TechWadi

The next company in our profile series comes to us from Egypt. There have been many companies started in the Arab world to design and maintain websites for clients. eSpace however has moved beyond that to focus on actual software development for the Internet - Web 2.0 in short.

We know that many startups in the TechWadi network are building Web 2.0 services and need help with offshored development services. We hope they will look into the services that eSpace and other similar Arab tech companies have to offer.
 

Company: eSpace for Software Development

Sector: Internet
Country: Egypt
Website: www.espace.com.eg
Contact: Ehab El-Badry

eSpace started when the enthusiastic minds of computer science graduates teamed up with the experience of computer science professors to build a world-class organization that applies and advances technology for the welfare of people and the prosperity of their company. That means that even though technology is our passion, our greatest asset is our people.

We are a software development company based in Egypt and have over seven years experience in software development, specializing in Ruby on Rails, Java, and mobile technologies in general. We have great experience with scaling issues and large-scale web 2.0 applications. Our clients are spread throughout the US and the MENA region, and in the Gulf in specific.  Moreover, we are an agile company, which essentially translates to our belief that our success is entirely based on our clients’ success.

Versatility breeds the dynamic environment in which we work, introducing continuous change, when needed. Just recently, we have started developing our own web 2.0 products, ranging from social networking to Android.

The next company in our series of profiles is from Palestine. Jaffa.Net is another example of a Silicon Valley expat who went back home and founded a technology company. Jaffa.Net develops its own software solutions targeted at the unique needs of the Arab World. They have recently expanded their operations outside of Palestine in countries like Algeria.

Company Profile: Jaffa.Net Computer Systems

Sector: Software
Country: Palestine
Website: www.i-jaffa.net
Contact: Yahya Al-Salqan

 Jaffa.Net Group includes: a software and system integration company, and a Telecommunication company in Palestine established in 1998 putting quality and customer satisfaction as a major objective.

• Jaffa.Net Software portfolio of products include:
• Courts and Case Management solution (Courts.Net) that automates all court and case processes at all kinds of courts.  Courts.Net has been implemented in all the Jordanain and Palestinian Courts.
• Automatic Check Clearing System for commercial banks that makes the bank a Check21 compliant.  The image based check clearing system has been implemented in 70% of the Banking sector in Palestine including the Arab Bank, Bank of Palestine, and Housing Bank to name a few.
• Money Exchange MIS that automates all foriegn currency exchange companies and shops including  the  money transfers.
• School Management and e-Learning Portal, a Web 2.0 for the educational sector.
• Archiving Solution and Document Management System.
• Mobile Billing Solution to utility companies.
• www.weino.com a business directory and portal in both Arabic and English.

Jaffa.Net also owns the Internet Time invention world wide.  The iTime is a unique time for the Internet.

Jaffa.Net Telecommunication provides VoIP operation (termination and origination) in Palestine.  In adition, Jaffa.net Telecommunication is providing broadband solutions to homes, enterprises, and individuals.

At the recent Arab Technology Forum, we were presently surprised to see that a few IT companies from Palestine were able to attend the event and share with our attendees their experiences. It is clearly not easy these days to establish or run a technology company in Palestine - yet we have seen many Palestinian technology entrepreneurs do just that. Many of them are actually veterans of Silicon Valley and returned a while back and have been able to tap into the pool of talented Palestinian graduates. It’s that kind of “can do” spirit that TechWadi wants to encourage.

Company Profile:  PhoenixBird Information Technology & Systems Ltd

Sector:  IT Services

Country: Palestine

website: www.phoenixbird.ps

Contact: Yasser Elshantaf

PhoenixBird Information Technology & Systems Ltd is a pioneering system integrator / Turn key solutions provider that was established in Palestine and its part of International PhoenixBird which located in Germany, Canada and United Kingdom.

PhoenixBird, a company with an innovative spirit, was established with the purpose of helping to buildup IT in Palestine. Through the years, the company united experts in the fields of consultation services, management information systems, and communication networks.

PhoenixBird has been providing quality services in the following areas:
ERP application: Consulting, Implementation, Training and Support, Software Development, Consulting & project management, E-business consulting servers such as B2B and B2C, portals, Communication Systems, Help desk services, Security systems, Internet services (Web design, hosting, and domain reservation).

PhoenixBird is a member of:
Palestinian Chamber of Commerce, Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA), Arab British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), and Junior Chamber International (JCI)

The next company in our profile series is a Lebanese technology startup focusing on the banking industry. With the rapid spread of enterprise IT in the Arab World, especially in the GCC, native Arab technology companies are finding that there is a growing regional market for their products & services. The banking sector in the Arab World should be an attractive and growing market opportunity for these startups or private companies. This trend should be quite beneficial to the native IT industry in the Arab world, because it offers native companies a chance to get stronger in their backyards, before they start to take on the rest of the world markets.

Unfortunately, there remain two structural impediments that prevent this trend from taking off right away:

• Inadequate funding - Even with a growing market in their backyard, Arab technology startups still find it excrutiantingly difficult to get funded early on.
• Bias against startups - Large IT customers in the Arab World still have a negative bias against Arab / small technology providers and tend to prefer established / large IT providers even with inferior solutions

Time and effort will fix these two  impediments, but time is never on the side of small private companies. Concerted efforts by governments, commercial and educational sectors in the region are needed to remedy these impediments sooner.

Company Profile: Anzima s.a.l.

Sector: Software

Country: Lebanon

website:  www.anzima.com.lb

Contact: Nader Abdallah 

Anzima is a software development company specialized in knowledge management, workflow automation, E-commerce and active websites. We offer customized development services as well as a range of vertical and horizontal products.

Throughout our catering of the customers’ needs and as a result of all the work that has been professionally delivered to our clients, we were able to find a set of applications that are needed in different industry sectors. All packaged applications are multilingual and most are completely arabized.

 We are starting a new feature on the TechWadi website: it’s called Company Profile and the goal is to promote various technology companies (private or public) that are run or founded by Arab executives. These companies can be in any sector of technology (internet, semis, clean tech, medical …).

The goal of these postings is to promote the fact that many in our community are active technology entrepreneurs. Also we want to encourage partnering between these various technology companies. And finally, we want to encourage our members to check out the services/products offered by these companies and consider using them or buying them.

If you know of a technology company headed/run by an Arab/American executive, we encourage to submit a profile of the company here.

Company Profile: Akhtaboot

Sector: Internet

Country: Jordan

website:  www.akhtaboot.com

Akhtaboot, the career network, is a Web 2.0 recruitment site for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Established in 2007, Akhtaboot has developed a unique approach to solving the unemployment and recruitment issues of today’s Arab world. Based in Jordan, Akhtaboot (Arabic for Octopus) is dedicated to matching the right person with the right career opportunity.

 Essentially, Akhtaboot is designed to operate as a community of people who share professional and career interests. Offering web 2.0 functionality, Akhtaboot provides an interactive and dynamic interface for its users. In addition to traditional job postings, it also offers “word of mouth” postings that mimic how people hear about jobs in their daily life. The filtration tools on Akhtaboot are highly advanced and efficient, and the content is locally and culturally relevant.

 Contact: Mohamad Haj-Hasan

You’re probably wondering what this announcement has to do with TechWadi … well, it just happens that the founder of Zingku, a mobile messaging solution provider, is an Arab American technologist by the name of Sami Shalabi.

Sami started Zingku on the East Coast in 2005 and the startup was acquired by Google in Sep. 2007. Sami is now part of Google efforts to target mobile ecommerce and advertising.

What caught our attention about this announcement was that many people do not realize that the most likely “success” scenario for a startup is usually to be acquired by a larger technology company. And it’s not necessarily a bad outcome for founders, management and employees. Sami and the Zingku team will now be able to develop their service/technology using the resources of a much larger company.

This is the type of technology entrepreneurship that TechWadi wants to encourage: Sami left his IBM job, started Zingku, created a technology services and some time later a large technology company acquired them. Our heartfelt congrats to Sami and his team.

 Sami - you have an open invitation to come and speak at our next TechWadi startup boot camp !

You can find out more about Zingku here.  And Sami can be contacted here.

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.