UAE’s state fund Mubadala Investment Company plans to invest $250 million through two funds in technology firms in the Middle East and North Africa, it said on Monday. The funds will be invested in the growing start-up scene in the region while empowering tech talent in the UAE and across the wider region, the company said in a statement.
More recently, at the end of March 2019, ride-hailing service Careem was acquired by Uber, in a $3.1bn transaction that is expected to close in Q1 2020. Careem will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber, operating as an independent company under the Careem brand and led by Careem founders.
Fintech (financial technology) has become the buzzword in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region due to emerging startup ecosystem and is ranked first among all industries by the number of venture investments in both 2018 and so far this year.
According to a MAGNiTT report [...] fintech has received 181 investments worth a total of $237m over five years, accounting for 10% of all venture investment deals across Mena.
Over the summer, with little notice, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree mandating the establishment of the Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence. The decree also ordered the creation of the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and the National Data Management Office. Saudi officials were given a mere 90 days (until the end of November) to make the necessary preparations.
In the YouGov survey of 304 GCC IT decision-makers, 80% ranked customer experience as “very important,” and 16% as “somewhat important.” The GCC’s customer experience push supports business goals: sales and revenue (42%), bottom line (22%), and traffic leads (14%).
“The finding that nearly all GCC organizations surveyed are prioritizing customer experience demonstrates that 2020 is the year when all aspects of customer interaction become critically important for business success"
YouGov analysis shows that incremental innovations by smartphone brands drive media interest but do not seem to be winning consumers over. A majority of UAE residents want a range of smartphone innovations but many don’t think they will see them in the near future, new YouGov research reveals.
When presented with a list of advances in communication technology, the data shows that UAE residents are most interested in seeing the launch of unbreakable screens (69%).
Sub-Saharan Africa has, on average, the worst healthcare in the world, according to the World Bank. It accounts for nearly a quarter of all disability and death caused by disease worldwide, yet has only 1% of global health expenditure and 3% of the world's health workers.
Infrastructure is poor, making access to even the most basic medical care difficult. But new technologies are helping to break down these barriers and provide access to vital medicines for many more people.
Plug and Play, the global tech accelerator that counts Google, PayPal and Dropbox among its investments, has joined forces with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health to establish the Middle East and North Africa region's first health start-up accelerator. Under this programme, the Silicon Valley-headquartered technology accelerator — in partnership with Abu Dhabi Global Market — will select potential health start-ups from around the world and link them with leading healthcare service providers in the UAE.
There is an increase of OT (operational technology) security incidents in the Middle East and the digital transformation drive is going to make it worse as the threat landscape is getting more sophisticated, said an industry expert. Wam Voster, research director for security and risk management at Gartner, told TechRadar Middle East on the sidelines of the Gartner Security & Risk management Summit, that business requirements drive increased connectivity between IT and OT domains.
The Middle East and North Africa region is large and diverse, with a correspondingly complex relationship to changes in technology. Its nations are seeking to harness the potential of blockchain, automated transport and smart cities, grappling with the potential for fintech and online shopping, as well as addressing cybersecurity issues and complicated relationships with VoIP and messaging app providers.
INFOMINEO RESOURCES
A highlight of some of our resources to expand your knowledge on Africa and the Middle East.
Our team was able to gather insights on the overall size of the telecom industry taking into account the number of internet users, fixed line users, and telecom operators. Our findings also included the prices of different internet services and subscriptions including fixed internet connection charge...
Infomineo had findings on the Identified companies including the type of presence in Morocco direct or via a distributor, their financial information, contact information of the CEO (direct e-mail and telephone), as well as additional comments.
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