Digital Boom

Category: Startups

  • A15 doubles down on Intouch.com investment to redefine retail experiences for MENA shoppers

    A15 doubles down on Intouch.com investment to redefine retail experiences for MENA shoppers

    The leading tech investor A15 has capitalized on its investment in Ireland-based retail personalization platform Intouch by doubling down on its initial investment into the AI-driven company. This comes after A15 had previously invested in Intouch in addition to providing in-kind services.

    Intouch has developed an AI-driven personalisation platform for grocery, convenience and petrol retailers to recommend products in real-time in physical retail stores. The award-winning platform enables retailers to influence shoppers buying decisions through automated recommendations that increase sales and drive loyalty.

    Intouch’s technology is used by tier one retailers like Circle K, integrated with the world leader in self-scanning software providers like Re-vision, and co-sold by software giant Microsoft. It prides itself on developing market-leading IP that turns physical stores into data-driven knowledge hubs. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in El Gouna, Egypt and Toronto, Canada.

    Intouch allows brick-and-mortar stores to collect in-store data about its customers using artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize customer interactions and operations. The tool helps retailers with physical stores personalize the shopping experience and better connect their customers to appropriate products.

    “The investment from A15 will strengthen our deep ties with the region and our commitment to serve the region with state-of-the-art technology to push the retail experiences for shoppers to the next level,” CEO of Intouch Sameh Abdalla says. “The Middle East is vitally important to us with several pilots for the largest players in the region going live within the last year.”

    In the Middle East specifically, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the grocery market registered +11%, while globally the percentage stands at -2%, based on McKinsey statistics. According to professional services company Accenture, 75% of consumers prefer to buy products from retailers that personalize their offering.

    However, retail CEOs struggle with finding the right talent to bring AI and data-driven solutions to its customers. Hence, Intouch – with the support of A15 – is dedicated to build solutions that leverage best practices from abroad that work for the Middle Eastern market in particular.

    According to A15, Egypt’s retail food sector is estimated to be $24.7 billion as of 2018; the market is expected to grow by 15%-20% by 2023.

    “By that time, incomes will recover and purchasing power will increase after the government’s economic reform program, which was implemented in 2016. In so, the Egyptian retail foods sector is a ripe space for Intouch’s technology as modern retail food outlets collectively operate 1,500 outlets, representing 20% of the total sector sales,” CEO of A15 Fadi Antaki explains.

    He adds that A15’s regional offices and networks will pose as a launchpad for Intouch in MENA to boost its traction and client base in key markets as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

    Intouch deploys an in-store personalization platform that automatically understands and responds to hyper-local individual contexts. In Layman’s terms, grocery, convenience and petrol retailers spend a lot of money to print promotional materials. However, 91% of in-store promotion spend never reaches its target audience, according to Bain and Company. This happens because the promotion channels pre-determine content regardless of context, such as the weather outside, the customers’ demographics or nearby social events, making the promotional content distant and out-of-touch with timely customer needs.

    Intouch’s technology is used by tier one retailers like Circle K, integrated with the world leader in self-scanning software providers like Re-vision, and co-sold by software giant Microsoft. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in El Gouna, Egypt and Toronto, Canada.

  • RiseUp selects 15 regional startup finalists for ‘Pitch by the Pyramids’

    RiseUp selects 15 regional startup finalists for ‘Pitch by the Pyramids’

    RiseUp has completed its selection of 15 startups from seven cities across the Middle East and North Africa to pitch at Egypt’s first multi-stage, regional startup pitch competition, “Pitch by the Pyramids.

    Amjaad, Makwa, PaySky, and PayNas won RiseUp’s Cairo qualifier on November 8th, 2019, and will join the remaining cohort for the final pitch event at the Great Pyramids of Giza on the 8th of December, aligning with RiseUp Summit 2019.

    “Bringing all these startups to the Great Pyramids of Giza has been a dream of ours since we started RiseUp,” CEO of RiseUp Abdelhameed Sharara says. “The Pitch by the Pyramids program is not only a MENA-wide pitch competition for early-stage startups, but also a value-driven experience for participating entrepreneurs.”

    Regional partners from each of the startup ecosystem hubs – Cogite Coworking space in Tunis, Wamda in Dubai, Social N’ Tech in Amman and Ramallah, The Space in Riyadh and Startup Grind Beirut – organized local qualifier events for selected startups to compete, selecting the best, most innovative startups to proceed to the final event at the Pyramids.

    “We’re really excited to participate in Pitch By The Pyramids in Egypt and gain exposure to the investors in the community,” said Hamdi Tabaa, CEO of Abwaab. “I think the Amman qualifier event was really beneficial and I’d recommend every early-stage startup to take part in the Pitch by the Pyramids programnext year.”

    The finalists will pitch to a hand-picked audience of over 500 attendees, including local and regional Venture Capitalists and investors, as well as an extensive media presence that guarantees wide regional exposure for the up-and-coming businesses.

    Finalist startups are assigned a relevant expert mentor with experience in their industry to support their development throughout the competition, leading up to the final event in Cairo on December 8th, 2019.

    In addition to the event’s competitive element, Pitch by the Pyramids will also feature a prominent keynote speaker and an entertainment program aimed at celebrating the region’s thriving start-up ecosystem.

  • Efficient Marketing Tools to Create Viral Campaigns Rapidly

    Efficient Marketing Tools to Create Viral Campaigns Rapidly

    Marketing has always been a subtle companion of trade and e-commerce. It started with word of mouth and later grew into an entire industry with its own methods, techniques, and tricks. With the emergence of social media marketing, the role of marketing has only increased. It has always been associated with huge investments, but now they have grown even more.

    Since more and more students start their own businesses that are often related to sales of products and services, knowledge of marketing and keeping abreast of its latest tools and techniques are necessary to reach success.

    Such an active business involvement takes over all of the time students have. Thus, they often leave their academic assignments to a custom essay writer they find online, focusing on customer acquisition for their venture. Fortunately, modern marketing tools can help them save even more time.

    Having a desire to learn, young business owners can master several effective marketing tools themselves. It can help them save money while developing a better understanding of how marketing actually works.

    This article is going to shed light on several most successful marketing tools of our time.

    Efficient Marketing Tools to Create Viral Campaigns Rapidly

    Image source: Rhobos IT Solutions

    MailChimp

    Email marketing is almost as old as the Internet. However, it still helps target millions of people to particular products – Marketers should not ignore Email marketing – With a growing number of new tools and techniques, it still ranks high among all other marketing tricks in terms of success.

    MailChimp helps marketers or small business owners create engaging and appealing emails that target the right population of clients, convert visitors into buyers, etc. This tool also helps in planning email sending out, automating as many associated processes as possible.

    Digital Marketing Tuner

    Data is the most valuable asset on Earth right now. If your business does not make use of the customer data it collects, it will surely collapse. Thus, it would help if you had tools like Digital Marketing Tuner to increase the efficiency of data reporting. It can help you get numerical information concerning your marketing campaign to understand whether what you do is right.

    This tool analyzes and optimizes data in a way that makes your business results clear. With such a comprehensive report, you can decide what changes you need to introduce.

    HubSpot

    This tool has outperformed all its competitors in the CRM subfield. If your business is represented online, it is definitely a must-have.

    It helps you order such aspects of online marketing like blogging, SEO, social media, website management, and lead generation. Also, it is indeed an all-in-one marketing software, as it also helps you with landing pages, email marketing, and data reporting.

    Trello

    It is wrong to assume that Trello is merely an organizational tool. It surely is, but it is also about making the most out of content marketing.

    It can help you manage your marketing team 24/7 through task delegation and full transparency guarantee. Every post, content, and idea can be discussed and evaluated by the entire team before it goes live.

    Other similar programs help in organizing teamwork. However, for marketing purposes, Trello is one of the best.

    Wistia

    Every search engine evaluator would say that modern customers demand visuals. Images and GIFs are no longer enough. Thus, you should use video hosting platforms to be able to host video files on your website.

    Wistia is one of those. Apart from playing videos as per the given setups, you can also get detailed analytics on every piece of video material you host through the platform. It really helps one bring marketing to a new level.

    Typeform

    With your business growing, you will definitely feel the need to interact with your customers more. These interactions should be informative to you and interesting to the customers.

    Typeform allows you to create surveys that would be engaging to the audience and valuable to you. One can easily replace a standardized form with a more customer-oriented one to get more answers and feedback. Eye-catching quizzes can help your marketing campaign go viral.

    AdStage

    Managing your advertising campaigns across different platforms can be a challenging task. AdStage helps in monitoring all PPC campaigns by automating and analyzing every step of the way.

    Using this tool, you can also track marketing outcomes and adjust the campaign accordingly. You can also add different engaging features to make advertisements more interesting and informative. In any case, if your business relies on PPC technologies, AdStage is a must.

    Buffer

    Managing and updating social media accounts can take lots of time. However, if you use Buffer, this task becomes much easier.

    This tool allows updating content on multiple social media platforms in a fast and easy way. If your business is present on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, you can use a free plan.

    Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is a universal marketing tool that can help you track the success of all marketing campaigns. You can filter different criteria to see the most relevant analytics.

    Google Analytics helps one stay on track with website traffic and take immediate actions to increase customer acquisition and engagement rates.

    Efficient Marketing Tools to Create Viral Campaigns Rapidly

    Final Words

    Marketing plays an important role in developing and promoting any business operating in B2B, B2C, and C2C formats. Even though it has grown into a single industry with all its complexities, many tools are being created daily to ease marketing planning for business starters.

    They not only help one organize marketing activities but also allow you to save time and effort and dedicate energy to more inspiring and creative tasks.

  • ‘Boost with Facebook’ partners with RiseUp to bring digital skills training to Egyptian startups

    ‘Boost with Facebook’ partners with RiseUp to bring digital skills training to Egyptian startups

    Facebook announced on Tuesday its partnership with RiseUp to bring ‘Boost with Facebook’, its global program designed to help small businesses grow and to equip more people with the digital skills they need to compete in the digital economy.

    Inaugurated by HE Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, the program is set to support Egypt 2030 digital transformation goals.’Boost with Facebook’ aims to train 2,000 SME businesses over a period of six months across Cairo, Upper Egypt and the Delta region.

    In its initial phases, the program will focus on handcrafts including textile and embroidery, food processing, citizen services, healthcare, agriculture, import and export and engineering; all key contributors to the Egyptian economy.

    Within the framework of the program, Facebook professionals will provide “Training of Trainers” (TOT) courses to enable participants to effectively transfer their knowledge and expertise, ensuring that the program’s impact continues to multiply.

    In Egypt, 71% of the people are already connected to at least one small or medium online business, and the number continues to grow every day.

    With 23 million Egyptians using Facebook daily via their mobile, digital marketing and e-commerce skills give businesses an indispensable edge in today’s fast-moving economy.“Sahar Nasr, Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation underscored her ministry’s efforts and commitment to support entrepreneurs and SMEs, as well as all digital transformation projects, noting that the private sector plays a major role in creating jobs for young people and women.

    She invited Facebook and RiseUp to participate in the Investment for Africa Forum 2019, held under the patronage of His Excellency, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, from 22 to 23 November in the New Administrative Capital, which is set to include sessions on entrepreneurs and on investment in human capital”.

    “Egypt is one of the region’s fastest growing e-commerce markets owing to a large and dynamic small and medium business (SMB) and startup ecosystem, which we are very excited to support. We know that when SMBs look to hire, people with digital skills are in highest demand. By preparing the workforce in Egypt with the resources they need to gain these skills, we hope to give businesses the resources they need to grow,” said Ramez Shehadi, Managing Director for MENA at Facebook.“

    Qualifying to become a Facebook partner is a milestone in RiseUp’s journey. Since its inception six years ago RiseUp has been supporting the advancement of entrepreneurs via partnerships with government and corporate organizations,” said Abdel Hameed Sharara, CEO of RiseUp.

    “We’ve successfully built a broad base of trust and reach among young Egyptians, allowing us to roll out ‘Boost with Facebook’, the first training program of its kind in the Middle East and Africa.

    ”As part of its educational offerings to SMBs, Facebook runs its Blueprint e-learning platform for those who want to improve their skills in using digital marketing tools. It contains dozens of free courses – from the simplest ones, explaining the basic principles of creating attractive ads for mobile devices, to more advanced ones, entailing strategic planning and budgeting of advertising campaigns.

  • Amman-based POSRocket Takes Cash Registers to the Cloud

    Amman-based POSRocket Takes Cash Registers to the Cloud

    The global cloud-based market is forecasted to nearly double from US$29.9 billion in 2019 to US$58.9 billion by 2024, driven by a rise in credit card transactions and Point-of-Sale (POS) solutions, which allow consumers to have secure and more convenient contactless payments.

    POSRocket is an Amman-based startup that helps merchants migrate from conventional cash register transactions to a cloud-based POS platform, reducing complex operational costs. In 2016, the startup had a customizable, user-friendly interface that helps businesses regulate inventory, accept payments, and access sales reports and customer data.

    Backed by several investors, including Algebra Ventures, Samih Toukan, Arzan VC, and Jabbar Internet Group, POSRocket’s total funding amounts to US$2.2 million.

    The startup serves over 140 SMEs, including restaurants, retail shops, dry cleaners, and entertainment centers like escape rooms. Currently operating in Jordan and Egypt, POSRocket aspires to continue its regional expansion across MENA.

    Founding Team

    Founder and ‘Chief Executive Astronaut’ — as he likes to be called — Zeidus

    Husban is the type of entrepreneur that launches a rocket and reaches for the stars. Zeid debuted his entrepreneurial journey with iFood, a self-funded food delivery platform.

    Within only a few months of operations, and despite tough contenders in the Jordanian food delivery market, including Eat-Now and Ju3an, iFood generated an annual growth of 200 percent. The rising star attracted investors like Turkish food delivery company, Yemeksepeti, which bought a majority stake in 2013. Fast forward three years, Zeid sold the rest of his shares to global food ordering giant, Delivery Hero.

    Zeid saw how obsolete, complex, and expensive traditional POS systems are while dealing with iFood’s partnering restaurants. “We could not fully automate the process, reduce our overheads, eliminate wrongly handled orders, nor further enhance our customer experience. That’s when we realized that there’s a gap,” he told Entrepreneur.

    Starting his career as a technical support engineer, Zeid worked at Vision Engineering Group. He managed several accounts and generated over US$2 million in sales for over three years.

    When asked about securing funding, Zeid shared tips on effective pitches, which he said should:

    1. Have clear and well-calculated numbers with a sensible valuation and a reasonable ask, and
    2. Show a balance between intellectual property and revenue. However, his third tip is our favorite: “[Have] a great story to tell. It’s got to be; if it ain’t innovative, impactful and inspirational, it simply won’t sell, and certainly will not deliver.”

    We totally echo that!

    The jewel of the Dead Sea surely sprouted some stellar startup potential despite challenges.

  • Jamalon Brings Books Beyond Borders

    Jamalon Brings Books Beyond Borders

    Did you know that Arabic is the fifth most spoken language globally? Doing one for the language is Jamalon, the biggest online bookstore in the MENA region, with over 12 million Arabic and English titles. And it all started with a very wizardly story.

    Founder Ala Alsallal was a computer science undergrad at Philadelphia University in Jordan when he set off to a magical goal: translating the immensely popular Harry Potter books into Arabic. He gathered 50 volunteers, completed the translation, and published it online in 2007. Once out, the Arabic edition generated nearly one million downloads in two weeks. It was truly magical, except he was sued by JK Rowling. Oops!sued by JK Rowling

    Learning about his true power to gather momentum in the Arabic publishing field, Ala took to making Jamalon the leading platform that it is. This March, it raised a Series B round of US $10 million by previous investors Wamda Capital and Aramex, and new investors Anova Investments, 500 Falcons, and Endeavor Catalyst among others. With total funding of US $14.2 million, it is now one of the best-funded startups in Jordan.

    Founding Team

    Ala started Jamalon in 2010 out of his own home with the help of his sisters and mother. He is a Jordanian-born descendent of Palestinian refugees, with his passion for literacy possibly coming from his school teacher’s parents. He studied in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and has always been eager to contribute to Arabic literacy and content.

    “My mission is to create more content in Arabic so people can learn, get connected, and [close] the gap between what we have access to and what the West has access to,” he told Vox.

    The Harry Potter incident has taught Ala about the importance of rigorous logistics and distribution when it comes to the Arabic publishing market. In the very beginnings of Jamalon, he reached out to Fadi Ghandour, founder of the leading express delivery company, Aramex, and chair of Wamda Capital. Soon enough, he became his mentor and connected him to the Aramex delivery system.

    Ala did not stop there. In 2017, he was the first to bring print-on-demand (POD) service to the region, signing an agreement with self-publishing platform, Lulu.com to offer two million new titles to Middle Eastern readers.

    Before Jamalon, Ala was doing his master’s at the Athens Information Technology in Greece with a partial scholarship. He was also working as a Business Intelligence Engineer at the Consolidated Contractors International Company, before returning back to Jordan to work on his startup idea. He also studied Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures at Harvard’s executive program.

    Ala participated in Oasis 500, an incubator in Jordan helping early-stage startups with management and financial advice. Thanks, Ala, we wizard now know where from Jordan to order this week’s title for our Sorcerer Book Club.

  • Silicon Valley’s Tribal Credit Eyes MENA, Closing Round to Bank Startups

    Silicon Valley’s Tribal Credit Eyes MENA, Closing Round to Bank Startups

    Silicon Valley-based Tribal started private beta testing with MENA startups and is closing a funding round that includes some of the top VCs in the region, a source told Digital Boom.

    The fintech, according to its LinkedIn description, promises to help startups in emerging markets overcome local financial barriers, which include difficulty opening bank accounts, issuing corporate credit cards, and restrictions on making cross-border payments.

    Fintech Unicorns: Brex, Divvy, Mercury

    Similar fintechs which provide services to US-based startups have raised staggering funding amounts. Valued at $2.6B, two-year-old startup Brex raised $382.1M from several investors with Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins, DST Global, Ribbit Capital, Greenoaks Capital, and Barclays in the lead.

    Divvy, Valued at $2.6B, also raised $252.5M over three years from lead investors New Enterprise Associates, Insight Partners, and Pelion Venture Partners among others.

    Whereas Series A startup Mercury valued at $100M, secured US $26M in funding this year with Andreessen-Horowitz and CRV as lead investors.

    MENA Startups’ Banking Battles

    This comes at a time when entrepreneurs in MENA are becoming more vocal about financial barriers. “I’m sick and tired of stories about banks in the UAE refusing to open bank accounts for startups because they are too small, newly registered, related to specific industries like e-commerce,” wrote Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO of Fintech Galaxy, in a LinkedIn post.

    “We need to stop this PR machine about supporting SMEs and get real financial inclusion happening,” she added asking banks who would be willing to open a simple current and savings account for a young startup.

    Mirna Sleiman on Linkedin, Silicon Valley’s Tribal Credit Eyes MENA, Closing Round to Bank Startups
    Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO of Fintech Galaxy – on Linkedin

    McKinsey: 200M Financially Excluded SMEs

    A 2018 McKinsey report shows that about 200M small businesses in emerging economies lack access to formal savings and credit.

    In a recent Forbes piece, CEO of Tribal Credit Amr Shady said emerging markets go through so much pain trying to scale, grow and expand. It takes months to open a bank account for startups in emerging markets compared to a few minutes in advanced markets, he wrote.

    “Our aim is to bridge the wide business financial inclusion gap between the two,” says Tribal Credit on its LinkedIn description.

    Who’s behind Tribal Credit?

    The executive team includes Amr Shady, an Endeavor Egypt board member who founded TA Telecom (Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA) and Aingel, backed by 500 Startups, BECO Capital, and Endure Capital. Ex-HSBC Duane Good is President, and founding member of eCapital Financial, MBNA International, and MBNA Canada Bank.

    Bill Crawley is Chief Growth Officer, with ISON Technologies, Bubbe Motion, Net2Phone and IBM on his resume. Chief Strategy Officer, Mohamed Elkasstawi, is a founding partner of the Chicago-based blockchain investment firm, zk Capital. He is a co-investor with Sequoia China, Polychain, USV, Coinbase VC and Pantera. And Chief Compliance Officer, Mark Graves, is ex-Marqeta Inc., SVB Financial Group, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority among others.

  • 6 things you can do to create a better working environment

    6 things you can do to create a better working environment

    A big part of having a successful business is having happy and content employees. And while it’s true you can’t please everyone all of the time, there are definitely things you can put in place that will certainly improve the day to day working life of your employees.

    Creating and providing a good working environment shows that you care about your employees, they aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet or people “on the floor”. They’re on the front line of your business and if they’re feeling underappreciated it will show in their work, and more importantly, it won’t go unnoticed by your customers.

    So, what can you do to create a better working environment? Read on for a little inspiration.

    1. Make their life a little easier

    There’s nothing worse than computers and systems that aren’t fit for purpose. It makes employees frustrated and less likely to work to their full potential. Make sure their equipment is well maintained and up to date and don’t forget that proofreading systems and grammar and spell checking software will go a long way in productivity and efficiency, you can check out Scribbr’s plagiarism checker. If you want your employees to be happy in their work, then give them the tools to do so.

    2. Bring in more natural light

    Artificial light is tiring, intrusive and in some cases, depressing. There’s a scientific link between natural lighting and quality of sleep, so it’s something to bear in mind when you’re creating a better working environment. Let the blinds be open, allow in as much light as possible and encourage your employees to take breaks outside in the fresh air.

    3. A clean, comfy space

    Flickering lights, faulty air-con systems, inadequate heating solutions, bathrooms with bad plumbing and ventilation… all these annoyances might seem minute, but when you’re faced with this environment for up to 10 hours a day, it’s going to get on your nerves. Make sure all these issues are dealt with and try to focus on making a clean and tidy environment that is clutter-free, has plenty of space, ergonomic furniture, and maybe even a few potted plants.

    4. Quiet rooms

    Sometimes to-do lists and tasks can quickly become overwhelming, especially if you’re in a customer-facing role. Providing quiet rooms where your employees can reflect on issues or just gather their thoughts will certainly improve morale. These kinds of areas are particularly beneficial for those who work long hours.

    5. Make sure you’re approachable

    Yes, they’re your employees and they work for you. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to come to your with their issues and problems work-related or not. Having an “open-door” policy creates a level of transparency within the business and shows that you’re approachable and personable. So, always leave your office door open – literally!

    6. Treat your employees

    That huge order they’ve got out on time, or the targets they’ve totally smashed this quarter. Show your appreciation by treating your employees. You could buy them all lunch, or let them leave early on Friday.

  • Career180 raises USD 100,000 seed fund from EdVentures

    Career180 raises USD 100,000 seed fund from EdVentures

    Career180, a centralized and comprehensive career advising platform in Egypt that aims to qualify youth to the job market, has raised a round of investment of $100,000 as seed fund from EdVentures.

    The startup will allocate the fund in further developing their online platform that offers integrated and diversified services in career advising for youth. They also aim at qualifying more young entrants to the labor market by expanding their different career advising workshops across Egypt.

    Career180 was established in 2016, to help university students and fresh graduates to kick-off their careers. The startup provides a wide range of online and offline activities that cater to different career paths.

    With live mentoring and career advising sessions on the website, Career180 is an online hub for students and fresh graduates, as well as career advisors and coaches.

    Not only online, Career180 has offline events such as Egypt Career Summit, career marathons, and different corporate and startup summer internship programs.

    “We constantly aim at empowering youth, and that’s why we are keen to keep collaborating with Career 180 and investing in the startup to help them expand their valuable services. This will enable youth to develop their skills and capabilities to meet the market needs” says Dalia Ibrahim, the founder of EdVentures and the CEO of Nahdet Misr Publishing House.

    Shrouk Alaa and Mohamed Akmal, founders of Career180 add “We have been working with EdVentures over the past period, and we are quite excited about the investment round that will support the expansions we are about to execute, as we will be able to help more students and graduates with their career future.”

    EdVentures invests in startups that are specialized in education, culture and innovative learning solutions in seed and Pre-Series A rounds focusing on Egypt, Africa, and the Arab World.

  • Good People, Kijamii partner to form ‘GP&K’ digital driven network

    Good People, Kijamii partner to form ‘GP&K’ digital driven network

    Good People, the region’s leading creative production house, joined forces with the region’s leading digital agency and 2019’s Independent-Agency-of-the-Year, Kijamii, to form the largest independent (digitally driven) network in the MENA region.

    The newly formed network will hold the name, GP&K, and its companies will operate independently, providing their services to organizations across various sectors as well as agencies around the region.

    Combining Good People’s experience in TV and Film Craft with Kijamii’s digital and social footprint, this union is set to give way to infinite possibilities in creative and production, including solutions and ideas that are empowered by the latest technology and backed by insightful consumer data, which is quickly becoming the industry’s most valuable asset.

    “There is no escaping this in today’s day and age. If you want to survive you have to be digitally-minded, and if you want to be digitally-minded you have to join hands with technology. You need to be mining data and triggering technology with one hand, while writing scripts and drawing-up storyboards with the other,” says Good People’s cofounder Ali Ali.

    “The industry is becoming faster, transparent, more agile, and data driven. The need for digital creative and innovative production is here to stay,” says Kijamii’s co-founder Bassem El Hady.

    Good People is recognised in the industry for pioneering the first creative-led production house in the region with an exclusive roster of directors. Kijamii has succeeded in developing key competencies and capabilities that set it apart from the rest of the market such as becoming a one-stop digital shop, an international player working with the world’s leading companies, multinationals and sports clubs. These strategic relationships have catalyzed KIJAMII’s evolution into a notable global player with world-class standards and processes.

    This union paves the way for independent boutique networks – such as GP&K – to step in and propel the industry forward by bringing together the highly fragmented advertising value chain and leading the way for many other companies to follow.

    “With the rapid transformation in the digital space, it’s not an option but to have the best and most knowledgeable consultants, excellent & efficient production capabilities. And for that we are bringing together our digital knowledge, social creative, tech & media buying capabilities, with their superb creativity & production excellence,” adds Bassem. The GP&K network will become the largest, strongest, youngest independent group of companies in the MEA, to grow and develop local talents and to locally create advertising solutions for global markets.

    “Good People and Kijami complete each other,” adds Ali. “Our digital offering was non existent, their tv and production offering needed an upgrade. More importantly our culture of the-work-comes-first was strikingly similar, and that will continue to be our DNA at GP&K.”

    Good People was founded in 2016 by Ali Ali, Maged Nassar, Pierre Mouarkech and Mido Abouyoussef.

    Ahmed Coucha, Bahy Abo Elezz and Bassem Elhady founded Kijamii in 2011, with their strategic  investor, Karim Bichara .The agency later joined the A15 investment portfolio in order to accelerate its growth strategies.