Amman, July 2012 –Oasis500, the MENA region’s premier early stage and seed investment company, held on Sunday 1st July, 2012, its 5thAngel Investor Network Event. As a result of their resounding success, Oasis500’s Angel Investor Network Events have become a leading platform for start-ups to share their projects and pitch for investment opportunities.
The 5thAngel Investor Network Event was attended by a group of local, regional and international investors, Oasis500 partners and mentors, in addition to a number of media representatives. The event showcased the presentations of eight fast-growth and investment-ready entrepreneurial start-ups within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT), digital media and mobile technologies sectors from across the MENA region.
The start-ups included Gallery Al Sharq, a website that sells oriental media services; and Hashdoc, a free sharing platform for professional documents such as templates, samples, presentations, forms and other helpful resources. Also presenting their ideas were Sajilni.com, an event discovery platform and e-ticketing engine for all types of occasions. Also participating in the 5thAngel Investor Network Event were First Bazaar, an online store for handmade fashion, home decor and vintage products; Healing Land, an Arabic portal that provides medical information and services to patients and medical tourists; as well as Koala, which delivers cloud-based business solutions and applications for the pharmaceuticals industry. The start-ups also comprised Madfoo3atCom, an e-payment gateway that connects billers with local banks using multi channels on a real-time online basis; and Shoozat, an online shoe store that provides a wide selection of footwear and accessories at discounted prices.
Commenting on the Company’s 5th Angel Investor Network Event, Dr. Usama Fayyad, Executive Chairman of Oasis500 and former Executive Vice President and Chief Data Officer of Yahoo! Inc. stated, “At Oasis500, we firmly believe in the vital role our Angel Investor Network plays in supporting up-and-coming start-ups across the region by guiding them to secure lucrative investments and overcome challenges they might possibly face. We are proud of the Event’s outstanding success in terms of the quality of showcased start-ups and the significant financial investments they managed to attract. We look forward to holding many more similar events that facilitate the success of these start-ups.”
Oasis500’s 4thAngel Investor Network Event, which was held on 14thDecember, 2011, showcased six promising start-ups including Little Thinking Minds, a multimedia company that offers Arabic educational DVDs, audio CDs, books and flash cards; and Ijazza, a mobile development house and content provider that develops tailored applications for businesses across different sectors. Also presenting ideas at the event were Roznamti, an online social calendar that allows users to share and select events as favorites and synchronize them with personal e-calendars and smartphones; Blueprint, digital and printed content developers that create custom mobile and browser-based applications including audio, video and online editorial content; and Shaweet, an online social media platform targeting soccer fanatics offering them a number of social networking features including sharing news, discussions, match highlights, games and more. Tadreesna, an online tutoring portal with features such as an interactive board, text and voice chat; and Manzil.me, the region’s first pay-for-performance real estate rental portal that provides users with accurate, bi-lingual, up-to-date, interactive and informative property listings in a number of cities across the region, where also amongst those presenting.
Oasis500 is the first development and investment company of its kind in the MENA region. It aims to support entrepreneurs by providing them with funding and training in an effort to accelerate the transformation of business ideas into start-up companies in the ICT, digital media, and mobile technologies and content sectors. Oasis500 aims to facilitate the launch of 500 start-up companies within the next five years, which will create an incentive for aspiring entrepreneurs and generate job opportunities within the world’s fastest growing sectors. Since commencing its operations in September 2010, Oasis500 has successfully secured investments for 49 technology companies, in addition to a number of other investments that were unmatched by any investment fund in the region.