Women rocking the tech world in the Middle East

Aurélie SALVAIRE@asalvaire

#shiftbalance

The World's Leading Technology Educator

Pia Mancini: an example of a woman changing the world

through technology

Argentina’s Pia Mancini is using technology to destroy barriers between politicians and

people around the world

• DemocracyOS provides a platform for citizens to engage with politics away fromthose outdated structures. When a new piece of legislation is brought to congress in Argentina DemocracyOS is used to immediately translate and explain it in plainlanguage. Citizens are also able to discuss and directly “vote” on these new billsusing the site or desktop app.

• Just two years after it was created, the platform is already being used by the federal government in Mexico to gather feedback on policy proposals, and by an NGO called iWatch to give voice to the Tunisian public in political decision-making.

• Her newest project, Democracy.Earth, launched last month and centres on smart contract technology, computer protocols that automatically execute the terms of a contract and will allow decentralised governance of any organisation – from cities to corporations; student unions to football teams.

And actually the Middle East is Beating Out the World in Female Tech Entrepreneurs!

35% of tech entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are women, a

surprising statistic, considering the global norm of 10%.

Why?• Working in tech still allows women to conform with

traditional social norms. – “Running an internet start-up from home is the perfect compromise.”

• The virtual nature of the internet creates a safe haven. – More meritocratic than corporate world.

• Women's own determination and drive are what spurs them on, and what ultimately makes them succeed.– Sarah Abu Alia, founder of ArtMedium, an online concert organizer,

says, "As a woman, you have to fight for everything here — which is great preparation for being an entrepreneur.”

In the innovation-driven Middle East economies, women are proportionately more likely to have

opportunity motives

• In the Middle East, a preliminary survey of seven universities in countries including Palestine, the UAE and Saudi Arabia by Sana Odeh, clinical professor of computer science at New York University, found 30-70% of the enrollees in computer science programs were women.

Who are these women?

A few examples…

Egypt - Samira Negm• The entrepreneurs behind Raye7, a phone app setting out to be the Middle

East’s next Blabla Car, were recognised as the world’s second best mobile startup at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

• Samira Negm and her brother Ahmed Negm, who was featured among CairoScene’s 25 entrepreneurs under 25 last August, co-founded the carpooling application in 2014.

UAE - Hebah Fisher• Hebah Fisher and the team behind Kerning Cultures, a weekly podcast of

entrepreneurship, philosophy, culture, history, arts, and technology stories from the region, have decided to utilise the power of the radio to present a new, more positive narrative of the Middle East.

• Since September 2015, the main aim of their podcast stories has been to show the depth the region’s societies have to offer.

• The first story series focuses on entrepreneurship across the region, describing the personal experiences of starting and growing companies in Lebanon, Egypt, and the UAE.

• Distributed in partnership with egyptianstreets.com, the series share individual stories of entrepreneurs, as well as contemplate how national dynamics such as revolutions, border conflicts, infrastructure, bureaucracy, stability and instability alike affect the start-up landscapes.

UAE - Thea Myrvold• Teach Me Now started

from the idea that anyone should be able to learn or teach online, and that modern technology could help make education accessible and easy.

Teach me now

Being half Arabic, her goal has always been to be a

part of the growth and development in the region.

As a woman and a teacher, her dream is to

contribute to world wide educational reform, by

breaking down barriers to learning and improving

how we transfer and understand knowledge.

M : 0 0 9 7 1 5 5 5 4 4 5 3 2 0 E : t h e a @ t e a c h m e n o w . c o m

W e b s t e r U n i v e r s i t y G e n e v a , S w i t z e r l a n d

2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 1 ,

B A i n I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a t i o n s , E c o n o m i c s

a n d P s y c h o l o g y .

R e f e r e n c e s a v a i l a b l e u p o n r e q u e s t

At 21, Thea created one of the first gamified apps

for high school students for Economics. Her

passion continued to develop through her

teaching. This lead her to create her third venture

at 23, a global platform for personalised learning

through TeachMeNow.com.

S k i l l s : S t a r t u p s , F u n d i n g , F e m a l e

l e a d e r s h i p , E d t e c h , G a m i f i e d

C o n t e n t , m e n t o r s h i p , S p e a k i n g ,

E d u c a t i o n a l a p p s ,

C l o u d S a a s , M a r k e t p l a c e s , C o m m u n i t y

b u i l d i n g , a n d E d u c a t i o n .

L a n g u a g e s : E n g l i s h a n d N o r w e g i a n

F l u e n t l y , I n t e r m e d i a t e F r e n c h , S w e e d i s h .

TeachMeNow.com is a global marketplace

for one to one learning in real time. An

alternative to current online solutions,

TeachMeNow offers live and interactive

classes with the teacher or tutor of your

choice for students as young as 6 years old.

Boasting 1000+ tutors, teachers and Ivy

League graduates from around the world.

R e b r a n d e d f o r s c h o o l s a n d g o v e r n m e n t s

W i l l b e l a u n c h e d i n A r a b i c i n 2 0 1 6 .

W o r k i n g w i t h 5 g o v e r n m e n t p r o j e c t s i n c l u d i n g

S y r i a n R e f u g e e S u p p o r t .

M i c r o s o f t P a r t n e r e d .

A w a r d w i n n i n g s p e a k e r , t o p 1 0 0 l e a d e r s u n d e r

3 0 f e a t u r e d i n H u f f i n g t o n P o s t , E n t r e p r e n e u r ,

A r a b i a n B u s i n e s s .

F o u n d e r T e a c h M e N o w . c o m H i g h l i g h t s

Being half Arabic, her goal has always been to be a

part of the growth and development in the region.

As a woman and a teacher, her dream is to

contribute to world wide educational reform, by

breaking down barriers to learning and improving

how we transfer and understand knowledge.

M : 0 0 9 7 1 5 5 5 4 4 5 3 2 0 E : t h e a @ t e a c h m e n o w . c o m

W e b s t e r U n i v e r s i t y G e n e v a , S w i t z e r l a n d

2 0 0 8 - 2 0 1 1 ,

B A i n I n t e r n a t i o n a l R e l a t i o n s , E c o n o m i c s

a n d P s y c h o l o g y .

R e f e r e n c e s a v a i l a b l e u p o n r e q u e s t

At 21, Thea created one of the first gamified apps

for high school students for Economics. Her

passion continued to develop through her

teaching. This lead her to create her third venture

at 23, a global platform for personalised learning

through TeachMeNow.com.

S k i l l s : S t a r t u p s , F u n d i n g , F e m a l e

l e a d e r s h i p , E d t e c h , G a m i f i e d

C o n t e n t , m e n t o r s h i p , S p e a k i n g ,

E d u c a t i o n a l a p p s ,

C l o u d S a a s , M a r k e t p l a c e s , C o m m u n i t y

b u i l d i n g , a n d E d u c a t i o n .

L a n g u a g e s : E n g l i s h a n d N o r w e g i a n

F l u e n t l y , I n t e r m e d i a t e F r e n c h , S w e e d i s h .

TeachMeNow.com is a global marketplace

for one to one learning in real time. An

alternative to current online solutions,

TeachMeNow offers live and interactive

classes with the teacher or tutor of your

choice for students as young as 6 years old.

Boasting 1000+ tutors, teachers and Ivy

League graduates from around the world.

R e b r a n d e d f o r s c h o o l s a n d g o v e r n m e n t s

W i l l b e l a u n c h e d i n A r a b i c i n 2 0 1 6 .

W o r k i n g w i t h 5 g o v e r n m e n t p r o j e c t s i n c l u d i n g

S y r i a n R e f u g e e S u p p o r t .

M i c r o s o f t P a r t n e r e d .

A w a r d w i n n i n g s p e a k e r , t o p 1 0 0 l e a d e r s u n d e r

3 0 f e a t u r e d i n H u f f i n g t o n P o s t , E n t r e p r e n e u r ,

A r a b i a n B u s i n e s s .

F o u n d e r T e a c h M e N o w . c o m H i g h l i g h t s

UAE - Leila Ben Gacem• SOUGHA is a social enterprise initiative and launched by Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, aimed at

creating opportunities for unemployable or difficult to employ Emiratis with entrepreneurial potential. • In addition, it seeks to preserve the Emirati heritage through headhunting skilled local crafts men and women all

over the UAE, and then improve their technical and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to seize market opportunities.

• Sougha is the best source for Emirati hand-made products, from local artisans from all over the UAE. At Soughawe work hard to improve the livelihood of the Emirati artisans, to preserve the Emirati heritage on one hand and to improve the socio-economic status of self-employed talented artisans in opportunity deprived locations.

• At Sougha we are very selective and ensure that products are made of suitable raw material and crafted responsibly. All Sougha sales income is returned to artisans, and surplus earned is used to train new artisans by providing tools and raw materials.

UAE - Rama Chakaki• Syrian Rama Chakaki is the

founder of BarakaBits, a “goodnews from Middle East” newssite with a long-term focus onstaying sustainable.

• The site’s content covers anarray of social and cultural topics, raging from musiceducation to gamingdevelopment.

Egypt - Yasmine El-Mehairy• Egyptian Yasmine El-Mehairy found herself frustrated that there was no

online platforms that resonated with many mothers in the Middle East. • So she created the pan-Arab parenting site SuperMama, which offers an

array for information from pregnancy tips to cooking videos. • El-Mehairy made sure that SuperMama is in Arabic and written and

produced by Arabs.

Lebanon- Hind Hobeika• She founded Instabeat, one of

the most promising startups out of the Middle East.

• Based in Lebanon, Instabeatmonitors swimmers’ heart rates.

• She conceived the idea while training for the American University in Beirut’s swimming team.

Egypt- Rana el Kaliouby• Kaliouby founded MIT startup Affectiva in 2011 to help

computers more accurately read facial gestures. • Its applications go far and wide: wearable technology,

advertising, and polling just to name a few.

Lebanon- Loulou Khazen Baz• Having founded the MENA’s first freelance

marketplace to provide a solution for the growing unemployment challenges back in 2012, LoulouKhazen Baz, founder of Nabbesh.com, has now set her eyes on creating virtual jobs for young people in Palestine.

• Partnering with Qatar-based social imitative Silatech, Nabbesh has launched Fursati, meaning ‘my opportunity’, a pilot social programme to connect Gulf-based businesses with qualified Palestinian freelancers.

Palestine- Christina Ganim• Kenz, meaning treasure in Arabic, is

run by women, for women.• Kenz is a a fashion-forward online

lingerie store for the Middle East, ane-commerce startup selling lingerie to women in the region.

Jordan - Rola Fayyad• Rola Fayyad is the founder & CEO of Friendture, an app

that allows you to create and manage your social activities, with family and friends, in one central location.

• She previously co-founded MICEit, an events booking engine for the MENA region, accelerated by Oasis 500.

• In 2014, Rola was selected top 10 innovative startups in the Gulf region, by Hadafi women entrepreneurship competition, and followed to be their ambassador.

• She serves as a founding member for Girls in Tech –Jordan Chapter, which is focused to empower, engage and educate women in the technology sector.

Lebanon - Layal G. Jebran• GM & CEO of Running Cycling Circle, the first bicycle delivery service in Lebanon• Recovering architect and designer, turned Social Entrepreneur, Layal founded her first successful

startup by the name of "Lyl Big Designs" during university years, that connected freelancedesigners to clients, at the moment advising several young entrepreneurs and early stagestartups while co-founding and managing “moubarmij.com” a coding online school in Arabic forfree.

• Started PiC, an NGO which was among the final 20 out of 394 worldwide initiatives, at the HivosSocial Innovation Award in the Netherlands. Nominated for becoming an Ashoka Fellow in theSummer.

• Former Lead of the Projects Management Department at Zoomaal Inc., Crowdfunding Expert in the MENA region. Curator of Startup Weekend Beirut.

Palestine - Lama Mansour• The founders, business

developmentconsultant Lama Mansourand engineer Ismat Tuffaha, are both 22 years old and both Palestinian.

• Bold Knot Is A Top-Up Charger Built By A StartupFrom The West Bank.

Jordan - Afnan Ali• Eureka Tech Talk ignites spark

for tech and entrepreneurship in Jordanian kids.

• Eureka, according to Ali, aims to make learning about tech and innovation a fun and inclusive affair.

Jordan - Ola Doudin• Ola is cofounder of BitOasis, a bitcoin

consumer wallet and instant exchange focused on cash-based emerging markets.

• BitOasis aims to change the way people transact and send money by making it easy and secure to use bitcoin.

• Ola is also co-founder of Yellow, a bitcoin payment processor, and currently serves as an advisor.

Jordan - Sima Najjar Hijjawi• Ekeif.com produces ‘how-to’ videos in Arabic tailored

to the Arab world.– How to teach people to do things in a language that is not their

own? – As a user of the countless Internet ‘how-to’ videos, the majority of

which are in English, Sima Najjar decided to provide the answer –in more ways than one.

– She created Ekeif.com, a video-content website for short, quality presentations in Arabic, keif meaning ‘how’.

Jordan - Eman Hylooz• Abjjad provides an online and mobile social network for readers,

authors and publishers of Arabic literature.• Abjjad – which is the first four letters of the original Arabic alphabet

– is an Arabic literature catalogue available via the Internet and a mobile application.

• The platform allows users to share their favourite publications through reviews and ratings, writers can meet their fan base and publishers have the opportunity to boost their digital marketing.

Layla El Zeyn• Founder of Elymu

• A transformational learning platform, ELYMU promotes its proprietary research-based education frameworks with offline programs and online SaaS tools.

Jordan - Noor El-Fadl• Noor El-Fadl’s website tasmeem

Middle East, is the first online networking site for creative talents in the Middle East, and has been voted best internet startup in the region, by public and expert judges, at the ArabNet 2010 conference held in Beirut from March 25-26.

UAE - Mona Ataya• Mona Ataya is proving to be one of the UAE’s most prominent of women

entrepreneurs. • The co-founder of Bayt.com, arguably the most successful online search

engine for jobs in the Middle East, is now working to disrupt the well-ingrained retail space in the UAE with the goal of assisting mothers with their maternity, infant and childcare product needs.

• Ataya’s latest venture is Mumzworld, a rapidly growing e-commerce website through which customers now have access to a comprehensive catalog of thousands of childcare and maternity-related items from hundreds of world-class brands, ranging from the likes of Baby Einstein to Fisher Price.

Egypt- Rania Badr El Din• Mother-to-be Egypt is a private

organization providing essential, up-to-date information to families throughout Egypt under the brand name Mother & Child.

Lebanon - Rima Al-Sheikh• Rima Al Sheikh is the co-founder and Chief

Technology Officer of the Middle East’s first virtual skills marketplace, Nabbesh.

• She is also the CEO and co-founder of Mokus.io, an online product agency, with a mission to give business the opportunity to build beautiful and high-performing online experiences by deploying the most robust and proven, leading edge technologies in the fields of behaviouralpsychology, customer analytics and web engineering.

Egypt - Yasmin Helal• Through a grass-roots community-based and community-driven model, Educate-

Me serves underprivileged communities with a vision of giving every child the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enables him/her to have the freedom and opportunity to aspire to their dreams.

• She was also a professional basketball player at Gezira club and the Egyptian National team, where her journey included more than 38 medals.

Morocco - Yasmine El Baggari• Yasmine El Baggari has launched Voyaj, an online platform

that serves as the intersection where technology and personal interaction meet.

• Voyaj matches hosts and travelers worldwide to provide meaningful exchanges, opening hearts and minds. The Voyaj mission is to build relationships between like-minded people who believe one-on-one relationships can lead to a more peaceful world. Matches are based on common interests and values, and curiosity about other cultures and locations.

• Voyaj matches travelers and hosts who want to share an authentic experience.

UAE - Iba Masood• Co-founder, Gradberry.com, a web-based careers portal

tailored specifically to their young graduates needs. • What makes it special? ‘We exclusively post internships

and vacancies for students and fresh graduates with zero to two years of experience,’ says Iba, 22, a very recent graduate herself. ‘It saves wasting time applying for “graduate” jobs that actually want people with four or five years of experience.

Palestine - Abeer Abu GhaithBranded Palestine’s first female high-tech entrepreneur.

Staylinked: Interface between Palestinian freelancers and businesses from all over the world that need to outsource certain services.

Within the list of 100 most powerful Arab Women.

Gaza - Mariam Abu ItawiMariam Abu Eatewi’s Wasselni, called

“the Uber of Gaza,” makes it easierto carpool in Palestine byconnecting passengers and drivers through their website and mobileapp.

One of the missions of Wasselni is to provide women with a safe means of transportation.

What about the ecosystem?

A few examples…

Glowork KSA: First female recruitment Gulf

Women VCs: Hala Fadel and Noor Sweid

• With their VC firm Leap Ventures, Hala and Noorare looking to provide some big ticket investments for startups in the ICT sectors, and by default, they are also providing the second.

• Including Sweid and Fadel, there are four femaleVCs in the Middle East. The other twoare Salaam Saadeh of Active-M and Neveen El Tahri who founded Delta Inspire and 138 Pyramids.

• That may not seem like a lot, but comparativelyit’s not bad. In 2014 Fortune magazine found thatjust over four percent of partner-level VCs in theUS were women.

Salwa Katkhuda• Salwa is the Program Manager of TechWadi's Sprint Business Accelerator in Silicon Valley, where

she builds tailor made programs for promising Middle Eastern technology startups looking to grow in the US market.

• Prior to joining Sprint, Salwa was a founding member of Oasis 500, the first seed acceleration and investment program for early stage startups in the MENA. She held the position of Investment Manager at Oasis 500, where she was responsible for recruiting and investing in early stage technology startups. Salwa worked with companies during the acceleration program to reach proof of concept and prepared them for follow on funding from angel investors and venture capital funds.

Salwa has worked with more than 1,500 entrepreneurs, invested in more than 70 startups from across the MENA region and directly helped companies raise more than USD 18M in follow on funding since 2011.

Nina Galbraith Curley –Breakthrough

• Nina Curley is co-lead at Breakthrough, an initiative in partnership with the DubaiBusinesswomen Council, designed to enable the environment and mindsetnecessary for gender balance in business across the Middle East, throughspecialized workshops, masterminds, executive coaching, and events that focuson leadership as well as hard skills such as financial literacy.

• Previously, she ran Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi, an accelerator program for technologystartups focused on digital content and media, and prior to that, she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Wamda, a platform for empowering entrepreneurs, whereshe covered startup news across 19 markets and helped to mentor and supportstartups across the MENA region.

• During that time, she launched Wamda for Women, an initiative to support femalefounders.

• With a background in cognitive neuroscience and decision-making, she ispassionate about enabling a sense of autonomy, purpose, creativity, and sacredness in others to support self-actualization.

The first accelerator in Gaza

Saudi Girls Revolution Game• Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the heroines of SGR are a badass group of

Saudi women who come together in a government enforced camp. Risingout of this brutality the women build and race suped-up motorcycles.

• Their mission; to fight the evil tyrannical rulers of the corrupted ArabianEmpire.

Bahraini Esra’s Al-Shafei is a leading Internet activist in the Middle East

• She requested not to show her face publicly for security reasons due to the Bahraini government’s restrictions on media and political freedoms.

• Now based in Bahrain, she is the founder of Migrant-Rights, which works to improve conditions for domestic workers around the Middle East.

• Al-Shafei also created CrowdVoice.org, a crowdsourcing platform for gathering information on protests.