Lebanese Entrepreneurs Are Coming Home, and Bringing Billions | Fast Forward | OZY
▻http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/lebanese-entrepreneurs-are-coming-home-and-bringing-billions/70407
This new generation of business leaders is, in many cases, imbued with a sense of mission about “fixing” the region. Haddad, now a venture capitalist at Wamda Capital, which is backed by Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, the biggest private equity fund in the Middle East, estimates that 80 percent of the projects he backs are companies tackling regional issues. He helps oversee a $75 million regional fund, launched last year, which has since backed multiple promising tech startups, including United Arab Emirates–based tech support company Geeks; regional Bitcoin wallet and exchange service BitOasis; and Jamalon, the Middle East’s largest online Arabic and English bookstore with more than 9.5 million titles.
For some who have lived outside the country, returning to Lebanon is just smart tax maneuvering. Ahmad Bizri, the founder of Domcontrols, a home automation system that remotely controls and monitors multiple electronic devices, was born and raised in France but moved to Beirut when he realized setting up a company in France would cost him thousands in taxes.
However, all hasn’t gone smoothly when it comes to talent, Bizri says — a bit surprising, given that in 2013, Lebanon was ranked globally as the fifth best country for math and science education, and as the 10th best overall for quality of education by the World Economic Forum’s 2013 Global Information Technology Report. It slipped to 28th place last year, a reflection of the less than 7 percent of public expenditures that went to education. Which makes hiring tough: “Lebanon is a consumer population,” Bizri said. “It’s been hard to find the right electrical production and the right hardware engineers.” As a result, Bizri has spent two years traveling back and forth to France to complete an initial prototype.
So it’s not surprising that only one regional company has reached the coveted “unicorn” status: Souq.com, proudly described as the “Amazon of the Middle East” and valued at $1 billion.
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