Middle East Ventures » Jordan

Arabian Bytes

MEVentures — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:45:22 +0000

MEV provides analysis in Monocle magazine’s article, Arabian bytes.

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The rocky crags of Jordan may be better known for Petra and the Dead Sea than they are for technology start-ups, but Amman, Jordan’s capital, is on the edge of a tech boom as the internet takes off in the Middle East.

“Jordan is ripe with talent, as its entrepreneurs are tech-savvy, cutting edge, and are blessed to be forced to focus on competing in regional and global markets as the local market is small,” says Emile Cubeisy, managing director of IV Holdings, a venture capital firm.

The greatest success so far for Jordan has been Yahoo!’s acquisition, this summer, of the Amman-based internet firm maktoob.com. The high profile buy-out is expected to lead the way for a wave of western investment in the city’s nascent internet industry.

Jordan began investing in ICT (information and communication technologies) 10 years ago and it’s gone from having virtually zero internet access in 1999, to having one of the region’s highest internet penetration rates today, at 26 per cent, according to the Jordanian Ministry of ICT. Funds have been pumped into universities, a corporate park and a start-up incubator and Princess Sumaya University for Technology, in Amman, is now the Middle East’s leading technical university.

The ICT sector is also contributing meaningfully to Jordan’s economy, with revenues of $2.1bn (€1.4bn) in 2008. Nowhere in the Arab world does ICT contribute so significantly to economic growth as it does in Jordan. It’s a case of having decided to make the best of its lot. Located between “Iraq and a hard place”, as King Abdullah II puts it, the country has one of the smallest populations in the region (6.3 million) and one of the lowest GDPs per capita ($5,100/€3,470). By no stretch of the imagination is Jordan a wealthy Arab nation. But its strategy of making up in brainpower for what it lacks in hydrocarbon reserves is just beginning to pay off. Watch this space.

A Marriage of Convenience

MEVentures — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:57:20 +0000

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

MEVentures — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:30:27 +0000

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

MEVentures — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:22:32 +0000

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

MEVentures — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:43:43 +0000

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.

MEV: What does this means for Jordan and the region?

Samih: It’s a success story for Jordan and the region and a message that we can build something big and strong in the Arab world and this is where we should be focusing our investments, in the talents and brain power that we have not in real estate and buildings.

Emile: This reaffirms Jordan as a regional beehive of technology and dot.com entrepreneurs. In a journey that started in 2000 with Jordan’s focus on its human resources as its differentiator, and its emphasis on global economic relevance, not just local and regional, Maktoob, as one of the first pioneers, has confirmed this belief. We should expect to see many more such success stories from Jordan, especially due to what they have already proven they can accomplish. We are ripe with entrepreneurship, and the Yahoo! acquistion of Maktoob will only shed more light on the innovation and the entrepreneurs in Jordan. The ripple effect to entrepreneurs in neighboring countries will be felt as well in the coming years.

Khaldoon: This will no doubt encourage investors from the region to be more proactive and aware of venture investments, and most importantly, it will encourage international investors to pay attention to the Arab world as a source for deals (rather than just capital). It should also encourage accomplished expatriate Arab entrepreneurs to look towards their home countries for their next venture, as well as encourage experienced Arab talent at home to take the step towards creating new start-ups.

MEV: What does this mean for entrepreneurs throughout MENA?

Samih: It’s a message to all entrepreneurs out there that hard work and innovation will pay off. Maktoob is just the beginning for many success stories to come.

Emile: While entrepreneurs in the Arab World have always believed, it will be hard for the mainstream to neglect what they have always felt…the region will firmly be entrenched as part of the global internet landscape much sooner than many believe. For these entrepreneurs, it allows the spotlight to be shifted towards them a little, as they now have a proof point that innovation, perseverence, passion, and relevance, if effectively executed, can yield globally relevant businesses.

MEV: What does this mean for foreign investors investing in tech. in MENA?

Samih: It means that its time to invest in the Arab world. The market is ready and has huge growth potential and there is good talent and brains out there and also good exits for your investments.

Emile: We’ve had our early entrants in our market, most notably Intel Capital, Microsoft, Cisco, among others that should be recognized. Foreign investors, while their focus may be on China and India, will now take notice of the MENA Region as a viable market in which innovation and value does exist, and where realistic exit opportunities are emerging. The stars are aligning for the Arab tech and internet industry, a fact global investors are sure to notice more and more over the coming few years.

Khaldoon: As an acquisition that is a first of its kind, all eyes will be on Yahoo!/Maktoob to test the chemistry on the long-term between Yahoo! and the Arab culture and community. On the shorter term, the industry will be closely watching to monitor the integration of Maktoob’s team inside Yahoo!, the delivery on the promises to Maktoob’s employees in terms of their stock options and benefits, and how will Yahoo! deal with many border-line intellectual property issues on Maktoob especially with regard to video music, and software, which made up much of the recent growth of Maktoob as a result of acquisitions in the past few years.