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

—--- Resources—--------:

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

—--- Resources—--------:

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

—--- Resources—--------:

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

—--- Resources—--------:

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

—--- Resources—--------:

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.

—-----------------------------------------------------------

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—--------:

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