Mobile West Africa 2014: wrap-up of Nigeria's largest tech conference
Nigeria was an obvious stop on our world tour of innovation in emerging markets. The country with the biggest population in Africa (and growing by 10m new people every year) has recently been promoted to its largest economy as well, beyond South Africa. It’s also regularly mentionned as the cultural capital of the continent, with […]
Lebanon startups: $400m for the tech scene
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Lebanon startups are amazing when you know the country is a tiny piece of land lost in a quite noisy neighborhood, with Israel and Syria, to name a few, regularly hitting the headlines for war-related topics. Lebanon has an older history of being a pivot between the West and the […]
Hong Kong tech hub: where finance & manufacture turn into startups
Hong Kong is better known for its financial expertise and culture of manufacturing than its startups. However, a generation of bored bankers and veterans of the factories are becoming the first generation of tech entrepreneurs in “Asia’s New York”. What is the position of Hong Kong as an innovation ecosystem? What are the links with […]
Iran startup scene: turning top engineers into businessmen
Iran may not be the first destination you would think of when it comes to startups. Its track record is here: top engineers filling American Ivy League Universities, a series of key founders who made possible eBay, Dropbox, Youtube or Zoosk, and, more recently, a political improvement which make diasporans think of going back to […]
Iran startup Shafajoo helps get rid of fake doctors
During our trip to Iran, we met the founders of Shafajoo.com, a local startup based in Tehran. Shafajoo means “health/cure finder” in Persian and their goal is to improve healthcare access across Iran by providing a user-friendly platform that enables patients to search and book appointments with their preferred healthcare providers in a few simple […]
HOW TO TURN A “LOST GENERATION” OF ENGINEERS IN IRAN INTO AN INNOVATION ASSET
Iran’s Wealth of Untapped Engineering Talent During the trip to Iran, one thing we noticed was the great number of engineers and scientists in the country. There are a few reasons for this. First, Persia has historically been a center for science and has made important contributions to our current understanding of nature, medicine and […]
A demo day in Nairobi, Kenya: local innovation rules
During the Afrikoin conference in Nairobi, we were lucky to attend the Demo Day of the Savannah Fund, a Kenya-based VC betting on startups all over Africa. Since a picture is often worth a thousand words, I’ll leave you to browse this Slideshare documenting the exciting ideas presented at Demo Day. Encouragingly, the startups are all focusing on local needs and […]
IRAN SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ITS PERSIAN DIASPORA TO BECOME A STARTUP NATION
The Story of Persian Diaspora: Immigrants and Emigrants Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, millions of Iranians have migrated to other parts of the Middle East, US, Europe, and other areas around the world. The political crackdown following the 2009 election protests has also accelerated the exodus of Iranians. There is no exact number for […]
BEHIND THE VEIL – IRANIANS HACK THE SYSTEM AND SHOW AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET
An Iranian Impression – True or False? Before coming to Iran, we weren’t sure of what to expect apart from what we had read online and in Lonely Planet. Because of the name of the country itself (the Islamic Republic of Iran), we assumed everyone would be very religious. We also knew that women would have […]
Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2013: How entrepreneurship is fit for Asia's electrifying youth
I’m always a bit wary of politicians’ speeches. After all, this is their profession. This morning, however, in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, I was amazed and enthused after Malaysia PM Najib Razak’s and US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speeches. Together, they launched the 4th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit immediately after the Global Youth Startup where 500 youths gathered to tackle the world’s […]
