Jordanian game publishing platform Tamatem signed a partnership with US company Tapinator, Inc. (TAPM) a designer, developer and publisher of mobile games for the iOS, Google Play, and Amazon platforms.

For Tapinator, this deal opens the door to the Middle East and North Africa’s mobile gaming market, which is expected to more than triple in size in the coming years – from $680 million in 2015 to $2.3 billion in 2022, according to Strategy&.

“Gaming is a key driver in the MENA digital media market and […] is expected to grow from 19 percent to 22 percent of the digital media market from 2014-2019,” said Tapinator CEO, Ilya Nikolayev in a statement. “The rise of the Arab digital generation is giving rise to a surge in demand for localized, culturally relevant digital content including video, social media and, of course, mobile games.”

Why Tamatem?

The startup built some notable successes in the past couple years, clocking a total of 6.5 million downloads in 2014, the year it launched. And has over 15 million downloads today.

20 of the games launched reached top 10 in major Arabic stores. 

InTrivia game Ekhtibar El Ghabaa was downloaded 250,000 times in 14 days and over 500,000 downloads overall on the iOS and Android platforms, ranking it number one in Saudi Arabia.

Tamatem has raised over $1M to date.

After landing their first round of investment of $450,000 in September 2013 from a group of international angel investors and VCs including leap ventures, MI ventures, Funders Club San Francisco, Oasis500 and 500 Startups, Tamatem received its second round from 500startups, Arzan VC and Kima ventures.

These achievements seem to be enough to attract Tapinator, which owns and operates a portfolio of over 150 mobile gaming titles that, collectively, have been downloaded more than 135 million times. A number of these titles have risen to the top of the mobile leaderboard charts and have been featured on the Apple, Google, and Amazon App Stores.

“The Arab mobile game market is underserved. Arabic is the fourth biggest language in the world, yet less than one percent of all mobile gaming content is available in Arabic. While games in English number around 400,000, there are only 250 Arabic games available on the App Store,” said Tamatem CEO Hussam Hammo.

Founded in 2013, Tapinator is headquartered in New York, with product development teams located in Denmark, Pakistan, Indonesia, Canada, and Russia.

Tamatem also has offices in Mountain View, California (in addition to Amman, Jordan) and is backed by 500 Startups and other venture capital firms. The startup is entirely focused on serving the Arabic smartphone users with games tailored for the language and culture of the region.

Tapinator and Tamatem will kick off this partnership via the December 2015 launch of localized versions of Tapinator’s hit mobile games, Cop Duty Simulator 3D and Trucker Parking 3D.

“The region has one of the world’s fastest adoption rates for mobile apps. There are 60 million-plus smartphone users in the Middle East and this number is expected to reach 100 million by 2016. Sixty percent of these users prefer consuming content in Arabic,” Hammo added.

Author: Maya Rahal
Wamda

We’ve had many discussions on Wamda on what makes a game successful in the Arab region. A few months ago, we chatted with two game developers from Saudi Arabia about the elements of a great game. Localization, high quality, great graphics and social status are just some ingredients of a great game.

The social aspect of gaming is a winning point for Jordanian startup Tamatem Games, which recently announced several hit games, a new investment and a new milestone.  

Last time we checked, the startup had 6.5 million downloads but it wasn’t ready to celebrate yet. “No parties yet,” CEO Hussam Hammo said at the time, “we’ll celebrate when we hit 10 million.” Fast forward four months, Tamatem and is now celebrating its well-deserved achievement – 10 million downloads on Android and iOS devices.

New games, new investment, new milestone

In a follow-up call, Hammo was thrilled to share with us the news and an update about the startup’s new releases. Their drifting game Share3 El Mawt (which means street of death) – which targets the GCC countries – became number 1 in Saudi Arabia, “with 250,000 downloads in exactly 14 days”, Hammo said, and hinted that it will become a multiplayer game soon.

Another Tamatem game that went viral is Ekhtibar El Ghabaa (which means the test of stupidity), which was released in three episodes. The trivia game had over 500,000 downloads overall on both platforms. “These games are quick fun games that trigger the mind of the user into making them feel stupid while it’s a smart game,” Hammo said about the game’s popularity. “The first episode was chosen by Apple as the game of the month in February, in multiple Arabic stores.”

After landing their first round of investment of $450,000 in September 2013 from Mena Venture Investments and 500 Startups, Tamatem received its second round from Kuwaiti fund Arzan VC, which has been investing heavily in startups from the region and outside.

Investing in a solid team

A previous interview with Arzan VC revealed that the fund is sector and country agnostic. Having invested in industries like ecommerce and 3D manufacturing, the fund is now executing on this approach with its recent investment in gaming. “So, we took technology in general and not only focused on ecommerce and the 3D industry. We have an opportunistic approach and we will slowly build our niche while we continue to invest,” said Hassan Zainal, managing partner at Arzan VC. In answer to why the fund chose to invest in gaming this time, Zainal said that “Tamatem has a solid and highly motivated team with a clear vision. They are well prepared to become a major player in the regional gaming industry. In addition, they have a strong pipeline of games which will grow the company’s business and audience.” 

Without disclosing the amount, Zainal declared that they co-invested in Tamatem Games with 500 Startups and Kima Ventures to help the startup grow. “We will be connecting Tamatem’s team to industry experts and introducing them to game developers in different regions which can grow their publishing business. We will also monitor their performance closely to ensure they are on track. Finally, we will prepare them for the next funding round.”

Article By Reine Farhat
Wamda

Tamatem Games, a mobile games publisher from Jordan, continues to dominate the Arabic app market with its latest game release “A Dumb Question”, which managed to become the #1 downloaded app in Saudi Arabia in just four days!

“A Dumb Quesion” is an Arabic language game that presents the user with a series of graphical puzzles to solve. This success comes after Tamatem Games managed to reach 2 million downloads in 2 months during last summer. Having produced more than 35 games, the company now has more than 6.5 million downloads in total, and one of its games “Delivery King” was awarded “Best Game of the Year 2014” in the Saudi, Egyptian and Emirati marketsby Apple this December.

CEO Hussam Hammo doesn’t have plans to celebrate just yet, however. In a recent interview with Wamda, the Tamatem Games mastermind told them: “We’ll celebrate when we hit 10 million.”

Have you tried any of Tamatem Games’ apps? Let us know what you think of them in the comments below!

Article By Mustafa Al Hayali
Baraka Bits

After landing two million downloads in two months last summer, Jordan’s Tamatem Games has closed out 2014 with more big numbers: the gaming startup has reached a total of 6.5 million downloads in the year since it launched.

What’s behind the startup’s continuing growth? “This month one of our games [the recently launched A Dumb Question] reached #1 in Saudi and a few other countries in the region,” says CEO Hussam Hammo from London when Wamda caught up with him on Thursday. “A Dumb Question has spurred the increase in downloads to an extent, but all of the games are growing,” says Hammo.

A Dumb Question, released last Thursday, reached #1 in Saudi Arabia, the biggest market for gaming in the region, in just four days, the CEO says (as depicted in the chart to the right). “It climbed the ladder in the fastest way we’ve ever seen.” While the team has spent a limited amount of money on marketing, Hammo mainly attributes the game’s surge in popularity to viral word of mouth as well as the game’s title, which he says makes people want to prove how smart they are to their friends.

The Arabic language game consists of a series of image-based brain teasers, with cute graphics and interactive gameplay (as pictured in the screen grab above; the Arabic reads ‘click on the biggest bird’).

But it’s not just A Dumb Question that’s getting attention. The gaming studio’s titles from last year are also seeing renewed interest, which the CEO attributes to the added functionalities and social tools his expanding team is continuously adding to new versions of the games. Hammo says: “We’re using social networking tools inside the games, allowing people to share their scores and interact with their friends on Facebook, Twitter” and other social networking sites.

Up next for the Jordanian startup, whose team now numbers 13? “We’re now focusing on more complicated, more time consuming games,” Hammo says, in terms of development as well as playing time. “The games from the last few years have been small and easy to deploy; this will be changing soon.”

The CEO is also hoping to spread the word about the promising Jordanian – and regional – gaming scene. In London to speak about the Jordanian gaming ecosystem at the Pocket Gamer Connects conference taking place there Thursday, Hammo says there isn’t a very big regional presence, or, for that matter, knowledge of the gaming renaissance going on in Jordan and the wider region. “[The organizers] told me this morning that this is the first time anyone has spoken about these topics at the conference. So many people look at the MENA as an insignificant market; we want to put it on the map, we want people to believe there’s a huge potential in the Arabic speaking market.”

How will they celebrate the milestone? “No parties yet,” Hammo laughs. “We’ll celebrate when we hit 10 million.”

Article By Stephanie d’Arc Taylor
Wamda

The runaway success of a mobile game featuring a food delivery guy racing around the potholed streets of Amman recently helped Jordanian games publisher Tamatem to hit the six million download mark.

Tamatem said its King of Delivery game, which was produced in collaboration with the Kharabeesh animation studio, has been downloaded more than 1 million times since its release over the summer. “This game has been a huge success thanks to its local aspect and the way it plays with some Jordanian stereotypes,” said Hussam Hammo, founder and CEO of Tamatem.

With a 35-game portfolio running both on Android and iOS mobile platforms, Tamatem has swiftly become a flagship company in the Middle East gaming sector, topping 40,000 downloads a day and raking in investments worth $500,000 from both regional and US investors. Tamatem backers include Kai Huang, the co-creator of the billion-dollar Guitar Hero franchise.

Tamatem has 12 employees spanning content developers and web designers, to marketing and business development strategists, the latter based in the company’s office in the Silicon Valley. “We are not only a gaming company but also a publisher,” Hammo said. “I want to help other gaming studios in the region to acquire more visibility. I will advise them on how to improve their products and then launch them, investing in marketing channels and creating a base of connected users by taking advantage of Tamatem’s six million users.”

Having already secured new rounds of investments for this year, discussions on future deals with companies from China, the United States, and Europe are also underway, with the Jordanian startup ready to launch five games in the Arab market throughout the year.

“We would like to expand in the U.S. by bringing more American games to this region, translating and customizing them for this market, and we are also thinking of breaking into the Arab world by opening an office in Dubai,” Hammo said.

Article By Reine Farhat
Wamda

Amman-based games publisher Tamatem announced last week that they had hit 4 million downloads. When Wamda spoke to them this week that number had increased to 4.5 million. Back in June their total downloads stood at 2.7 million. That’s nearly 2 million in 2 months.

Wamda asked CEO Hussam Hammo and Publishing Manager Ala Dawod what their secret was to increasing their numbers so rapidly. 

Timing

“Ramadan was a great month for us and it is where we saw the biggest leap in our numbers. When we officially launched in January 2014 we were getting between 1,000 and 2,000 downloads a day, now we’re seeing up to 40,000. We launched three new games during Ramadan: ‘Delivery King’, ‘Islamic Knowledge’, and ‘Captain Tamatem’. They obviously stood out as most other games we saw were Islamic or Ramadan orientated. This was always an intention of ours, especially as we had read an article on Wamda talking about the benefits for the gaming sector during this period.”

Viral exposure

“We have, until now, not paid for any advertising is marketing; all of the traffic to our apps has been organic, through word of mouth, social media, trending charts, and other automated services on Google and iTunes. People started writing about us and reviewing us. A couple of our games have been featured on Apple’s iTunes store and this made a huge difference to our numbers. We were on there for a few months, including the month of Ramadan and this immediately not only exposed us to more people but instilled trust in the consumers.

“Arabic users usually don’t trust games that are in Arabic, often because anything associated with Arabic games are assumed to be of a lower quality… we strive to provide the perfect Arabic language [game]. Also, over the last month several of our games went viral. One of these was ‘Delivery King’, which was a collaboration with Jordanian animation studio Kharabeesh.”

The games themselves

“We have probably one of the most experienced teams, in this field, in Jordan. Our founding members created Wizards Productions back in 2009, we have staff that were formerly at Yahoo! Games. The whole team has a very good understanding of the industry and therefore has developed excellent judgment concerning what will work and what won’t. Also our games are improving all of the time. We’re improving the user experience, our monetization strategy, the plugins that we add, all of our content is improving. Our use of the Arabic language in the games also, for example the way [certain letters like the alif and hamza are] written, these are the small details that we believe give us an edge on the competition.”

Author: Lucy Knight
Wamda

Some of the Middle East’s fastest growing companies visited the United States in search of advice and inspiration.

Some of the fastest growing companies from across the Middle East and North Africa are headed home with rekindled ambition and fattened address books after meeting some of the biggest names in US tech.

Nineteen companies participated last week in what is being described as the first-ever immersion program designed to bridge the Arab World and Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs got to visit some of the world’s top tech firms, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, and were offered one-on-one opportunities to tap would-be mentors for advice and even seek out potential investors.

The weeklong program was organized by the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Pan Arab chapter and sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives. Building on the Arab startup competitions MITEF has been running across the Middle East for the past eight years, the program aims to give young entrepreneurs the boost they need to take their projects to the next level.

“For the very first time we felt like there are really true innovations that have global outreach, and it’s time for them to get exposure,” Pan Arab chapter Managing Director Joelle Yazbeck told Al-Monitor. “The purpose was to be an eye-opener to Silicon Valley resources and for them to learn how and what they should do to get their stuff go global.”

Participants said they were delighted with the program.

“This week was really efficient in helping us get in touch with key people in Silicon Valley that we couldn’t have been able to connect to on our own,” Lamiaa Bounahmidi, founder and CEO of the Moroccan fair trade Couscous company Looly’s, told Al-Monitor in an email before catching a flight home. “Many interesting and deep discussions lead to rethink for the better some aspects of our businesses. This week was also an opportunity to connect with fellow entrepreneurs from the Arab region and explore synergies and potential partnerships between us.”

Participants ran the gamut, from Jordanian mobile gaming studio Tamatem to Egyptian solar power company Karm Solar. While some are eyeing the regional Middle East market, others have global competition in their DNA.

“Ever since we started the company, we never thought the market is Lebanon or even the Middle East,” Layla El Zein, chief officer for Strategy and Operations at medical device company CardioDiagnostics, told Al-Monitor. “We always thought that we want to innovate for the world.”

Whatever their differences, all the participants share a passion for entrepreneurship.

“There’s a strong sense that technology is a huge tool that can be a key to solving a lot of these societal issues and challenges” in the Middle East, said Nafeesa Syeed, who spoke at the program with her co-author Rahilla Zafar about their recent book “Arab Women Rising,” which profiles entrepreneurs.

And they share a keen understanding that they’re role models for a struggling region.

“They know there’s a huge responsibility on them and they’re passionate about it,” said Yazbeck. “It’s all about entrepreneurship and innovation — and they know it’s the only thing that will save the Middle East.”

It’s not just the contacts with successful Americans; meeting fellow Arab entrepreneurs was just as much part of the enlightening experience.

“After connecting with these people, they just refilled me with energy — just knowing that they are out there, trying as hard as I am,” El Zein said. “And as skilled as they are, as fantastic as they are, I’m sure that our group will be able to grow and support the next generation and I’m sure that, whether it takes five years or 30 years — I don’t care — I’m sure that we’ll be able to achieve something big. So let’s hope that the external factors support us in doing that.”

But talent is hard to find as top students flee to safer shores, and some are already having to make painful choices. CardioDiagnostics launched its software operations in Lebanon, but for the company’s foray into medical hardware, El Zein feels she has no choice but to run operations out of the United States.

“We are in the cardiac field, and it’s a matter of life and death,” she said. “There is a sad reality you have to accommodate, but at the same time I believe that by being successful and saying that you are a Lebanese company by origin and that you still have R&D offices back in Lebanon that are doing a lot of great work, that has a lot of impact. This is how we start breaking stereotypes and changing perspectives. And from the social point of view, this is how we give back to our community — this is how we give the next generation the opportunities that we didn’t get.”

That’s where last week’s event fits in.

“We’re trying to bring some of the work culture, we’re trying to bring some of the hype of Silicon Valley back to Lebanon,” El Zein said.

Fill the room with young, bright entrepreneurs and eventually the conversation turns to politics. El Zein said she urged her fellow entrepreneurs to lobby for changes to the region’s sclerotic education system and poor management.

“My personal opinion is that we can do more, because when you are a powerful coalition … you can always use this power to put pressure on your government,” she said. “And I would like to see this happening sometime soon, because we need to … push better legislation and laws in our countries when it comes to education, and other economic issues.”

She said the weeklong immersion has already enabled her to set up interviews with Apple’s health division and Samsung ventures, as well as with a leading manufacturer of wearable devices that makes products such as Fitbit fitness trackers. And she’s met great entrepreneurs she hopes can become long-term mentors for her fledgling company.

“This is just the beginning. The vision is to really have a bridge between the two regions, so anyone coming from the Middle East know they have a contact person they can talk to and ask questions to and rely on if they really need connections,” said Yazbeck. “This is what we really want to achieve on for the long-term.”

Yazbeck said the Pan Arab chapter is already preparing for its next summit, in January.

El Zein for one is keeping her fingers crossed the program will thrive. She said one of the American participants told the group to keep in mind that the United States needs young Arabs’ energy and innovation just as much as they need Silicon Valley’s connections and experience.

“I think the benefit is really mutual,” El Zein said. “This program is done in the name of the Middle East, but I think it’s important just for the world. Because there is a lot of potential and talent in the Middle East that is oppressed.”

Article By Julian Pecquet
Al Moniter

The sixth group of startups from the 500 Startup Accelerator program will be making its debut today in Mountain View, Calif. — and then going on to do demo days in San Francisco and New York City as well. Can’t make it yourself, or can’t wait until 500 Startups comes to your town? You can check out the live stream above, which will be going for the next few hours.

While we’ve gotten some idea of what these startups do, today is their time to shine, as they pitch their products and services to investors at the Demo Day. We’ll be live from the scene, writing up the most interesting companies we see here. In the meantime, tune in to the stream yourself if you want to see what they’ve been up to.

And here are the startups:

Mayvenn

This startup is seeking to boost the amount of money that can be made by African-American hair stylists by helping them to take advantage of the incredibly lucrative hair extension business. That demographic spends $6 billion on hair extensions, outspending every other demo by 3-1. Mayvenn gives every stylist their own e-commerce-enabled website and connects them with supplies that otherwise would be sold at a beauty supply store, helping stylists to make more money.

POPAPP

POPAPP is the “quickest, easiest way to prototype your mobile app,” enabling users to convert a pen and paper sketch of an idea into an interactive prototype. Since POPAPP launched in November, they say they’ve had 70,000 users. The company makes money on a subscription basis, offering two free trials and then monthly fees for individuals and businesses.

Sverve

The company is an influencer marketplace to “make online word of mouth marketing viable.” The secret sauce is a deep database of influencers and a platform to match businesses and PR firms with them. Also tools to pay influencers and track campaigns. The influencers have a cumulative reach of a billion page views, and the startup has more than 350 businesses and PR firms using the platform already.

Floqq

Floqq aims to change online education in Latin America. You can watch instructional videos on any skill from cooking to finance. “None of them know shit about how to sell in Latin America, because we are different!” one of the founders exclaimed about Floqq’s online video competitors, explaining that Floqq uses different payment methods by country based on residents’ preferences.

BOXC

This startup wants to help online retailers in China to sell directly to U.S. customers. There are 2 million Chinese sellers in the market, selling to more than 100 million U.S. consumers, but shipping is typically slow and returns are close to impossible. That means that even at low prices, sellers aren’t making very much money. BOXC helps speed up shipping to 3-5 days without having to keep inventory in the U.S.

Koemei

Koemei makes educational videos searchable and collaborative. The company uses its technology to convert learning videos into text and makes them searchable. Students can have access to the automatically generated text of lectures after classes, and can take notes, share thoughts with classmates, link videos together, and organize their content in one place. Koemei has three major contracts, including from the City University of New York, and so far has six-figure revenues.

AppSocially

The company helps app developers acquire customers through peer referrals, which work best for mobile app conversion. You can use the product with just one line of code, optimize code through A/B testing and increase click-through rates. It operates on a freemium model, with free metrics and customers only paying when they take action and use A/B testing or other premium features.

TR Data

TR Data is the “Bloomberg for emerging markets.” The company has more than 100 companies using them already to make informed trading decisions, as it claims poor coverage of data in emerging markets is costing companies billions in trades.

Credii

Credii is trying to help businesses make smart decisions about the products and services they use. It asks them a series of smart questions about what they need and makes instant recommendations of products and services that fit those needs. It can help them pick and customize products to save them money. It makes money through premium support to customers and highly qualified leads for vendors.

Tamatem

This company is based on the idea that less than 1 percent of online content in app stores is accessible to Arabic users, even though Arabic is the 4th largest language in the world. Tamatem takes popular game app in the U.S. market and converts them into Arabic equivalents that its audience can understand. In one month, Tamatem’s first game saw 650,000 downloads.

Flyer

Flyer is disrupting the way commercial real estate is marketed. It lets brokers drag and drop information into the browser right on their website to build a flyer. Once that’s done they can export to print and PDF, and push everything to social media with one click. It also brings analytics to the market.

Schooladmissions

Schooladmissions was started to simplify the school application process in India. Students can manage the entire process online by using a school-matching engine, admission alerts, networking with other parents and multiple submissions in one click. The website charges schools and parents for membership and listings, as well as for the schools their students are admitted to.

Geekatoo

This company is creating a peer-to-peer marketplace for geeks to provide tech support direct to users, rather than through storefronts like Best Buy. That means it’s cheaper for the customer, and they don’t have to give up their computers. Geekatoo has 3,000 geeks around the country who are certified to provide support. It takes a 35 percent cut of the transaction for connecting customers with tech support providers.

InstaGIS

InstaGIS is a global real-time data platform designed to provide insights and data for marketing campaigns. With a monthly subscription, marketing managers can see where certain demographics are concentrated and discover new insights about different locations. InstaGIS provides this information through government data, social networks and private sources.

WHILL

This hardware hopes to provide the next generation of wheelchair mobility, with a new chair designed to look good and be ultra-functional. One big selling point is a front wheel made up of 24 different wheels to provide full mobility. Really has to be seen to be believed.

Binpress

Binpress is trying to be the “marketplace for commercial open source,” providing monetization tools for those working on open-source projects. It’s a marketplace, connecting developers with potential customers. As such, it takes a 30 percent commission on all sales that happen on its platform.

Reesio

This startup provides up-to-date real estate data through a transaction management platform for customers and agents. According to Reesio, information from publicly traded companies such as Zillow and Trulia can range from two days to two weeks old. Reesio will show transactions from users as they happen, including offers, contract signing, sharing information and more.

Dakwak

Dakwak is a translation and globalization platform for websites. Today, only 27 percent of the Internet population understands English, which means you can reach an additional 1.5 billion customers translating and localizing your website content. Dakwak allows you to control the translation, whether it’s low-priced machine translation or high-quality human translation. The website translation industry is a $3.3 billion business and growing, and Dakwak wants to be a big part of it.

Pinmypet

This compact device will help pet owners keep track of pets with GPS and monitor their physical activities. The U.S. and Brazil are the largest pet markets in the world, with over 200 billion pets combined. Pinmypet attaches to your pet and gives a real-time location, as well as a record of sleeping and exercising habits.

Seat 14A

Seat 14A seeks to simplify men’s fashion by sending customers one email a week. In that email they’ll find one complete outfit, and if they like it they can buy it. All clothes are made to order, so the startup holds no inventory. And since they control the entire supply chain, they can provide options that are cheaper and higher quality. That also means that they’re profitable on every sale, with 50 percent margins on a $150 sale.

Dropifi

Dropifi helps small businesses convert online visitors to customers with a SaaS platform. The application lets businesses see a client’s information and feedback through a profile, as well as collaborate in real-time with the client. After nine months, Dropifi has 7,100 businesses signed up for its service.

Tushky

This company is a marketplace for real-world leisure activities, currently operating in India. It’s looking to connect 300 million Indians with local things going on nearby, not just attractions for tourists. It also allows users to book activities on the platform, and share them with friends.

NativeAD

NativeAD is a new method reaching audiences meant to replace display advertising, since 99.9 percent of audiences don’t click on online ads. The company manages branded content for publishers including Yahoo, MSN, The Huffington Post and Terra.

Tastespace

Tastespace is helping restaurants in Latin America make sales and take orders online. It provides manages restaurant websites, mobile apps, and presence on Facebook through a single platform. Already it’s generated $2 million in sales, and has an order placed on its platform every three minutes. It’s in three of the top five countries in Latin America, and expects to reach 15,000 restaurants in half the time it took GrubHub to reach that number.

PriceBaba

PriceBaba is a platform for mobile phone shopping in India. Most retailers don’t have a point-of-sale system, so PriceBaba compiles prices and inventory to allow customers to see what is available near them, and for what price. The platform also provides mobile phone sellers with relevant and measurable leads with its data.

Unda

This startup wants to provide an alternative to today’s text messages, with video, because “life is bigger than texting.” You can instantly send quick video messages to anyone in your contact list, and when done can start sending another. All videos are stored in the cloud, so they’re always available to users. The company is pushing 1,000 video messages per day already, off of 12,000 downloads.

GreenGar

GreenGar created Whiteboard, a collaborative drawing app with more than 8 million downloads. About to hit $1 million in revenue, Whiteboard connects mobile devices globally through a freemium model. You can synchronize presentations and communicate visually with other users.

KiteReaders

This company is going after the children’s book industry, helping to take it digital. It has a software platform for transforming books into digital titles, and distributing them across multiple formats and multiple storefronts, and is using its own brand and links to cross-promote titles.

Feast

Feast provides a simple platform for beginners learning how to cook. Users receive daily emails with basic lessons on cooking and can collaborate with other students online. More than 40 percent of Feast’s users are opening an online lesson every single day.

Article By Ryan Lawler, Billy Gallagher, Stephanie Yang
Tech Crunch

In an effort to keep their gaming startup, Wizards Productions, afloat, founders Hussam Hammo and Sohaib Thiab pivoted into mobile, hoping to be able to build games quickly, and take a more agile approach.

At the time, Thiab spoke openly about the startup’s failure to secure further investment and its other myriad challenges. Now, the team is back with a vengeance, following investment from 500 Startups in Silicon Valley. Hammo, assisted by previous cofounder Thiab, recently launched a new startup, Tamatem, this past March, to focus on mobile games and hopefully build the next Arabic hit.

Tamatem is not the first Jordanian company to secure investment from 500 startups, a vehicle led by Dave McClure; 500 Startups also invested in popular local reviews site Jeeran last year, and, following Mix N’ Mentor Amman last November, Tamatem and online translation services startup Dakwak as well.

500 Startups offers each of their companies $50,000 in funding and three months of incubation for 5% equity, which Hammo notes is a lower percentage than that taken by many incubators in the Arab world.

Hammo previously worked with Thiab ever since they developed Faye3.com, one of the first Arabic social networks, which they sold to Maktoob in 2006, after building a community of over 1 million active users in just 18 months.

In 2008, they left Maktoob to start their own gaming studio, Wizards Productions, through which they developed popular social games Arabian Hitman and Arabic Mafia, among 12 other titles. Their last game, Aqua Jam, marked their pivot into mobile. But even after the founders closed Wizards in December 2012, Hammo wanted to find a way to continue innovating as an entrepreneur.

“We had an opportunity to find jobs at another company with the connections we had at the time,” says Hammo, “but I couldn’t put myself in a situation where I am no longer an entrepreneur, even though it is really, really tough.”

A new focus on mobile

Now, the team is hoping to tackle the Arabic mobile market with a new game, Stars Quiz. Although the team’s expertise is in social games, the mobile market is “less saturated,” Hammo says.

“In 2008 Travian dominated web games, in 2011 Peak Games dominated the Facebook games space, and we strongly believe that the market now needs someone to dominate the Arabic app stores. It should be coming from an Arabic company, rather than another company just trying to translate,” he says.

Stars Quiz, which came out just this week, is a simple identification game in which players compete against their friends to correctly name the faces of famous celebrities, singers, and public figures from across the Arab world. It’s currently available on Android and should launch for iOS in the coming days. A second game, ‘4 Pictures, 1 Answer’, will launch on iOS this month as well.

These games are designed to be crowd pleasers, but I’m not sure they have the staying power to be truly viral hits. Pop culture references keep Stars Quiz interesting and maybe even attractive for some, but in the long run, the gameplay looks like it may be a little too simple to compete with the likes of Words with Friends or Draw Something.

Hopefully as they continue to iterate, Tamatem will hit upon a solid title that’s simple enough to go viral but just complex enough to keep users coming back for more.

Taking advantage of Silicon Valley and Jordan

Following a model that more than a few startups in the Arab world have followed, Tamatem’s front office will be in Silicon Valley at 500 Startups, while its back office and developers will be in Jordan; a designer will work from Tunisia. “You can find great quality engineers and designers in Jordan that don’t require a lot of resources to train,” says Hammo.

Interestingly, after moving to Silicon Valley, Hammo is even prouder of Jordan’s entrepreneurs. “In Silicon Valley, you can sit with someone who created the most successful company in the world,” he says. “But the ideas I’ve seen here are actually not better than the ones I’ve seen in Jordan. I’ve seen companies and ideas in Jordan that are so much better, and the entrepreneurs are so much better too.”

But borrowing a bit of the Silicon Valley mindset could help entrepreneurs in Jordan, he thinks. “Entrepreneurs in Jordan often only keep their eyes on the Jordanian market, but it’s too small; they should focus on the Arabic or international market.”

“People in Jordan don’t embrace failure as a good thing,” he adds. “they just want to ensure it won’t happen again, instead of learning from their mistakes. This is the difference in mentality that I’m seeing here [in Silicon Valley], where it’s rare to see entrepreneurs successful on the first try.”

As they end their incubation period and begin scaling on their own, hopefully Tamatem can put their lessons into play. We look forward to their second release coming soon on iOS.

Author: Glen Dalakian II
Wamda