Going Global: Palestinian Startups Tackle International Markets
Starting up an enterprise requires commitment, skills, and an innate ability to know what markets are missing and the resourcefulness to fill in those gaps. And while a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem is needed to spur innovation and industry, the lack of funding, mentors, and access to markets, can prove the downfall to a promising startup anywhere in the world.
This struggle is all too real for Palestinian entrepreneurs working to achieve viability in local markets that are severely limited in scope, and unfortunately, mostly closed off from the rest of the world. Despite this, some Palestinian entrepreneurs can seize a one-off opportunity, that takes their startups from local stagnation to international success.
Case in point, Aws Al Nabulsi, a promising Palestinian entrepreneur, had managed to conquer the Palestinian market with his self-founded startup Gamiphy. This Ibtikar portfolio startup offers organizations the opportunity to dive into the world of gamification to enhance their user engagement stats while building customer loyalty. However, Al Nabulsi’s entrepreneurial journey hit an impasse, stay local and risk losing momentum, or take a leap forward and go international. Suffice to say that Al Nabulsi opted for the latter.
When MENACatalyst (MC) partnered with leading local organization Taawon (Welfare Association), and international cooperation agency KOICA (Korean International Cooperation Agency) for a series of global demo events, the aim was to expose local entrepreneurs to international startup ecosystems, acceleration opportunities, to open new markets, and connect with business enablers and investors across the Palestinian diaspora.
To this end, MC organized its first pitch challenge for a transformational opportunity to directly connect with the Palestinian diaspora’s leading business enablers, mentors, and investors. Al Nabulsi seized the opportunity and pitched Gamiphy to considerable success.
Traveling to Santiago, Chile, with MC was the first global step Al Nabulsi took to transform Gamiphy from a small-time local enterprise to an internationally viable startup competing in global markets, through strategic collaborations and partnerships. The journey didn’t end there for Al Nabulsi, as soon after he received the chance of a lifetime to participate in Latin America’s world-class accelerator, Startup Chile, for their 2019 cycle. Throughout the 6-month program, Al Nabulsi not only had unrestricted access to the accelerator’s extensive network of investors, mentors, and global partners from the corporate world but received up to 80k USD in equity-free funding. The result of this experience, career-making partnerships and business deals with leading retail and telecommunications giants in the Latin American region.
Fast on the heels of his success in Latin America, Ibtikar Fund has recently reported that their portfolio company, Gamiphy, has since made significant strides throughout the MENA region, which includes additional business deals with regional conglomerates and banks such as Alghanim Industries in Kuwait, and Emirates NBD in Dubai, to name a few.
The main takeaway for startups from Gamiphy’s impressive leap to international markets, is that when you get the chance to explore international opportunities, and connect with business enablers, investors, and leading corporates, take it and run with it because you don’t know the endless possibilities on the other side. This goes to show that market access, international acceleration opportunities, and diaspora connections are all needed to take local startups to the next level and attract international investors and clients on a global scale.