Startup Minute

Listen to Farah Ali Hassan, the CoFounder of Presentail, an online gifting platform for curated items from local sellers in Lebanon who have small and medium businesses.

Presentail.com serves as a platform for connecting expats with their beloved homeland, and bringing them closer to their family and friends. Four weeks after its launch, the e-commerce has proven to be a success among Lebanese living in the UAE, Africa, America, and Canada.

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Great news for Saudi youth as Mawhiba signs agreement with Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Global Initiatives to support and develop young Saudi talent;

LUNCH:ON ranked in Crunchbase’s Top 50 Hot Tech Companies Globally, making LUNCH:ON the only company from the region to receive this recognition;

Washmen, the Dubai-based mobile-native dry cleaning and laundry service, has raised 6.2M$ Series-B round led by AddVenture with participation from Cedar Mundi Ventures, Henkel and others to solidify its operations in the UAE and expand its digital technology hub in Lebanon;

Dubai’s FlexxPay raises investment to offer salary advances to employees on behalf of their employers, and the payments are made through Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank;

Lebanese Shopify-like ecommerce management platform ‘Ecomz’ raises $4 million Series A led by local VC Cedar Mundi Ventures and joined by iSME Lebanon, a government led funding initiative, and BLC Bank;

Kuwaiti beauty ecommerce startup Boutiqaat doubles valuation to $500 million in 18 months with latest investment, with this valuation and Uber’s acquisition of Careem, Boutiqaat with Property Finder is now the most valuable technology startup of the Middle East & North Africa;

COFE App, Kuwait’s beloved online coffee marketplace app, has partnered with LinkedIn, the world’s foremost professional networking site, to attract global talent;

PepsiCo is planning to replace its plastic bottles of Aquafina with aluminum cans at locations around the U.S.

Watch the first trailer for Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan;

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On our first episode of "Beyond The Point", we discuss the thriving FinTech industry and how these four Egyptian startups, though not being in the same industry, have the potential to become as big as Careem which has secured a $3.1bn deal with Uber and raised the bar for startups in the region.‍

Featured Startups:

Fawry, a pioneering E-Payment Network in Egypt, offering financial services to consumers and businesses through more than 100 thousand locations and a variety of channels.‍

DCBEgypt, a direct carrier billing service provider, offers online payment services for mobile operators in Egypt.

‍7aweshly, a micro-saving tool for youth in Egypt to reach their dreams.

Vapulus, the NextGen online payment solution! It pays, sends, receives, transfers money, and helps you sell your product!

Watch the full episodes and join the conversation at startupminute.co.

Listen to our first episode of "The Weekly Minutes" to learn more about building and scaling a peer-to-peer marketplace where our Host, Khaled Abou Kassem, interviews with the entrepreneur behind a platform with great potential and greater impact helping you find Newborn Care and Child Care Specialists in Lebanon & GCC!‍

Featured Entrepreneur: Hussein Sleiman

Hussein is the Co-Founder & CEO of Find A Nurse which lets you find newborn care specialists, nurses, nannies & babysitters near you. Create an account and connect with trained, qualified carers!

Watch the full episodes and join the conversation at startupminute.co.

Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq to receive up to $1bn in financial commitments from the World Bank;

UAE-based premium ride sharing startup Careem signs a deal with Etisalat and Snapit Digital to let car passengers enjoy free unlimited WiFi in their rides;

Dubai plans to make most of the limo fleets of Uber and Careem eco-friendly by 2026;

Arabic Karaoke App Ghinwa helps MENA's singers unleash their full potential online;

Beirut-based insurtech BSynchro raises $1 million from Lebanon’s Berytech and Phoenician Funds as they look to transition insurance related companies into the digital world in a speedy and affordable way;

Jordan’s Faylasof raises $500,000 Pre-Series A funding from Saudi-based Wise Ventures for its online bookstore;

Dubai’s Zbooni raises $1.1 million from Chalhoub Group and B&Y Venture Partners to help businesses sell over Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp & Instagram;

Dubai’s Sprii raises $8.5 million Series A for its web and mobile-based baby products ecommerce marketplace;

Hopi, a yet-to-be-launched Dubai-based direct-to-consumer subscription contact lens startup raises seed funding;

Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw – Check out the final trailer! It comes out August 2nd.

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Shopi is an easy to use SaaS platform that enables digital in-store experiences and increased store efficiency by empowering the customer and sales associates with knowledge & engaging content.

In this video, hear about Shopi's experience implementing their solution at D&G Dubai Mall as part of The Greenhouse Accelerator program.

The Greenhouse is home to Chalhoub Group’s retail technology accelerator and Ibtikar, its in-house incubator for Chalhoub employees.

For those in Retail Tech startups, a no equity, grant-based accelerator with one of the largest retail companies in the MENA region, Chalhoub.

Watch the full episodes of the Startup Series by Chalhoub Greenhouse on their channel at startupminute.co/chalhoubgreenhouse

FACES & Tryano share their POC experiences and use cases in episode 2 of Chalhoub Greenhouse's Startup Series.

The Greenhouse is home to Chalhoub Group’s retail technology accelerator and Ibtikar, its in-house incubator for Chalhoub employees.

For those in Retail Tech startups, a no equity, grant-based accelerator with one of the largest retail companies in the MENA region, Chalhoub.

You can now watch the full episodes of the Startup Series by Chalhoub Greenhouse on their channel at startupminute.co/chalhoubgreenhouse

StoreDNA & Tory Burch share their POC experience and use case in episode 1 of Chalhoub Greenhouse's Startup Series.

The Greenhouse is home to Chalhoub Group’s retail technology accelerator and Ibtikar, its in-house incubator for Chalhoub employees.

For those in Retail Tech startups, a no equity, grant based accelerator with one of the largest retail companies in the MENA region, Chalhoub.

Watch the full episodes and join the conversation at startupminute.co

The Greenhouse is home to Chalhoub Group’s retail technology accelerator and Ibtikar, its in-house incubator for Chalhoub employees.

Watch the Chalhoub Greenhouse's Startup Series and join the conversation at startupminute.co.

Application deadline is approaching for the Forward KSA Accelerator program by AstroLabs, if your startup has significant traction and at least 1 Saudi (co-)founder then you are eligible to apply ; BeyondCapital was awarded $450K from Mercy Corps to collaborate and invest in rising early-stage start-ups in Jordan ; STEP Group, organizers of the annual technology festival, STEP Conference, has launched Dreamers, a platform dedicated to preparing children with skills needed to succeed for the jobs of tomorrow ; Careem enters micro-mobility space with acquisition of Cyacle, the UAE-based bikeshare company ; Emirates NBD, one of the biggest banking groups in the region, has recently opened a Virtual Reality (VR) Academy to make their employees more efficient through an engaging and intuitive learning experience ; Eksab, the leading Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) platform in MENA and the GCC, announced a six-figure seed investment from 500 Startups as it looks to capitalize on the prestigious African Cup of Nations being hosted in Egypt for the first time in more than a decade ; Amazon Prime has launched in the UAE and is available to customers for AED16 ($4.4) per month, or AED140 ($38) per year ; Domino's Pizza, the largest pizza company in the world based on global retail sales, and Nuro, the robotics company transforming local commerce, are partnering on autonomous pizza delivery pilot in Houston ; Orcas, the mobile application that connects parents and students with tutors and babysitters, has raised $500K in a pre-Series A funding round led by Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading VC fund, with participation from NFX Capital ; Tenderd, a heavy equipment rental marketplace for the construction industry in the MENA region, has launched with the region’s largest seed funding round of $5.8 million from a spectrum of high profile San Francisco and international investors ; The Hunger Games is getting a prequel next year that takes place 64 years before the first book, set for release on May 19th, 2020.

Watch the full episode and join the conversation at startupminute.co.