I just spent a year travelling in the middle east (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Lebanon,…) and I even moved recently to lebanon. I’ve met a lot of people in the industry there.
And I was impressed by the market evolution in a year.
- Internet penetration is booming (21,3% penetration with 32% in Kuwait or 38,4% in the UAE) more on Internet world stats.
- Mobile penetration and usage is even more impressive (150% in the UAE), see my previous post on this: Mobile innovation, start looking at emerging countries.
On the startup side, things start to be organized and new projects are released every week. here is some good sources of information:
- Arabcrunch.com is dedicated to profiling and reviewing Arab originated startups.
- Startuparabia.com is talking about Arab startups and entrepreneurs
- The twitter of PV Tribal DDB is giving daily news about internet and mobile markets in the region.
On the funding side, things are still a bit messy but one good initiative need to be be named. It’s the ABAN (Arab Business Angels Network) and they organize a meeting every quarter with for 4-6 selected startups + some guests.
My opinion? VC’s should start considering this market with a population of 200 millions people, a strong growth, and a huge appetite for new technologies.
Without disclosing any secret, guess where my next project will take place.
