Startups Arabia
The Arab startups scene is one of the hottest globally. The Startups Arabia podcast is the place to learn all about it. With a 420 million strong population that is young and tech-savvy, the Arab world is proving to be a great market to create a startup. This podcast interviews the best founders, investors and operators of the region. Listening to deep conversations with them, you will learn deep insights about the ecosystem. You will also be inspired by their success, the challenges they overcame and the opportunities they see.
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Yasmine El-Mehairy, Building Dija, Empowering Women & Navigating Uncertain Terrain – Ep.8, Season 3
Yasmine El-Mehairy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dija, a platform helping Muslim women invest with confidence in a way aligned with their faith and values. Yasmine is a serial entrepreneur, passionate about startups with purpose. Before launching Dija, she worked in global financial service organizations like City Ventures and Deloitte Digital, as well as founding and managing other startups in var
Ramez El-Serafy, The 14 year Journey of F6 and an Evolving Region – Ep.7, Season 3
Ramez El-Serafy is the General Partner and Co-Founder of F6 Ventures, bringing over 18 years of experience in technology, investments, entrepreneurship, and management. Before launching F6 Ventures, Ramez served as CEO of Flat6Labs from 2011 to 2025, where he led its transformation into one of the most active innovation platforms in the Middle East and Africa, expanding its footprint, scaling its
Karim Jouini, Pursuing a Second Successful Startup and Rethinking his Identity as a Global Entrepreneur – Ep.6, Season 3
Born in Tunisia and “well-travelled”.Geek, started my first software company at the age of 16.Studied Software Engineering and AI at INSA Toulouse and University of Western Ontario.Joined Microsoft, where I spent 7 years — from Software Engineer to Engineering Manager — and truly fell in love with testing and quality.Then co-founded Expensya, an AI-powered expense management scale-up that grew acr
Jon Edward Santillan, Selling to Careem, Starting his Second Company, and Building OCTA in Public – Ep.5, Season 3
Jon Santillan is the co-founder of OCTA, a platform automating financial operations for businesses — starting with accounts receivables and embedded financing. He’s a second-time founder, previously building and selling Denarii to Careem. Based in Dubai, Jon’s been operating in the region for over a decade, and he’s now focused on helping SMEs across the Middle East get paid faster, streamline wor
Khaled Talhouni, Spotting and Supporting Great Founders and the Macro Trends Creating a Regional Golden Age – Ep.4, Season 3
Khaled Talhouni is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Nuwa Capital, a VC firm investing in early-stage startups across the MENAPT region, based in Dubai and Riyadh. He has managed over 150 early-stage deals with a total AUM exceeding $300M and has successfully exited 15+. With deep expertise in venture investing and portfolio management, he plays a key role in shaping the region’s startup ecos
Michael Lints, Investing in Defensible Tech and Building Strong Founder Relationships – Ep.3, Season 3
Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include
Julien Plouzeau, From Banking to VC, Multistage Investment Strategy, and a Deep Dive into the UAE Ecosystem – Ep.2, Season 3
Julien is the Senior Partner at Oraseya Capital, where he leads the firm’s investment strategy, oversees deal sourcing and execution, and actively manages a diverse portfolio of early-stage startups. Oraseya Capital invests from pre-Seed to Series B stages, fostering innovation and scaling transformative businesses across key sectors. Julien is also a member of the investment committee.In 2021, Ju
Waleed Alballaa, Unveiling the Global Potential and Deep Tech Innovations Emerging from the MENA Region – Ep.1, Season 3
Waleed A. Alballaa is a technologist-turned-investor with a proven track record across global and MENA markets, spanning semiconductors, wireless, mobility, and eGovernment. As a Founding General Partner at Sukna Ventures, he backs early-stage, tech-driven startups across the region. Prior to Sukna, Waleed co-founded STV, one of the MENA region’s largest VC funds, and led pivotal initiatives at El
Saoud Khalifah, Building with Obsession, Challenging Comfort Zones and Needed Cultural Shifts in the Arab World – Ep.13, Season 2
Saoud was born in Kuwait during the Gulf War and left to the US at the age of 18. Saoud launched Fakespot.com in 2016, a platform that detects fake reviews using AI, after being scammed by a supplement with fake ratings. Since then, Fakespot is now used by millions of shoppers worldwide when browsing popular eCommerce websites. Fakespot was acquired by Mozilla in 2023 and is now integrated into Mo
Leena Khalil, Building a Community-Centric Platform, Managing Complex Supply Chains, and Navigating Exit Opportunities – Ep.12, Season 2
Leena Khalil is currently a Partner at Key Capital and was the co-founder of Mumzworld. In 2011, she co-founded Mumzworld.com, a leading platform dedicated to making parenting easier across the region. Following its strong growth, Mumzworld.com was fully acquired by the Saudi healthcare giant Tamer Group. Leena stepped down as CEO in 2024.Before her role at Mumzworld, Leena worked in investment ba
Mohammad AlRazaz, Building a Remote Logistics Powerhouse and Global Ambitions for Regional Startups – Ep.11, Season 2
Mohammad AlRazaz is a serial entrepreneur and the Co-founder & CEO of OTO, MENA’s largest shipping integrator and aggregator platform, powering online businesses and omni-channel brands. At just 22, Mohammad launched Jeeny (formerly EasyTaxi) in Saudi Arabia with Rocket Internet, becoming the youngest Country Manager globally. An MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp alumnus, he has built multi
Amal Dokhan, Championing Innovation, Inspiring Women Leaders, and the Transforming Saudi Venture Landscape – Ep.10, Season 2
Amal Dokhan is an entrepreneurship advocate, a venture capitalist and an ecosystem builder operating for more than a decade in the MENA region. Amal is the managing partner at 500 Global managing the Sanabil 500 MENA seed accelerator fund focusing on investing in early stage tech startups. She previously worked at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, managing accelerator programs an
Mohammed Alzubi, Treasuring Entrepreneurial Scars and Bringing Back Silicon Valley Insights to the MENA region - Ep.9, Season 2
Mohammed is the Managing Partner at Nama Ventures, a pre-seed / seed stage fund fueling techinnovation in the MENA region, especially in Saudi. Previously, he was the managing director ofTharwa Capital, a Dubai based financial investment and advisory firm focusing on the technologyequity markets.He’s also led the Venture Capital practice at Global Investment House, a Kuwait based investmentcompany
Ameer Sherif, From Bootstrapping During Turmoil to Building a Regional Employment Powerhouse - Ep.8, Season 2
Ameer Sherif is the founder and chairman of Basharsoft, the company behind Wuzzuf and Forasna, Egypt's leading online employment platforms for both white collar and blue collar workers, respectively. Collectively, both platforms impacted the lives of over seven million job seekers in Egypt and helped 70,000+ companies hire more than one million people over the past years.They've had signif
Hasan Haider, Embracing Non-Obvious Outliers, and his Early Stage Investment Thesis - Ep.7, Season 2
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 deplo
Ahmad Takatkah, Leveraging Data Science in Venture Capital, Experiencing Silicon Valley Hypergrowth and Processing Failure in Startups - Ep.6, Season 2
VCpreneur, at The Intersection Of VC & DataAhmad 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 s
Rama Kayyali, Building a mission-driven company, adopting cutting-edge technology to improve Arabic language literacy and pivoting several times - Ep.5, Season 2
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
Wael Nafee, Transitioning from operator to investor, YC’s secret sauce and building Careem in its growth phase - Ep.4, Season 2
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 mil
Waleed Kadous, Decoding LLM-based approaches and startup versus big tech culture - Ep.3, Season 2
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 te
Asher Siddiqui, VC fundraising, GP/LP dynamics, and advising Robert Downey Jr's fund - Ep.2 Part 2, Season 2
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 e
Asher Siddiqui, Thriving through boom and bust, picking the right startups and architecting billion-dollar mega-deals - Ep.2 Part 1, Season 2
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 e
Ismael Belkhayat, Startup as an Extreme Sport and Business in French-speaking Africa - Ep.1, Season 2
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
Concluding the first season of the Startups Arabia podcast
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.—-----------------------------------------------------------The Startups Arabia Podcast connects you to the most prominent foun
Eman Hylooz, The power of listening to your customers: evolving from a community to the biggest Arabic digital reading platform - Ep.12, Season 1
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 work
Belal El-Megharbel, Serving the underserved, acquiring their way into Morocco, and leveraging data for hypergrowth - Ep.11, Season 1
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
Roberto Croci, Insights on the Gulf startup environment and how the Arab startup ecosystem has evolved in the past decade - Ep.10, Season 1
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 th
Romouz Sadeq, Pivoting Mrayti from an Uber-like to a product-centric business model, and introducing her new startup, OVU, for the first time! - Ep.9, Season 1
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 al
Omar Hagrass, Early challenges, Trella’s fast growth, and a winning founder’s mentality - Ep.8, Season 1
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 Mana
Ayman Ashour, Corporate vs Startup world, challenges in fundraising, and insights about mergers and acquisitions - Ep.7, Season 1
Ayman S. Ashour is the Founder and Principal of NewtonInternational Management, an advisory and investment firmfocused 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 thecombination of Bluehill ID and SCM Microsystems. Ashour earlierf
Tambi Jalouqa, Product first and encouraging regional collaboration - Ep. 6, Season 1
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
Noureddine Tayebi, Founder of Yassir on hypergrowth, building in the region and other observations - Ep. 5, Season 1
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 pa
Mai Medhat, A founder’s journey: Taking Eventtus from a base in Cairo, to Dubai, to the US (with Bevy) - Ep. 4, Season 1
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 t
Afnan Ali, Business with a purpose, Eureka Tech Academy, and having a lasting impact - Ep. 3, Season 1
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 U
Tarek Fahim, What is different about making investment decisions in the Arab region? - Ep. 2, Season 1
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 inves
Ayman Rashed, The Otlob Story and MENA region’s opportunity for startup founders - Ep.1. Season 1
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 start
Startups Arabia Trailer
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