Heightened investment in travel tech is breathing life into a largely undisrupted market. For MENA travel startups, the investment is a good omen. The funding from Accel, whose investments include Dropbox and Spotify, shows international acknowledgement of a growing MENA travel market.

Holidayme marks Accel’s first entry into the Middle East, the statement noted. According to an International Air Transport Association (IATA) report, Middle East carriers in 2015 had the strongest annual traffic growth at 10.5 percent. The share of international traffic carried by Middle East airliners reached over 14 percent, higher than their North American counterparts at 13.4 percent, the report noted.

“The region has one of the highest per capita spend in holidays, and is need of a new age platform to meet their requirements. We are very excited to join HolidayMe in this journey towards fulfilling this gap and becoming the platform of choice for online holidays,” said Faisal Al Nassar from F&C Investment. Founded by Bhalla and Digvijay Pratap in 2014, HolidayMe enables travel seekers to design and book holiday packages, hotels, flights and tourist activities for global destinations.

In an interview with Wamda in July, Bhalla said his company acts as the airline’s marketing arm by generating more passenger traffic without falling into rate parity, while airlines offer him benefits and a value product that he moves on to his customers. The platform includes more than 400 holiday packages to over 200 destinations, and over 8,000 activities globally. Holidayme previously secured a funding of $4 million from Al Sanie Group in 2014.

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Organized by Silicon Oasis Founders (SOF), a technology incubation center wholly owned by DSOA, the competition aims to support entrepreneurs and start-ups that are focused on technology products or solutions. In line with its support to Dubai’s ‘Capital of the Islamic Economy’ initiative, the competition will have a special award for businesses that focus on digital and online Arabic content domains. To participate in the competition, entrepreneurs are required to submit a prototype product or a detailed business plan.

In the first round, 10 shortlisted start-ups will pitch their business plans to a group of national and international angel investors and venture capitalists. At the end of the evaluation, two winners will be awarded in two categories mainly ‘Best Business Venture’ and ‘Best Islamic Economy Venture’. These winners will be announced at ‘The Entrepreneur Day’ event, scheduled for November 16th, 2014 at Radisson Royal Hotel, Dubai.

The winners will be provided with funding, incubation support, and a business license from DSOA. An overall winner will additionally receive three weeks of hands-on training at the PITME Labs, Silicon Valley on aspects such as product development, marketing, company modelling and customer acquisition strategies.

The winning start-ups will be allocated office space at the DSO-based Dubai Technology Entrepreneurship Centre (DTEC), which has been designed specifically to support entrepreneurs and young talents.

Commenting on this competition, Shahla Ahmed Abdul Razak, Deputy CEO at DSOA, said: “This competition is in line with our commitment to provide a growth platform for entrepreneurs to achieve their long term goals as well as build a technology-centric smart ecosystem for the community. Winners will have the unique opportunity to be part of DTEC that is shaping up as the largest technology based entrepreneurship center in the MENA region within the integrated hi-tech park.

“This initiative will empower entrepreneurs with the expertise they need to succeed in today’s dynamic technology domain. We are working towards creating an enabling environment similar to that available in Silicon Valley where entrepreneurs get recognized for their innovations as well as unique business models,” Abdul Razak added.

PITME Labs is a 3 week acceleration program for Middle Eastern startups in Silicon Valley. Teams will receive expert training in different aspects of their business, including product development, user experience (UX)/ User Interface (UI) design, marketing, business modeling, customer acquisition strategies, funding, and much more. Each day a minimum of three mentors will engage with participants to guide them through their entrepreneurial journey of increasing revenue, growing their companies, raising money and better managing long-term partnerships.

Further details on the competition are available at: www.f6s.com/dsoated

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As the Middle East partner for Blackbox Connect’s upcoming Silicon Valley immersion program, powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, AstroLabs will be nominating four startups from the Middle East and North Africa to attend a two-week program on March 17-28, 2014.

Of the four, one will be selected to attend, with all expenses paid, including airfare, room and board, and tuition for two founders. Over the two weeks, they’ll gain access not only to Blackbox Connect speakers (who in the past have included Dave McClure, Robert Scoble, Tim Draper, and others), but also, on a final Demo Day, they’ll get to pitch to a broader community of mentors and investors, and get connected to Blackbox’s global community.

Two nominations will be from the group of startups that have been through the AstroLabs Scaling Online Startups program, and two slots have also been reserved for any other promising startups in the Middle East.

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Past attendees have called the programs a “transformational experience.” This past summer Middle Eastern startup Instabug joined the Blackbox program. Instabug co-founder Omar Gabr shared his experience with Arabnet, saying that it gave the company “great momentum.”

Interested applicants can learn more, and apply before December 10th here.

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The Jordan-Silicon Valley Bridge programis the first of its kind in the Kingdom and has received support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Jordan and the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (Int@j).

The first day of the event included an introduction to Plug and Play and Silicon Valley, followed by presentations by the 15 most eligible companies that were later shortlisted to three winning candidates.

Winning candidates were then announced by both Umniah and Plug and Play teams. On the second day, a workshop on business and fundraising strategies was organized with the winners.

The winning companies were: Cheezu, a platform-agnostic photobook company that enables users to curate their customized albums from various social media networks; CurlStone Studios, an IP-focused entertainment company headquartered in Jordan with offices in the Philippines;and Mixed Dimensions, a 3D-modeling and 3D-printing company.

Winners were declared by Mohannad El- Khairy, the Director of International Operations at Plug and Play; Abed Shamlawi, int@j’s CEO, Mahmoud Abu Zannad, Director of Enterprise and High Value Segment at Umniah, Bashar Hawamdeh the CEO of MENAITech, and Emile Cubeisy the Investment Manager at Silicon Badia.

The second day included workshops setup by Plug and Play for selected companies to provide them a better understanding of Silicon Valley and more details on what the training program entails.

Umniah supports such initiatives as they are in line with the telecom company’s Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), are beneficial to the Kingdom’s knowledge economy, as well as helping create more knowledge-based jobs in the Kingdom.

Ihab Hinnawi, Umniah’s CEO, commented on the occasion saying: “We look forward to seeing the success of this initiative and hope to reach out to as many emerging companies as possible. Initiatives like this help local pioneers benefit from the technological proficiency that Silicon Valley is known for.”

Hinnawi emphasized that Umniah will continue to move forward with the “U Start” initiative which aims to bridge Jordan to Silicon Valley. Umniah believes in the importance of giving sound guidance to the future leaders, especially in the ICT sector as it has proven lucrative over the past several years.

Mohannad El Khairy, Plug and Play’s Director of International Operations, said, “The creativity and global mindset seen in the submitted projects, gives us a great sense of pride and hope in Jordan’s future. Though many of the projects submitted deserve Plug and Play’s attention, we are only able to select three winning projects. We look forward to building on this great partnership with Umniah andint@j– our goal is to one day help Jordanian startups in their home country as well.”

Abed Shamlawi, Int@j’s CEO said, “It is int@j’s pleasure to highlight such a wonderful initiative as it gives youth a way to express their creativity in a purposeful and productive way.”

Plug and Play is a leading startup accelerator and investor in Silicon Valley, with the mission to provide high-tech startups with the right environment and resources to launch and grow their companies globally. Plug and Play established partnerships with countries from around the world, with the intention to bridge them and their startup ecosystems to the Silicon Valley.

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The program that the trio created is an online tool designed to help different businesses sort their customer feedback right online. The service quickly took off and in less than two years Dropifi has become the very first company from Africa to be part of the 500 Startups program; the program responsible for bringing the Ghanaian startup to the US.

The 500 Startups program is a seed accelerator and investment program based in Silicon Valley. While the startup did have an eventual move to the Silicon Valley in their radar, according to a statement from Osei, they had no idea the team would be making the move so soon. Osei went on toe say that building a global startup business from Ghana that was able to serve the whole world was always the goal, and that a move to Silicon Valley is more than exceeding their expectations.

This journey to Silicon Valley first began at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, a school located in the capital of Ghana, Accra. This is where David Osei approached Philips Effah with an idea. Osei had noticed how much information businesses today lose online due to the large contact forms on their company websites.

The two realized the huge potential for a new company and began developing the plans for what would become Dropifi. The finished application is a widget designed to put an end to the long and daunting ‘contact us’ forms, but one that can still deliver companies with ‘business-critical insights’ in a spam-free package.

What the tool actually does is it monitors feedback from customers and takes things such as industry trends, current demographics and the sentiment behind customer messages to help businesses today respond more effectively to their customers. The widget is also capable of utilizing information from social media platforms so that companies today are able to have a broader reach with their customers. The program can offer social media as a different platform for businesses to get in touch with their customers through.

After the creators of Dropifi developed their idea, they took part in the Accra Start-up Weekend competition, walking away with an impressive first round of funding and walking away with 20 new paying clients. At the 2012 Global Start-Up Open Competition from the Kauffman Foundation, the team walked away with another top prize and also met Dave McClure from the 500 Startups program. From there, the company was given the opportunity to work with 500 Startups and to make their way to Silicon Valley for a new chapter in their business’s story.

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Hani Morrar, business development manager at Dakwak, a Web translation company in the 500 Startups Accelerator program writes that entrepreneurs are missing first-mover advantage by ignoring the Middle East.

“Even though the Arab world is home to more than 60 million smartphone users and 90 million people on the Internet, Arabic is widely regarded as the most under-served language on the internet,” Morrar says on the 500 Startups blog. “And less than 1 percent of all apps are available in Arabic. Talk about a BIG ASS missed opportunity.”

Morrar is backed up by research from Common Sense Advisory showing that the online Arabic-speaking population surpasses the Russian, French and German-speaking populations combined. Common Sense Advisory also found that only four of the top 100 Web brands offer Arabic content.

That’s a lot of potential users and Morrar writes that they’re easier to reach than it may seem. Using Google Translate or crowdsourcing services to get a basic modern standard Arabic translation is a good place if only because having some Arabic content would put a startup well in the lead of most companies.

“Many people still have completely false ideas of what life is like in the modern Arab world,” Morrar writes. “People use the internet. They go on Facebook. And they use apps, websites and almost everything else people use in the United States. Most of them have never ridden a camel, and many Arabs spend just as much time browsing silly Internet websites as you do.”

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The plans according to the news report were influenced by David Eun, the relatively new Samsung executive vice president and former Google and AOL executive. Unnamed sources told the site that Samsung is close to signing a deal for “a prominent venue” in the California town, where Facebook’s main offices used to reside. The electronics giant, according to All Things D, is looking to find a new home on the second floor of what used to be the Borders Books on University Avenue.

As All Things D pointed out, there is no word on whether the new facility will aim to assist new startups, or grow its own products. No matter, sources told the news site that the incubator will “be aimed at linking Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and other players more closely with Samsung.”

Not exactly the new kid on the block, Samsung announced in September expansion plans which will see the relocation of a U.S. R&D Center to a new 8.5-acre campus in nearby Mountain View, Ca. According to a September news release, the new center will provide what Samsung called “a state-of-the-art campus” with the infrastructure to support the company’s expansive activities.

Construction on the six-story, 385,000-square-foot, class-A office building (as well as two five- or six-story parking structures) is expected to be open in 2014.

Samsung has been facing scrutiny lately over alleged labor abuses in its Chinese manufacturing facilities. In a statement released today, the company said it did not find incidents of child labor at any of its 105 suppliers in China. It did, however, find excessive overtime, fines for lateness or absences, and other infractions.

Samsung will first take steps to prevent child labor. Meanwhile, the company this week celebrated a Galaxy Note II milestone when the smartphone-tablet hybrid sold more than 5 million devices in just two months.

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