By Nnamdi Odumody
When the Arab nation is being mentioned in mainstream global media, terrorism, warfare, and other negatives are identified with this race of over 420 million people spanning the continent of Africa and Asia. Yet, the Arabs were people who contributed immensely to global knowledge with Algebra, Sociological Thought and other areas that impacted human civilization.
A couple of startups are rewriting the Arabian narrative from a mineral-dependent people to an Innovation Race. Ahlan Wasalan. Welcome to the future of the Arab world as you read about the following startups.
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Biofire is a Tunisian startup which collects and transforms agroforestry waste into solid biofuels such as wood briquettes, ecofriendly coal and bio char that are efficiently cheap and healthy for cooking and heating needs. Biofire aims to give people access to more affordable energy solutions and save forests that continue to dwindle due to inefficient use of wood fuel.
360 Vuz is a Jordanian startup that helps teleport people in time to events around the world, using their live-360-degree on-demand teleporter video streaming app.
Amal Glass is a device founded by Adel Bosseli and Mohammed Islam, two Emiratis. The device enables the blind and visually impaired to live their lives normally. The glass has more than 20 functions from simple functions like telling the time and weather to more sophisticated ones such as colour detection, GPS location and cool functions like optical card reader in Arabic and English. Plans are on the way to make it accessible in 14 global languages.
Cognitev is an Egyptian AI startup which is focused on marketing and advertising automation. It created the world’s first ‘’traffic as a service’’ platform with a mission to democratize marketing for the world.
Derq is a UAE based startup which spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that wants to eliminate road accidents for conventional and autonomous vehicles using proprietary AI and connected vehicle technology.
Desert Control is an Emirati green and agrotech startup with a patented innovation, Liquid Nanoclay, which increases water retention in the soil by 65 percent and turns desert and dry land into fertile soil. Its mission and vision are respectively ‘’Making The Earth Green Again’’ and ‘’Liquid NanoClay for the Earth’s Welfare’’.
Epilert is a Tunisian startup which has developed a wearable bracelet that detects an epilepsy seizure and sends an alert immediately to the care givers such as family, friends and doctors.
Falcon Viz is a Saudi Arabian spinout from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Jeddah which designs and produces drones for the construction industry. Its services are useful in construction and real estate, topographical surveys, corridor survey, urban planning, etc. Its clients include Saudi Aramco, AECOM, Hyder and Jeddah Municipality.
Fetchr is an Emirati logistics technology company disrupting the traditional logistics sector through the use of smart technology. It wants to redesign the logistics space in the Middle East and Northern African region with next generation technology.
Jo Vision is a Jordanian startup which aims to use global computational power, AI and pathology expertise to redesign the delivery of personalized cancer care by involving stakeholders, including the expertise in cancer diagnosis and management, global communities and patient groups.
Monojo is a biotech company founded by a Jordanian lady Penelope Shihab which develops and sells naturally sourced and technologically advanced products for the health and well being industry. It targets disease conditions which have a large global target market, an unmet patient need, and which can be delivered using non-clinical and commercialization models.
Proximie is a Lebanese augmented reality enabled telesurgery platform founded by Dr Nadine Hachach Haram that connects surgeons in developed countries and those operating under harsh conditions. Proximie is designed by doctors for doctors and aims to transform the delivery and education of healthcare by reducing the cost of that delivery while providing improved quality to the end patient for better outcomes.
Receet is a mobile app developed by Palestinians which provides digital receipts in any business transaction where receipts are needed with Bluetooth and Near Field Communication technology. Using the Receet app, consumers can easily find receipts to make returns and file taxes or fill in the expenses report by searching for the receipt through their smartphones. They can also categorize receipts and will have the ability to upload their data to personal accounting software and business expenses tracking software and apps.
Webville is an Egyptian startup focused on digital content discovery and has built a deep learning system which generates realistic videos that were never shot in real life. Its technology helps content providers shrink their value chain and save lots of costs that are usually associated with the traditional processes of media production.
Whyise is a Jordanian impact analysis software solution that allows organizations to aggregate their data and analyze it for exponential impact as well as map their operations against international frameworks such as the UN SDG’s and comply with frameworks such as IFC ESG(Environment, Social and Governance) standards and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) among others.
Wikaya is a Palestinian digital health platform that helps improve the prevention of chronic diseases using AI & IOT.
Elkrem is an Egyptian startup founded by Amr Saleh and Islam Mostafa which provides hardware and software tools for developers to build blockchain connected IOT products. The software and hardware tools allow anyone with minimal technical background to build internet connected products that accept cryptocurrencies and communicate with different blockchain and decentralized products including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Swarm, Whisper, IPFS, IOTA etc.
Niotek is an Egyptian AI platform which enables implementation of smart factories, smart products and services.
Casky from Morocco is the world’s first blockchain based AI platform which offers users a chance to earn an appreciative asset and income by driving safely via a rewards based system.