Bayanat Podcast: Inside MENA Tech

In this Founder's Hustle episode, Omar Elghazaly , Co-founder and CFO of MaxAB , shares how he helped build Africa’s largest B2B e-commerce and fintech platform. From starting with a simple WhatsApp group to transforming fragmented supply chains across the continent, Omar unpacks the operational discipline, financial strategy, and long-term vision behind one of Africa’s biggest startup success...

In this Industry Voices episode, Kamyaar Butt ,, Investment Lead for GCC & US at Araya Ventures , shares Araya’s vision for expanding across MENA, what continues to attract the firm to the region, and why founder resilience, ambition, and local context are becoming defining advantages in emerging markets. From cross-border investing and ecosystem maturity to overlooked opportunities in logisti...

In this Industry Voices episode, Osman Sultan , founding CEO of du and Mobinil, takes us across a career at the forefront of telecom, the internet, and now AI. From betting early on mass mobile adoption to rethinking telecom as a layer that “adds life to life,” Osman unpacks the strategic inflection points that shaped the industry. Today, as an AI investor and author exploring the existential ques...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠ Waleed Abdel Shafy , investor at RAED Ventures ⁠, shares his journey from operator to venture capitalist. From leading a retail turnaround and building ventures across healthcare and e-commerce to scaling tech platforms across markets, Waleed unpacks the lessons that shaped his approach to investing. He dives into evaluating founders through an operator’s lens, t...

In this Founder's Hustle episode, ⁠ Dani El Zein ⁠, Co-founder & CEO at ⁠Supy⁠ , takes us inside the journey of building a restaurant intelligence platform from scratch. From his pivot out of investment banking to launching Supy from a real problem he faced as a restaurant owner, Dani shares the unfiltered story behind the company’s near-reset, raising $9.5M with zero revenue, and scaling...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠Issa Aghabi ⁠, Founding Partner at ⁠Access Bridge Ventures ⁠, reflects on two decades in MENA venture capital. From stumbling into the industry before it took off to launching a $35M pre-Series A fund, Issa shares lessons on capital discipline, the realities behind venture returns, and why humility, execution, and long-term relationships matter more than chasing u...

In this episode of Founder’s Hustle, we sat down with Ronaldo Mouchawar , co-founder of Souq.com and one of the architects of the Arab internet. From helping build Maktoob, the region’s first Arabic email platform, to scaling Souq into the Middle East’s largest e-commerce marketplace and leading its landmark acquisition by Amazon, Ronaldo’s journey mirrors how MENA learned to communicate, transact...

In this Industry Voices episode, Ambar Amleh , Founder & Managing Partner of Ibtikar Fund , takes us inside the Palestinian venture ecosystem and what it truly takes to build startups under extraordinary constraints. From launching two early-stage funds out of Palestine to navigating capital raising during war, Ambar unpacks the realities of ecosystem-building, the urgent need for exits, and w...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠Amer Baroudi⁠ , co-founder and CEO of ⁠nsave⁠ , shares how a life shaped by displacement, resilience, and financial exclusion led to one of fintech’s most ambitious missions: building a truly global financial platform for people the system overlooks. From surviving hyperinflation and compliance barriers to democratizing global banking and investing, Amer unpacks...

In this Industry Voices episode, Hani Azzam ⁠, Partner at Propeller , takes us inside the firm’s evolution from a regional B2B SaaS investor to a global early-stage fund backing software infrastructure and AI companies. From the launch of Fund III to identifying MENA founders ready to compete in North America, Hani unpacks Propeller’s investment thesis, portfolio strategy, and why developer toolin...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠Bilal Dahlab ⁠, co-founder of ⁠Moneco⁠ , takes us inside one of Africa’s most overlooked yet defining challenges: building the financial rails the continent was never given. From the maze of cross-border payments to the barriers that shut Africans out of global commerce, Bilal breaks down how a simple pain point turned into a decade-long mission to rebuild the in...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠ Youssef Salem⁠ , CFO at ⁠ADNOC Drilling , takes us inside the engines powering today’s capital markets. From leading Swvl’ s historic Nasdaq listing to steering billion-dollar M&A, scaling AI ventures, and driving liquidity at one of the region’s most valuable companies, Youssef breaks down what it really takes to build, finance, and scale in MENA. He opens u...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Ahmed Khairy ⁠, Co-founder and CEO of ⁠ Gameball⁠ , takes us behind the scenes of one of MENA’s fastest-growing customer engagement platforms ; from a simple Shopify widget to powering enterprise-grade loyalty for 45,000+ businesses and reaching over 400 million end consumers. To stay up to date with more stories like this, subscribe to our ⁠Newsletter⁠ . An AI-...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠ Ola Aly El Din ⁠, Vezeeta ’s first COO, takes us inside the journey of transforming MENA’s largest healthtech platform. From her early days in Cairo’s community pharmacies to leading cross-country expansions, digitizing pharmaceutical workflows, and launching Shamel , Vezeeta’s subscription-based healthcare platform, Ola shares the operational rigor, strategic vi...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Rodolph Khlat ⁠, founder and managing partner of ⁠ Smartr AI ⁠, shares how he built one of MENA’s fastest-growing AI software companies from the ground up. From coding projects during Lebanon’s economic collapse to leading an AI-driven development powerhouse in Dubai, Rodolph takes us through the resilience, reinvention, and relentless experimentation that shape...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Hadi Halabi⁠ , co-founder and CEO of ⁠Stryde⁠ , shares how he’s redefining alternative investments in MENA and beyond. From his transition from M&A banking to building the region’s first regulated private markets platform, Hadi unpacks how Stryde made sports an investable asset class, expanded into venture capital, and is shaping a new era of accessible alte...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠ Tambi Jalouqa ⁠,  Founder and GP at ⁠ Maza Ventures ⁠, shares his journey from founder to funder. From building products in Jordan to backing moonshot startups across MENA, Tambi unpacks why the region needs more VCs, not just bigger ones, and how he’s betting on ambitious founders to turn MENA from tech consumers into global producers. To stay up to date with mo...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Mark Chahwan ⁠, co-founder and CEO of ⁠Sarwa⁠ , opens up about the untold lessons behind building the Middle East’s leading investing platform. From overcoming regulatory hurdles and slow early traction to shifting from robo-advisory to brokerage, Mark shares candid insights on customer validation, fundraising, product pivots, and why founders must learn to trus...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Rawan Baddour ⁠, co-founder of ⁠ Zest Equity⁠ , shares how she’s building the infrastructure powering private markets in MENA. From her roots in banking and strategy to co-founding Zest, Rawan unpacks how the platform evolved from a secondaries marketplace into the “pipes” of private market transactions, streamlining SPVs, compliance, and deal execution across V...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Antoine Kanaan ⁠, co-founder and CEO of ⁠HAQQ⁠ , shares his mission to digitize justice across MENA. From launching Lebanon Law Review during the Beirut revolution to building an AI-powered operating system for law firms, bar associations, and governments, Antoine unpacks how HAQQ is transforming one of the world’s last pen-and-paper industries into a digital-fi...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Shahrukh Ghazali⁠ , co-founder and CEO of ⁠ Aura Finance⁠ , shares how he’s tackling one of MENA’s toughest challenges: SME financing. From early stints at Daraz and Careem to launching Aura with a bold bet on tech, Shahrukh unpacks how automation, partnerships, and fintech DNA are transforming weeks-long bank ordeals into minutes-long digital funding for small...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Vaibhav Kashyap ⁠ and ⁠ Javed Akberali⁠ , co-founders of ⁠Wellx⁠ , share how they’re rebuilding health insurance in MENA. From personal struggles with wellness to industry pushback, they reveal how Wellx is turning insurance into a wellness engine, aligning incentives, rewarding healthy habits, and proving that better living can save lives and money. To stay up...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠Wassim Kari⁠ , co-founders of ⁠ Parallel Health & Beauty Holding ⁠, shares how they turned a series of digital media ventures into one of MENA’s leading beauty and health e-commerce platforms. From navigating Lebanon’s economic collapse and merging multiple startups under a single holding to scaling revenue from $1M to $6M, discover the bold pivots, operation...

In this Industry Voices episode, ⁠David Harte ⁠, Director of Operations at ⁠Stake⁠ , reveals the playbook behind scaling MENA’s leading fractional real estate platform. From automating dividend distribution to expanding into Saudi Arabia, David unpacks the systems, culture, and operational principles driving Stake’s growth. To stay up to date with more stories like this, subscribe to our ⁠Newslett...

In this Founder’s Hustle episode, ⁠ Ayham Ksayer ⁠, founder and CEO of ⁠AlMkhtar⁠ , shares what it’s really like building a startup in Syria’s fragile tech ecosystem. From fighting regulatory hurdles and infrastructure gaps to designing a classifieds platform built for local trust, Ayham opens up about resilience, vision, and why Syria’s founders really need capital and long-term partners. To stay...