Egypt Survives Econ Storm But Big Challenges Loom
MEV was quoted in the following story “Egypt Survives Econ Storm But Big Challenges Loom” in Zawya Dow Jones.
“Egypt has one of the most robust economies in the region, buoyed by the largest population,” said Faisal Ghori, principal at Middle East Ventures based in Washington D.C. “This over the years has translated into a real and meaningful economy, driven by real consumer
demand.”
A Marriage of Convenience
Middle East Ventures is mentioned in Arabian Business.
“This is nothing short of a sea change for the region,” says Faisal Ghori, a principal at strategy consultancy Middle East Ventures.
Innovation: The Way To Go
MEV is extensively mentioned in the cover story of The Gulf by Rosamund de Sybel.
the Middle East has become an “increasingly important” market, says Faisal Ghori, principal at Middle East Ventures, a Washington-based business strategy consultancy focused on the Middle East and North Africa.
“In the next five years, you’re going to see people taking risks on both the entrepreneurial and the invest- ment side,” says Ghori.
Building Hope: Yahoo! Acquires Maktoob.com
As published in the Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post
Hope is often in short supply in the Middle East, but that may be quickly changing, at least for the region’s entrepreneurs. On August 25, Yahoo!, the Internet giant, announced that it will acquire Maktoob.com, the Middle East’s largest web portal and online community founded and operated in Jordan. As the very first acquisition of a Middle East-based technology company by an American technology giant, this is nothing short of a sea change for the region. Overnight it has bolstered the region with instant credibility and given its entrepreneurs reason to hope that they too can succeed in creating companies. The acquisition, in short, has fundamentally altered the technology landscape in the Middle East.
Yahoo! Acquires Maktoob.com, 3 Expert Perspectives
Earlier this week Yahoo! announced that it will acquire Maktoob.com (read the press release here).
Below, we speak to Samih Toukam, CEO and founder of Maktoob.com; Emile Cubeisy, Managing Director of IV Holdings; and Khaldoon Tabaza, Managing Director of Riyada Ventures.
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MEV: What does this means for you and your organization?
Samih: This is a great success story for me and the maktoob team. We have worked hard and proved that it is possible to create something good out of the Arab world. We are all proud of what we have done.
Emile: IV Holdings congratulations Yahoo! on its acquisition of Maktoob.com, which opened up broader opportunities for Arab online entrepreneurs and firms. For Accelerator and IV Holdings, this strengthens our conviction in what we have always believed, that Arab entrepreneurs will play an important role in shaping the global internet and interactive landscape. An industry and an opportunity that has always sought validation has found it. For IV Holdings, this is an important milestone, in that it proves to Arab entrepreneurs that if you focus on building true value in your businesses, execute patiently and with professionalism, and go through the full stages of growth, real exit opportunities will emerge. It proves to the wider investment community that real opportunities for value creation does exist in the knowledge-based talent pool in the Arab World, and validates the existence of quality entrepreneurs that can pull it off.
Additionally, Maktoob’s history of working with regional VCs to build itself up towards global relevance validates the importance of our industry’s role in helping Arab entrepreneurs achieve their full potential, something that IV Holdings is a first mover in committing itself to.
Khaldoon: The Yahoo! Maktoob deal is an inflection point for the Internet industry in the Arab world, a milestone that indicates that the online market in the Arab world has reached critical mass, and the start of a new phase for start-ups, VCs, and the industry at large in a region that remains largely untapped in terms of its potential, and that will be one of the key drivers of growth in emerging economies in the years to come.
