e-commerce app promises to change the way we shop forever… [...]
How Online Marketplace Esorus Revolutionises Egypt's Design Industry

How Online Marketplace Esorus Revolutionises Egypt's Design Industry

05 Sep 2022
Breaking the mould by serving as an intermediary on multiple levels between designers and consumers, the platform connects people with some of the biggest names in the region’s interior design sphere. [...]
How Pure Harvest is Addressing the Region’s Food Security Challenges

How Pure Harvest is Addressing the Region’s Food Security Challenges

15 Aug 2022
In this exclusive interview, May El Habachi speaks to CEO Sky Kurtz about the company’s rise and raise, and how they're leading the charge to bring the future of farming to the MENA region. [...]
How Stllr Network is Introducing Freelancing 3.0 to the Middle East

How Stllr Network is Introducing Freelancing 3.0 to the Middle East

08 Aug 2022
Capitalising on the rising trend of freelancers in the Middle East, Stllr Network is a first-of-its-kind platform dedicated to connecting companies with savvy freelancing digital marketers. [...]
How Seavo is Leading the Green Transition of Egypt’s Marine Sector

How Seavo is Leading the Green Transition of Egypt’s Marine Sector

27 Jul 2022
With e-scooters powered by AI, Egypt-based startup Seavo seeks to make Egypt’s marine sector safer for sea life, as well as the environment. [...]
How Palestinian Startup Tawazon Capitalises on MENA's Wellness Trend

How Palestinian Startup Tawazon Capitalises on MENA's Wellness Trend

17 Jul 2022
Mindfulness and meditation has become a multi-billion dollar global business and Palestine based startup Tawazon is manifesting a piece of the pie… [...]
How empoweromics Gets Budding Real Estate Agents Through the Door

How empoweromics Gets Budding Real Estate Agents Through the Door

29 Jun 2022
We spoke with CEO Omar Fateen and his team of industry professionals and tech innovators to see what the future has in store for real estate in Egypt and beyond. [...]
Impactyn: The New Platform Reshaping Egypt’s Social Media Marketing

Impactyn: The New Platform Reshaping Egypt’s Social Media Marketing

31 May 2022
Ahead of its official public launch, we talk to the multi-facted, multi-talented founding team of an innovative startup looking to disrup the way brands and social media users connect. [...]
How Egypt’s Comin is Harnessing Tech to Take Insurance into the Future

How Egypt’s Comin is Harnessing Tech to Take Insurance into the Future

01 Feb 2022
Digitisation was seeped into every corner of our lives - but what about insurances? We speak to General Partner of Comin, Roger Zaccar, to find out more about Comin [...]
Rabbit: The Egyptian Startup Sprinting Through the Q-Commerce Race

Rabbit: The Egyptian Startup Sprinting Through the Q-Commerce Race

24 Jan 2022
We sit down with the founding team of an Egyptian startup that, after raising a record pre-seed round in 2021, is poised to lead the q-commerce race in one of MENA's largest markets. [...]
How This Egyptian Entrepreneur Built an Empire by Breathing

How This Egyptian Entrepreneur Built an Empire by Breathing

06 Dec 2021
We sit down with Egyptian serial entrepreneur, Walid AboulNaga, to dive deep into his unique journey, one that has found him at the crossroads of entrepeneurship and healing. [...]
How Nawy is Using Tech to Unlock Real Estate Investment for the Masses

How Nawy is Using Tech to Unlock Real Estate Investment for the Masses

08 Sep 2021
StartupScene sits down with members of the founding team of a proptech startup that is looking to break down barriers and inject innovation in the real estate sector. [...]
Proteinea: Egypt's Globally-Acclaimed Biotech Trailblazer

Proteinea: Egypt's Globally-Acclaimed Biotech Trailblazer

01 Aug 2021
We pay a visit to the lab of one of Egypt's most unique startups, one that is on the cusp of triggering a biotech revolution in the Middle East. [...]
Masr Afdal: Online Platform Championing Egyptian Products Worldwide

Masr Afdal: Online Platform Championing Egyptian Products Worldwide

16 Apr 2021
StartupScene speaks to Hamed El Ghool, the founder of a platform that is putting Egypt on the global e-commerce map by connecting manufacturers with marketers across the world. [...]
Cleo Laboratories: World-Class Cosmeceuticals in a Local Market

Cleo Laboratories: World-Class Cosmeceuticals in a Local Market

06 Apr 2021
From sharing a single desk, to selling over 1 million units across two countries, the story of Egypt-based medical dermatology and cosmeceuticals specialist, Cleo is a winding tale. [...]
SIGMA Fit: The Trailblazing Tech Startup Driving the Evolution of Sportswear

SIGMA Fit: The Trailblazing Tech Startup Driving the Evolution of Sportswear

26 Jan 2021
We sit down with the rowdy, co-founding trio of SIGMA Fit to find out more about a rollercoaster journey filled with rural housewives, criminal roommates and part-time Uber driving. [...]
Meet NAQLA: The First Egyptian Startup to Address the Needs of an Aging Shipping Industry

Meet NAQLA: The First Egyptian Startup to Address the Needs of an Aging Shipping Industry

20 Jan 2021
Launched in 2016, NAQLA can be considered something of a trailblazer in Egypt, as it continues to make strides in simplifying the often complex process of shipping. [...]
Beatbox-ing for Beirut: Meet the Three Creatives Lifting Lebanon Through Entrepreneurship

Beatbox-ing for Beirut: Meet the Three Creatives Lifting Lebanon Through Entrepreneurship

30 Nov 2020
Offer startups world-class design services at affordable prices. Bring more foreign currency into Lebanon. Stop the country's brain drain. Just a few of the lofty ambitions for the founders of Beatbox Design. [...]
Pstyled: The Egypt-Based Fashion Consultancy Service Fusing Psychology and AI

Pstyled: The Egypt-Based Fashion Consultancy Service Fusing Psychology and AI

19 Nov 2020
With years of fashion psychology experience under her belt, Yasmina Nessim started Pstyled as a means to allow women to not only look – but more so feel their absolute best. [...]
Thndr: The Mobile Platform Simplifying the Art of Investing

Thndr: The Mobile Platform Simplifying the Art of Investing

16 Nov 2020
We go behind the scenes of the innovative Egyptian app with co-founders Seif Amr and Ahmed Hammouda. [...]
Isqan: How Two Friends Elevated the PropTech Game in Egypt

Isqan: How Two Friends Elevated the PropTech Game in Egypt

11 Sep 2020
We speak to the founders of Isqan on the road to creating what could be Egypt's biggest proptech accelerant to date. [...]
Kapturise: The Story Behind UAE’s Newly Launched On-Demand Photography Startup

Kapturise: The Story Behind UAE’s Newly Launched On-Demand Photography Startup

26 Aug 2020
Since the platform’s launch earlier this month, 400 photographers have registered, and the startup’s already turning heads with their innovative service. We speak to founder and CEO Habeeb Furqan on the inspiration behind the venture. [...]
Mayday: The Egyptian Startup Ushering Tech into Roadside Assistance

Mayday: The Egyptian Startup Ushering Tech into Roadside Assistance

24 Aug 2020
We speak to the founders of Mayday on the journey to creating a consumer-friendly solution for road assistance in Cairo, and how has the startup fared in the past two years during the country’s tech boom. [...]
Hazen.ai: The Saudi-Based Startup Revamping Traffic Monitoring in MENA

Hazen.ai: The Saudi-Based Startup Revamping Traffic Monitoring in MENA

09 Aug 2020
We talk to the creators of the innovative and holistic tech solution for bettering traffic safety across the world. [...]
Chefaa: How Two Best Friends Created Egypt’s Foremost Pharmacy App

Chefaa: How Two Best Friends Created Egypt’s Foremost Pharmacy App

05 Aug 2020
We speak to the founding partners behind Chefaa, the Egyptian pharmacy app with over 1.5 million active users, to learn about the journey to over $8 million in sales and a seven-figure pre-seed funding round. [...]
Lemonade Fashion’s Made-to-Measure Marketplace Makes Global Fashion Accessible

Lemonade Fashion’s Made-to-Measure Marketplace Makes Global Fashion Accessible

04 Aug 2020
Born in Lebanon, and now headquartered in the USA, Lemonade Fashion has just scored pre-seed funding to help develop its unique bespoke fashion offering. We talk to CEO Arthur Bizdikian to find out how they got ready for investment and what’s next for the team. [...]
How Lockdown Helped Egyptian Furniture Brand Drowzy Boom

How Lockdown Helped Egyptian Furniture Brand Drowzy Boom

30 Jul 2020
We speak to co-founder Alaa Khalil on how the startup raked in a six-figure investment for the Cairo-born online furniture store. [...]
HOT Technologies: The Kuwaiti Startup Ushering in the Dawn of Arabic Fitness Content

HOT Technologies: The Kuwaiti Startup Ushering in the Dawn of Arabic Fitness Content

29 Jul 2020
We speak to founder Nezar Al Saleh on how months and years of planning helped HOT Technologies not only be pandemic-proof, but resilient enough to be one of the few Arabic e-fitness apps and landing a $1.1 million investment in the midst of a global crisis. [...]
Cairo-Born Startup Ordera is on the Path to Eliminate Queues in a Corona-Hot F&B Industry

Cairo-Born Startup Ordera is on the Path to Eliminate Queues in a Corona-Hot F&B Industry

27 Jul 2020
We chat with Ordera founder, Noha Bassiouny, on how a journey to fill a market gap back in September 2019, was immediately catapulted by the pandemic to become what could be a turning point for queues in Egypt’s cafes and restaurants. [...]
Zedny: How This E-Learning Startup is Localising Global Knowledge to Empower Arabic Speakers

Zedny: How This E-Learning Startup is Localising Global Knowledge to Empower Arabic Speakers

26 Jul 2020
We speak to the founding team behind of Zedny, the Middle East’s latest and most robust e-learning platform, about their vision to empower businesses and individuals alike, by speaking their language. [...]
Sakneen: Reinventing the Real Estate Industry

Sakneen: Reinventing the Real Estate Industry

18 Jul 2020
We speak to the founders of Sakneen, Egypt’s latest Y Combinator-backed startup, about how they’re enhancing and innovating the slow moving world of real estate through their unique technology. [...]
QR Codes in a Post-Quarantine World: How Touch-Less is Enabling Businesses to Go Contactless

QR Codes in a Post-Quarantine World: How Touch-Less is Enabling Businesses to Go Contactless

04 Jul 2020
Incepted and executed during the pandemic, Touch-Less is the Egyptian startup realising the potential of QR codes and going full throttle with it. [...]
Digitising Services for a More Productive MENA Region: An Interview with Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha

Digitising Services for a More Productive MENA Region: An Interview with Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha

30 Jun 2020
“We find local solutions to local problems. This is what we built Careem on,” says Careem’s co-founder and CEO, Mudassir Sheikha in this exclusive interview following the recent release of the company’s SuperApp. [...]
Meet the Founders Behind Arabic Learning & Development Platform Zedny

Meet the Founders Behind Arabic Learning & Development Platform Zedny

28 Jun 2020
Recently launched with an enormous library of 5,000+ hours of content ready for users to access, Zedny hopes to become the benchmark for professional education in the region. [...]
Digitising Traditional Money Circles: An Interview with MoneyFellows CEO Ahmed Wadi

Digitising Traditional Money Circles: An Interview with MoneyFellows CEO Ahmed Wadi

28 Jun 2020
Bringing peer-to-peer financing to the digital world, MoneyFellows recently raised a massive $4 million Series A round. CEO and Founder Ahmed Wadi tells StartupScene about the challenges and opportunities in FinTech. [...]
From Retail to Real Estate, The Sallam Family's Three Generations of Serial Entrepreneurs

From Retail to Real Estate, The Sallam Family's Three Generations of Serial Entrepreneurs

25 Jun 2020
Since 1939, the Sallam family has been a staple of Egyptian business. Three generations later, there’s no sign of stopping. [...]
20 Refugee Entrepreneurs Whose Drive to Innovate Against All Odds Will Inspire You

20 Refugee Entrepreneurs Whose Drive to Innovate Against All Odds Will Inspire You

20 Jun 2020
On World Refugee Day, we take a look at 20 refugee entrepreneurs who are valiantly innovating to create new realities, while crafting new lives. The Startups Without Borders team introduces us to the courageous men and women that are making a difference. [...]
Dawar Kitchen: The Cairo Social Enterprise Empowering Women Through Food

Dawar Kitchen: The Cairo Social Enterprise Empowering Women Through Food

17 Jun 2020
Honouring and preserving Middle Eastern culinary heritage is Dawar Kitchen, a Cairo-based social enterprise that employees refugee and low-income women. We talk to Managing Director Nada Al Shazly about their unique operation and how they’re giving their staff ownership of their hard work. [...]
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Week Month Year

Naviatx’s Hamzeh Ghosheh on Creating Safer Roads From Palestine

StartupScene spotlights Palestinian entrepreneur Hamzeh Ghosheh as part of our 'Entrepreneurship Without Borders’ series. [...]

From Waste to Wardrobe: A Push for Circular Models in Egyptian Fashion

A generation of Egyptian entrepreneurs seeks to break the paradigm by embracing ‘circular’ fashion and product design. [...]

Tamara Raises $150 Million Debt Financing From Goldman Sachs

Tamara is a buy now pay later startup that acts as a commerce enabler for more than 15,000 partner merchants across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, [...]

Saudi Healthtech Platform Aumet Raises $7 Million Pre-Series A

The new fund will be used to develop Aumet's AI capabilities and expand its reach to more pharmacies across the region. [...]

7 Homegrown Brands That Will Upgrade Your Treasured Office Seat

These office furniture designers will ensure you’ll spend the majority of your waking hours feeling comfortable. [...]

Rise Up Summit Reveals Line Up of Global Speakers

From pioneers at Google to creatives at Disney, these speakers will take over Rise Up Summit at the Grand Egyptian Museum. [...]

Saudi VC Firm Emkan Launches $31 Million for Early-Stage Startups

Emkan Capital’s ECP I will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage investments in high-growth potential technology startups across the MENA [...]

Bahrain's Procural Raises $1.2 Million Seed Round

Bahrain’s cutting-edge procurement solutions startup just secured a million dollar investment from Canada’s BenchMatrix. [...]

Kuwait-Based Edtech Baims Raises $4 Million Series A

The new fund will help accelerate the development of Baims' platform with new educational content and services. [...]

Egypt Chosen Among Six African Nations to Host Unicorn Group Incubator

The Lagos-based Unicorn Group is seeking nnovative ideas, startups and early-stage companies in tech and tech-enabled sectors. [...]

UAE’s MBRIF Opens Applications for Latest Innovation Accelerator

Since launching in 2018, some of the programme’s notable alumni have include Rizek, Sarwa and Hawa Water. [...]

She Strikes: The New Platform Empowering Egyptian Women in Business

Launched by Cairo-based Creative Industries Summit, the first cycle strikes on May 24th, bringing together experts and gurus from across [...]

How Pure Harvest is Addressing the Region’s Food Security Challenges

In this exclusive interview, May El Habachi speaks to CEO Sky Kurtz about the company’s rise and raise, and how they're leading the charge [...]

The Real Deal With General Partner at Algebra Ventures Laila Hassan

Laila Hassan, General Partner at Algebra Ventures and Venture Partner at 500 Startups MENA, shares how blindingly bright success stories [...]

Naviatx’s Hamzeh Ghosheh on Creating Safer Roads From Palestine

StartupScene spotlights Palestinian entrepreneur Hamzeh Ghosheh as part of our 'Entrepreneurship Without Borders’ series. [...]

From Waste to Wardrobe: A Push for Circular Models in Egyptian Fashion

A generation of Egyptian entrepreneurs seeks to break the paradigm by embracing ‘circular’ fashion and product design. [...]

Tamara Raises $150 Million Debt Financing From Goldman Sachs

Tamara is a buy now pay later startup that acts as a commerce enabler for more than 15,000 partner merchants across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, [...]

Saudi Healthtech Platform Aumet Raises $7 Million Pre-Series A

The new fund will be used to develop Aumet's AI capabilities and expand its reach to more pharmacies across the region. [...]

Saudi Healthtech Platform Aumet Raises $7 Million Pre-Series A

The new fund will be used to develop Aumet's AI capabilities and expand its reach to more pharmacies across the region. [...]

Tamara Raises $150 Million Debt Financing From Goldman Sachs

Tamara is a buy now pay later startup that acts as a commerce enabler for more than 15,000 partner merchants across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, [...]

From Waste to Wardrobe: A Push for Circular Models in Egyptian Fashion

A generation of Egyptian entrepreneurs seeks to break the paradigm by embracing ‘circular’ fashion and product design. [...]

Naviatx’s Hamzeh Ghosheh on Creating Safer Roads From Palestine

StartupScene spotlights Palestinian entrepreneur Hamzeh Ghosheh as part of our 'Entrepreneurship Without Borders’ series. [...]

Flat6Labs Launches $95 Million VC Fund to Support Startups in Africa

The region’s biggest VC firm, Flat6Labs, sets off on its most expansive foray into the investment of African startups. [...]

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