Around 10 days ago ArabCrunch  had a meeting with Barig Seraj the CEO of ICT Ventures a Saudi based Venture capital firm.

Barig Seraj informed us about his company and his recent investments, ICT Ventures is a growth based VC that focus in the IT sector. The VC firm made 3 investments so far. First in Mobidiv an Egyptian mobile app developer that is working on a special Chines SMS service, then they invested in ITs2 a digital security company in Saudi Arabia and lastly ICT Ventures closed  an investment round with IdealRatings a SaaS app providing Islamic Shariah screening, purification, and  fund management service for financial institutions that identifies and manages Shariah compliant instruments in the world. IdealRating is founded by Egyptian entrepreneur Youssri Helmy . The SaaS startup received 2 rounds of funding before from  Technology development fund in Egypt and then from Jordan based VC IV Holdings.

Here is the video interview with Barig, were he shed the light on his firm, the companies the invested in and how would they excite.

The Interview was done in Four Seasons hotel in Amman, Jordan. After the interview the hotel’s security came to question the writer of this post about using a camera ?!

Today Jordanian startup Aqar Estate a real estate web listing site has organized a party at Bristol hotel in Amman, Jordan where they showcased to the real estate and web industry their upcoming version of the site.

The new site which is set to be launched the 1st day of the Islamic Month of Ramadan -around 20th of this month- will have a complete revamp and new features, focusing on social interaction and making finding relevant real estate information easier to the user.

Among the new features, the site will offer premium membership for real estate agents and real estate developers. Thus the business model now is based on advertising revenues which is now expanded with new offerings such as featured site and will also depend on premium membership.

During the event ArabCrunch had an Interview with the company founder, she is Hanan Khader an ex-Jeeran and ex-maktoob employee, she is one of the few women entrepreneurs in the web Industry in the arab world, her 2,5 years old startup is totally bootstrapped and is already profitable which lead her to leave her job at Jeeran and even expand her team. Hanan is a mother to young girls and pregnant with a new baby. Other players in web real estate web business include AqarMap

Here our unedited interview today :




Update: end of the post.

Motorola has been a Mobile handset icon in the Arab world for a long time, but in the past few years the star has diminished to rivals such as Nokia and now iPhone and BlackBerry.

That case was not specific to the Arab world, its has been a problem that Motorola faced in its mother land: USA, but with the launching of its powerful Android based cell phone Droid and now Droid X, things have changed.

In the Arab world, Motorola is making a comeback its Droid or what they call MileStone outside USA is now launched in several Arab countries: GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Jordan. The Milestone cost around $ 700 USD depending in the country and the data plan.

Around a month ago we interviewed Bashar Hafez Products Operation Manager Motorola where he also showcased MileStone the first Arabic Android phone. In the Video Basher shed the light on Motorola’s new strategy, the company is focusing on Mobile and home entertainment business as 3 days ago it sold its wireless network infrastructure assets for US $1.2 billion in cash to Nokia Siemens.

This is part one of Motorola Comeback series.

Here is the Video (note the Milstone in this video is not with the Arabic version of Android, we will post our own separate review for that later) :



Update 1: We have contacted HTC PR company in the region, we are being told that some HTC Android powered devices run certain level of arabization, we will keep you posted once we get full details from HTC’s PR company in the region.

Group-buying is one of the web’s fastest-growing retail platforms, and UAE based GoNabit is the first to bring it to the Arab world. CEO and Co-Founder Dan Stuart answered some questions we had about GoNabit and its quest to bring value to consumers and businesses in the Arab world.

[Rock Sfeir]: What is GoNabit and what value does it bring to consumers and businesses?

[Dan Stuart]: GoNabit is the first group buying website in the Middle East. We source deeply discounted deals from local businesses to be sold to subscribers online within a limited period of time. GoNabit uses the power of social commerce to offer businesses a risk-free customer-creation engine.

[Rock Sfeir]: Many entrepreneurial-minded individuals are currently working in the corporate world and are unsure of when to make the move to launch a start-up. You were a part of Bayt.com before launching GoNabit. When did you decide that the time was right to launch your own start-up?

[Dan Stuart]: I’ve been thinking about this for a long time…but especially in the last year or so. I had an understanding with Bayt.com CEO Rabea Ataya that he would look closely and possibly invest in anything that I felt strongly about launching. My job made it easier since I spent my days looking at new launch opportunities and evaluating investment proposals.

That said, it was my passion…being on the pulse of what was new and relevant to the region. The key was to have the experience in sales, marketing and product. Without these in your leadership team you are in for larger challenges and won’t have as clear insight into what you are conceptualizing.

Eventually, I made a fairly quick decision, and started working…I didn’t think too much. I knew I had the capital to launch it, and the follow-on investment was verbally committed. You really need to be ready for the insecurity and sleepless nights. If not, keep your job and your sanity…but accept that you will never shape your own thing, too.

[Rock Sfeir]: Are you pleased with the sales numbers you are seeing? What items are currently selling out quickly?

[Dan Stuart]: We’ve done over 1,400 transactions in 8 weeks. Greater than 95% of that is e-commerce, so I think that surprises a lot of people …except me. I knew the will and interest was there. There was/is simply very little to buy online in this part of the world due to the structural challenges of selling online here.

People really like lifestyle products like massages. We do like to mix in some really quirky things too. It’s our testing phase after all, so we need really give the market a chance to give us broad feedback…and we’re listening.

[Rock Sfeir]: What are your plans for regional and international expansion? What is the most difficult part about growing regionally?

[Dan Stuart]: Every city is a new country…so that is tough. If I was home in Canada I’d have 15 cities of serious size to expand that all have one language, currency, and legal structure.

Here it is expensive, time-consuming and inhibits scale.

This is one of the reasons that very few online companies in the region are of any real size. They need growth to scale…and growth requires crossing many significant barriers. You can go be 5th biggest in India and have an easier time than owning the Middle East, because you can grow more inexpensively. Europe has made growth far more open. North America is much easier. The Middle East doesn’t do themselves any favors. That said, our strategic investor Bayt.com has a network throughout the region that we are leveraging to grow quickly. If you don’t have that you’ll have a tough time keeping pace.

We’re also sniffing around outside the region.

[Rock Sfeir]: How do you convince businesses to sign on with GoNabit? Are some business owners hesitant to take an initial hit in their profits, even if it means getting new customers?

[Dan Stuart]: GoNabit provides businesses with a risk free customer-creation engine:

• No upfront cost – either financially, or in terms of time. Merchants only have to be prepared to offer a discount between 50-90% off their regular retail price,
• An advertising investment concentrated on actual customers (nabber community exists to buy deals and have chosen to receive them),
• Large reach into young savvy buyers (social, internet savvy professionals aged between 24 and 54 and weighted to females 60:40),
• Brand awareness – an exclusive spotlight on your business  combined with the buzz and power of social media,
• An additional shop window without the retail investment,
• Certainty of a clear and measurable return on investment, and
• Increased customer footfall – the opportunity to convert the one-off GoNabit voucher user into a loyal customer

It’s an education process for sure…and we’re doing it quite successfully. We can always get better. It’s only been 8 weeks after all.

[Rock Sfeir]: What forms of media are you utilizing to reach people? Do you feel that certain forms of media are more unique to the Middle-East than they might be elsewhere?

[Dan Stuart]: Social media is at the forefront for us. It is inherently a social undertaking where people buy online and share these experiences with friends offline. It makes sense to share since you do better if more people know. eBay and Souq work well when the auctions are not popularly known…so the price stays down. For us, buyers benefit by more people knowing.

We have also been strong in the media in terms of building awareness while educating the market. We haven’t really cracked the paid ads egg too much so far. We’ll see more of that as we grow and as we move in later phases of our awareness campaigns.

I think the Middle East is like most markets with little difference for our purposes. The scale is just smaller, but the sharing is no less personal and the measurement of marketing methods no less critical.

[Rock Sfeir]: What methods of payment do you accept?

[Dan Stuart]: We accept cash, cheque and paypal right now. We have 2-4 more payment methods under consideration, but not necessarily as additions, but some as replacements and localized solutions

[Rock Sfeir]: What would you have to say to Middle-Eastern consumers that are skeptical about online purchasing?

[Dan Stuart]: If you’re thinking about buying online then you are clearly not satisfied with the speed, access and choice available offline. E-commerce gives you this. If you participate in buying through proper online sites then you grow an industry, and that’s an industry that brings you economies of scale that pass on choice and cost benefits to you….you should want ecommerce to succeed.

Ultimately, look for sites with globally recognized security certifications, certified data usage policies, clear and obvious customer contact mechanisms….and try out those contact mechanisms. Send a test inquiry. If you don’t get an intelligent, timely and useful reply, then go elsewhere. You want to know that your question will get answered properly. You are paying for this contact and confidence so assign it value and feel confident in a site that provides it…and give them your business.

[Rock Sfeir]: As the Arab world gets more and more connected to the web, your target market keeps growing. But, what do you feel is the biggest challenge to the growth of GoNabit?

[Dan Stuart]: The biggest challenge is achieving scale despite trying to grow in a market that is fairly sluggish in terms of ecommerce. It’s sluggish because of the self-fulfilling prophecy in the region: people say that people don’t like buying online so many don’t because they hear that people don’t buy online in the region.

In fact, 10,000s buy through Aramex’s Shop and Ship each month…so that’s not true. We do 50-100 online transactions a day…making us one of the biggest ecommece sites in the region already.

I think the myth is hurting the region. The payment providers are generally poor and apathetic but that is changing with NBAD and Bank Audi. People will buy online if there is value for them, ease and confidence.

[Rock Sfeir]: Essentially, it seems that GoNabit is taking a proven concept and applying it to the usually under-served market in the Middle-East. Do you see forthcoming competition? Is it going to be a new start-up, or an established group-buying business operating internationally?

[Dan Stuart]: I think we’ll see both. We’ve led the market, done the education and proved the concept for the cities we are in. There will certainly be others to see that we have laid steps for them to follow in.

I think we’re bound to see an international player sniff around the region at some point, but there are far more mature businesses here in the region who remain independent (Bayt, Souq, etc), so we’re down the list from them in terms of sparking international interest.

Again, the structural challenges in the region make entry in markets beyond Dubai a real challenge for anyone apart from a really committed regional player.

What I would like to see is a company like us use this knowledge gained in a tough market to move to new market outside the region. We need to work harder and be better to overcome regional challenges…so why not apply that to other challenging markets and build a presence?

[Rock Sfeir]: Where do you see GoNabit heading in the next couple of years?

[Dan Stuart]: Tough call. We certainly have a vision that the founders share to some extent or another. We definitely want to grow and be a sustainable business held to global standards.

I would like to have sparked the rise of ecommerce in every country in the region, built the largest volume of ecommerce transaction of any website in the region, and sparked a new industry of startups that believe that ecommerce is do-able.

I’d also like to have to hire some staff who speaks another language besides English and Arabic

[Rock Sfeir]: Anything else you want to add?

[Dan Stuart]: If you are thinking of launching a business, think big and start soon. Thinking small and waiting means you’ll never start, and even when you do, you won’t do much.

Former regional marketing manager for Google in MENA Nagi Salloum who launched yesterday dead simple sharing tool loomn.it is launching today his new startup loomni.

Lo0mni is trying to solve the problem of education and knowledge. As after university most people tend not to learn and take new courses as most traning courses are geared towards executive and sneior managment due to the expensive rates they are offered at (1000+ USD.)

Loomin is able to offer affordable cousres at the rate of 50$ with a new conecpt to attract instructors: “marketing by teaching”:

“here experts can share their knowledge, educate people about topics they are expert in, and with extensive practical experience. ex: as a social media company, market your services by teaching people about social media stuff. If they are interested and understand the benefits of social media they will contact you for professional advice and services. Instructors are incentivized to deliver high quality course as the delivery will impact their reputation in the market. “ Said Nagi

Nagi is also introducing Loomni vouchers, prepaid codes charged with a certain monetary value (typically 200 AED, avg price of a course). This allows businesses to provide the Loomni courses to their staff by purchasing these vouchers and distributing them to their employees. Employees would then book courses on Loomni without any cash transaction.

“With this, companies can now fund education as part of their corporate social responsibility in a new way, by purchasing Loomni vouchers and distributing them to non-profits to educate disadvantaged people, Government can now easily support the Emiratis continuous education by providing them with Loomni vouchers.” Nagi added.

Quick Questions and Answers:

The elevator pitch in 140-characters?

Loomni is a knowledge sharing platform organizing a variety of short,attractive,in-venue courses, delivered by experts at unbeatable prices.

• Who is the target audience?

Loomni is aimed at university students, small and medium businesses and general audience. The website has been designed with a very user friendly and simple interface, creating a fun and nice branding.

• What is the story behind choosing “Loomni” as your start-up’s name?

Loomni is a blend between illumination (illuminate people’s minds) and alumni (I used to pronounce it Alumnee). i wanted a simple fun easy to spell/pronounce word, and available as a domain name

• What is the monetization model ?

the business is designed on a revenue share model between Loomni and the instructors, share varies based on course, instructor, frequency of course, audience…

• why you decided to leave Google?

Prior to moving to Dubai as the regional marketing manager in Google, I worked in Procter & Gamble, as a regional brand manager for Near East markets, based out of Beirut, Lebanon but decided to quit Procter & Gamble in 2008 to launch a start-up aimed at fixing the scattered private tutoring market. Only few months after launch, due to harsh political instabilities in Beirut, I decided to leave Lebanon and settle in Dubai, which offers a solid infrastructure for businesses to prosper. I took the time while at Google to fine the business model I had launched, and when the time was ready, decided to relaunch it in Dubai. So in short, yes, these 2 situations are related

#Loomni at ArabCrunch.NET.

We launched ArabCrunch.NET in public beta around 2 months ago in order to drive innovation and startups infusion in the Arab and emerging markets.

The problems we face is not just an entrepreneur who needs funding, number one problem is shortage of skilled engineers and developers. To that end at ArabCrunch we look at the problem from an ecosystem point of view, that involves many aspects including human resources and that need to be addressed.

Today, We are launching Developers Q&A, a free place to ask Questions and find Answers about Any Programing Language on Any Platform. Powered by ArabCrunch.NET Geeks like you in both Arabic and English.

Since ArabCrunch started in the first place for the community, a number of the community gurus and expert have gracefully agreed to be admins in several programing languages to help out any developers who have any questions about any programming language , admins will play an important role in answering and a moderating questions and are here to support you. In this occasion I would like to thank everyone of them. and please welcome our growing list of Developers Q&A admins:

Ahmad Hamzawi, Head of Engineering, Middle East/North Africa Google, resident of Switzerland, he is Developers Q&A admin for Java, Javascript, Linux and MySQL

He is currently leading engineering teams focused on building and adapting products for the Arab world. Ahmad joined Google in 2006 from KNOVA Software in Silicon Valley where he was Senior Director of Engineering.  He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science.

Yaser Sulaiman: Fromn Syria living ins Saudi Arabia, he is Developers Q&A admin for C#, Java and Ruby. Yaser is A computer scientist, a cognitive science hobbyist, and a Rubyist. A software developer, a juggler, and a wannabe mathematician/philosopher.

Riham Mohsen: From Egypt she is Developers Q&A admin for Ruby. she Worked before with eSpace as a web developer and a system admin and participated in the release of Ruby Gem neverblock

Asharaf Amirah: from Jordan he is admin of Developers Q&A for PHP and MySQL, He is the CEO at O-Minds an open source web development company from Jordan

Zakwan Alhajjar, from Syria he is admin for Developers Q&A for ROR PHP, Ruby and MySQL. He has 4 years of web development experience in PHP and ROR.

Ahmad Abu-omar, From Palestine he is admin of Developers Q&A for PHP and MYSQL . Ahmad is Computer Engineer and Senior Developer at Medicfusion with 4 years experience in developing web applications using PHP/MySQL on the backend plus HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery on the front-end.

Ata Alqadi from Jordan he is admin for Developers Q&A for Action Script, Ata is founder of Benu Technologies he has Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering.

Waleed Asender: from Jordan he is admin of Developers Q&A and web admin of PHP, and CSS, BS in telecomincations

Noha Mohammad: From Egypt she is Developers Q&A C# and Java. Noha is a software developer and research assistant at Nile University in ‪ ‬ ‪Management of Technology (MOT) Program‬From Egypt, she is Sun Certified Java Programmer.

Mahmoud Mehyar: From Jordan Developers Q&A admin for Perl, he is the founder of feedoor and mailpacks he is also an RSS and newsletter expert.

Humam Hawasli: Fom Syria, he is Developers Q&A admin for Linux. Humam is a system engineer , supervising a system department in a Syrian ISP. Humam is LPI 1&2 certified and a fan of free and open source softwares.

Khaled Al Habache: admin of Developers Q&A for ROR and Ruby, he is a Software Engineer working for nQuiro and is contributing editor in RailsMagazine.com.

Fatin Khawarizmi: from Morocco she is Admin of Developers Q&A VB and Startup Q&A social media: Fatin is #1 ArabCrunch advocate, she has passion for entrepreneurship, technology, blogging, social media and math.

If you are a ninja in any programing language and want to be an admin to help the community please send you bio to editorATarabCrunchDOTcom

Nobel Peace Prize Winner ElBaradei and Former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency is taking another step in social media to engage more Egyptians in his bid to over take the presidential seat form the current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

http://ask.elbarad3i.com/ a domain which redirects to Google Moderator site in Arabic allows people to post questions and vote on them. Elbaradi’s open questions section on Google Moderator seems to be another success for his online and social media campaign as it has 966 questions and 40,474 votes.

In December 2008, Google Moderator was used by US Barack Obama’s transition team in a public series called “Open for Questions”, in which they answered questions from the general public.

Some time in 2007 Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaeda’s second in command, asked for questions to be submitted on one of the Arab forums and promised to answer them later via a video. His video was posted online on 100s of forums later.

Our sources close to ElBaradei, told us that he might answer the public questions also via a video but it is not a final decision.

Around 10 days ago ElBaradei become #1 Arab politician on facebook ahead of Queen Rania of Jordan facebook page, however the margin is now again in favor of the queen:201,729 fan for the Queen’s page and 210,042 fans for ElBaradei .

#Obama’s pic from US stat dep. website.

Following the news of Dice  holdings -which owns the well known tech jobs websites Dice- acquisition of Dubai based, Wordlwideworker for 6 million USD, we made a followup Interview with Worldwideworker CEO Frederik Rengers, to tell us more about his company and the acquisition. Thanks Fredreik for your time and I hope it will be a benefit for you our readers.

AC: When did you start worldwideworker.? who are the founders and their nationalities?

Frederik Rengers: “Worldwideworker.com was founded in 2000 by Jan Scholten, a dutch Petroleum Engineer who had a successful career in the oil industry working with Schlumberger. Betterbe, a successful internet IT company, was also a founding partner. I invested and joined Worldwideworker at the end of 2001 and became the CEO in 2007. I’m dutch and my previous work experience was as a petroleum engineer. Finally, Florence Card is the current Director of Worldwideworker.com. She joined the company in 2001 and is from Brunei.

AC: Did you bootstrap or received funding ? if you got funded please provide names of funders and amount/s

Frederik Rengers: The company was founded with private equity money and with friends and family investments.

AC: How did you grow worldwideworker. CVs? what marketing techniques did you use?

Frederik Rengers: From the b