Tag: weNear

IIT Forum 6: The Arab World’s Top 10 Investment Ready Startups

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Investing in Technology ForumThe 6th Investing In Technology Forum; an event that aims to be a networking opportunity for entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, regional corporate CEOs, and all technology leaders in the region to get together to share experiences, develop relationships and explore business opportunities; took place in Cairo, Egypt, last week.

One of the items on the event’s agenda was a series of pitches by Arab technology startups to a panel of the region’s most prominent angel investors and venture capitalists, in hopes to be selected among the top 10 investment ready startups in the Arab world.

There were 33 startups from around the region who pitched their businesses, and the panel evaluated each startup and gave them a score, rating them by their potential and readiness for investment.

The following ten startups came out on top: 

  • Droubi: A company that has invented and patented a new method of dental surgery.
  • Glocalizer: A company that provides free wireless and technology advertising based products.
  • Applied Research Institute: A company that works on new technologies for water treatment and organic food.
  • eSpace: For WeNear, their framework for location based mobile services.
  • MobiLaps: A company that develops network applications for internet service providers.
  • Talasim: An online social network and photo gallery for comedy/funny content.
  • Aboker: A company that works on technology to produce biofuel and silicon carbon from environmental waste.
  • Vertex: A company that builds customised three-dimensional virtual worlds for education, real estate …etc.
  • SilMinds: A company that provides hardware acceleration technology thats speeds up intensive computing processes.
  • Kindisoft: A company that helps businesses to better protect their Rich Internet Applications based on Adobe Flash.

Quite an interesting mix of startups covering different fields, some who were only recently launched, and some that date back to the late 80’s, early 90’s (Droubi: 1989, Applied Research Institute: 1990).

After the selection happened, a number of the top startups were approached by some of the present investors who were interested in their businesses.

A list of these top 10 startups and their full descriptions can be downloaded in PDF format here. (Courtesy of Beep Beep.)

[Via: Beep Beep]

ArabCrunch DEMO 09 – Amman, Jordan (February 23rd 2009)

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ArabCrunch Demo 09ArabCrunch and DART, the student entrepreneurship society at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), which is one of the major programs at the of Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), are organizing the 1st ArabCrunch DEMO event in Amman, Jordan on February 23rd at the Friendship auditorium of Princess Sumaya University for Technology.

The event, which the organizers hope to make into a regular one, aims to be a launchpad for emerging technologies in the Arab world. The event will also include keynotes from top regional and world class technology and e-marketing experts, and will be followed by a networking reception. 

This edition of the event will give the chance to five Arab startups to present their products and services:

  • Ishki, a Web 2.0 portal that aims to be the first Arab complaints platform. (Jordan)
  • MailPacks, an auto responder system. (Jordan)
  • Adhere, from Citex Software, an open-source mobile advertising platform. (Egypt)
  • weNear, from eSpace, a location-based framework that connects people’s Interest. (Egypt)
  • Al-Khawarizmy, who have developed new Arabic search algorithms and solutions. (Egypt)

The keynote speakers at the event will be:

  • Sumaya Kazi, Senior Social Media Manager at Sun Microsystems and founder of The CulturalConnect. 
  • Khaled Jabasini, the Founder and CEO of E-Marketing MENA, a leading digital Media consultancy in the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Herve Cuviliez, the Managing Director of KuvCapital, a leading Pan-Arab and European seed investment venture capital firm.

Attendance will be free of charge, with previous preapproval. Registration can be done online by visiting the event’s website: ArabCrunch Demo 09. 

WeNear, Location Based Services Framework

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weNearWeNear is a new framework for location based services, which aims to help connect users with their interests.

With the widespread use of mobile phones and other mobile devices in the Arab world, weNear comes to enrich the mobile experience even more, beyond just making phone calls and sending sms messages, by providing a platform for location based social and business services.

As an example of one of the social uses, based on a user’s location, the service will be able to identify other weNear users that were marked as friends, and locate them on the map; making it a lot easier to find and reach them. Of course, a privacy option is built in to hide a user’s location whenever they want.

Through weNear, users will also be able to socially interact and communicate with other nearby users, announcing interest-based information and sending tagged messages which will be received by those whose interests match these tags.

When it comes to business uses, weNear users can receive immediate notifications with information about interesting nearby services, events or products; creating new chances for advertisers to connect with potential clients based on their location and their interests.

Another example Implementation is “Almotawef”, which is an application for Muslim pilgrims, that helps them find their relatives and groups during Hajj, walks them through the Hajj rituals and points them to the places they have to go to.

weNear was developed by Egyptian company eSpace.

# WeNear