TechWadi

Payment solutions are finally catching up to the Mobile era, thanks in large part to the work of two Arab American executives: Sam Shawki, VP of Engineering at Obopay (and guest speaker at our last TechWadi event) and Ramy Mora, VP of Marketing. Their company, Obopay, is one of the leaders in the Mobile payment / money transfer space.

Here’s a quick synopsys of the solution from the Obopay site: (you can also get a full demo here)

“Why use Obopay ? Use any mobile phone to get, send, or spend money. Text message, use your phone’s Internet browser, or download Obopay onto your phone”

If you’re interested in signing up, you can do so here: Obopay Registration

Over time, we at TechWadi might even consider allowing our members to pay for annual memberships and event registrations through Obopay. Watch this space.

Despite the turbulent markets, we are pleased to note that a medical devices company with two key Arab American executives on its staff, was able to IPO a few weeks back. The company trades under the MASI stock ticker on the Nasdaq.

Masimo is a global medical technology company that develops, manufactures and markets non-invasive patient monitoring products that improve patient care. They invented Masimo Signal Extraction Technology, or Masimo SET, which provides the capabilities of Read-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry to address the primary limitations of conventional pulse oximetry.

On the executive team of Masimo are two Arab American executives who were instrumental in the company’s success:

• Ammar Al-Ali -  Executive Vice President, Engineering & Chief Technical Officer
  Ammar Al-Ali has served as Chief Technical Officer since December 1996. He is an inventor on more than 48 patents related to signal processing, sensors and patient monitoring. From April 1995 to December 1996, Mr. Al-Ali held various positions with us, including Director of Software Development. From January 1992 to November 1994, he served as the Director of Research and Development,
  Electronics for Ami-Med Corporation, a medical device company that provides instruments for continuous cardiac output. Mr. Al-Ali holds a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Arizona.
  

•  Mohamed Elmandjra - President, Worldwide OEM Business
  Mohamed is a TechWadi member and the moderator of the first official TechWadi event back in April 2006 !
  Mohamed Elmandjra has served as our President, Worldwide OEM Business since August 2006. From December 2001 to July 2006, he served as Chief Executive Officer of ViOptix, Inc., a medical device company specializing in tissue oximetry. From January 1998 to July 1999, Mr. Elmandjra served as Vice President of Marketing of ADAC Laboratories, a nuclear medicine imaging equipment and
  radiation therapy planning systems company. In July 1999, he was promoted to Senior Vice President and General Manager of ADAC and he served in these positions until December 2000 when ADAC was acquired by Philips Medical Systems, a diagnostic imaging company. Mr. Elmandjra continued his employment with Philips Medical Systems as Senior Vice-President of its International Operations until he joined ViOptix. Mr. Elmandjra holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
  

 Ammar and Mohamed are both examples once again of the success and contributions of Arab American executives to the worldwide technology industry. We are delighted to have them as TechWadi members.

Congratulations to Isam Akkawi and his team at 3Leaf Systems for releasing their first virtualization product and securing a $20M round of funding from Tier 1 investors Intel Capital, Alloy Ventures, Storm Ventures and others.

Isam is co-founder of 3Leaf Systems and Technical Director. Of note, Isam got his BSEE from American Universtiy of Beirut in Lebanon. You can find out more about 3Leaf System and their products here:

•  3LEAF SYSTEMS SETS NEW STANDARD IN VIRTUALIZATION WITH DEBUT OF VIRTUAL I/O SERVER
•  3LEAF SYSTEMS SECURES $20 MILLION IN SERIES B FUNDING

In early Jan. 2007, Cisco announced the $830M (stock and cash) acquisition of IronPort, a startup that builds messaging security appliances. This was a relatively large acquisition for Cisco, post-bubble. We are not surprised to learn that one of the key execs that helped make IronPort a success for its employees and shareholders, is Nawaf Bitar (SVP, Engineering), an Arab American executive with significant experience in the entreprise HW space. More about IronPort can be found at: www.ironport.com

This is not the first startup acquired by Cisco that has Arab Americans as senior execs - we can think of StratumOne back in 1999 for $430M+, and we are probably missing a couple more. The co-founder of StratumOne is TechWadi member, Zino Chair, who is now VP & co-founder of another startup, Cortina Systems.

If someone can help us reach out to Nawaf at Cisco/Ironport, we would love an introduction. Let us know. 

Two of TechWadi’s members have recently joined the team of a pretty exciting mobile payment company in Silicon Valley. The startup is called: Obopay. They bill themselves as “the most comprehensive mobile payment service in the United States”. This type of service is still nascent in the US but is more developed in other regions, such as Asia but more interestingly is being introduced in some basic form in some Arab countries.

You can check out the company at: obopay.

 You can check out Rami and Sam’s bios on the website (nice pictures : - )

Ramy Mora, VP Consumer Marketing

Sam Shawki, VP Customer & Product Operations

Mobile and advertising remain two hot technology sectors. We recently came across an interesting startup that plays in both sectors. Admob was founded by Omar Hamoui in 2006. “AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile Web and publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to target and personalize advertising to their customers in 150 countries”.

The company is backed by Sequoia Capital. You can learn more about them at: www.admob.com

We came across this interesting item today … Karim Tahawi, an Arab-American entrepreneur, just launched his startup “My Currency”. The startup is focused on using “the wisdom of crowds” to come up with valuations for the real estate market. The description from their website states, “My-Currency is a place to collaborate with others. We are focused on housing right now but we will add other areas of interest. Lets us know if there is something you would like to see and we will do our best to make it happen!”.

There’s a good write-up on the company at techcrunch.