DGGF supports expansion of young Palestinian start-up across borders
Despite a challenging environment like the Palestinian territories, Laila and Hussein (33) managed to grow their tech start-up ‘RedCrow’ into a successful company that provides risk mitigation solutions to diplomatic missions, non-profit organisations and corporates working in the volatile Middle East. With DGGF’s contribution to the Ibtikar Fund, Laila and Hussein could expand their company rapidly and spread to other countries.
Demonstrating the case for early-stage finance in the Middle East
The Dutch Good Growth Fund’s (DGGF) Seed Capital & Business Development (SC&BD) facility has supported the final close of the Ibtikar Fund, enabling them to demonstrate the case for early-stage finance in the Middle East. Even though the Palestinian ICT sector is gaining more recognition both within the Palestinian Territories and in the rest of the world, entrepreneurs are facing severe difficulties to attract funding. The Ibtikar Fund aims to address the opportunities in this sector by supporting tech and tech-enabled companies that offer innovative, scalable solutions.
RedCrow
RedCrow, founded by Laila Akel and Hussein Nasser Eddin (33), is one of the tech start-ups financed by the Ibtikar Fund. RedCrow provides risk mitigation solutions to diplomatic missions, non-profit organisations and corporates working in the volatile Middle East. It does so by crunching big data from social media and other public sources to come up with security analyses and alerts. Laila explains that they experienced a tough beginning financially: “We had to bootstrap. We didn’t have the funds to grow as fast as we wanted.” With the funding of the Ibtikar Fund, Laila and Hussein could expand their company rapidly and spread to other countries like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. “Ibtikar Fund’s position in funding growing start-ups in Palestine is extremely vital,” according to Laila.
DGGF impact report
Want to know more about the way DGGF is enabling entrepreneurship in frontier markets? Read our new DGGF impact report.