Middle East

The Fallacy of Exporting Tech Solutions to the Middle East

Regional innovators are bucking the notion that Western imported tech is the solution to the Middle East's problems. Music, creative ways to bypass censorship, and grassroots literacy are the real paths to change, and are...

Visiting a Bustling Tech Incubator in Dubai

As Dubai continues its epic transformation into a global commerce hub, two entrepreneurs have set up a small piece of Silicon Valley in the UAE. Louis Lebbos and Muhammed Mekki 's AstroLabs incubator now hosts...

Lebanon’s Unlikely Hydroponic Farmer Wants to Change Local Agriculture

Ali Makhzoum thinks his hydroponic farming system can increase farmers’ yields, decrease the labor needed to harvest and reduce the water requirements by up to 90 percent. His Life Labs systems, developed in Beirut, are...

Forget Bubble Talk—Beirut Tech Is Accelerating

Recently called "the Silicon Valley of the Middle East" by CNN, and "the Middle East’s Tech Hub" by TechCrunch, Beirut’s tech scene is the darling of international media of late. (Though Techonomy first wrote about...

Aetna CEO Bertolini: The Middle East Will Have Technologized Healthcare Before the U.S.

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini isn't afraid to speak his mind about the American healthcare system—even when that means underscoring its many failures. Bertolini talked with us at our recent Techonomy 2013 conference in Tucson, Ariz.,...

The Middle East Shows It’s Ready For Online Dating

When online matchmaker et3arraf closed its second round of funding this week, CEO Cedric Maalouf was ecstatic. The Arab “marriage-oriented” dating website attracted attention from angel investors and venture capital firms, and received term sheets...

Beirut—yes Beirut—Has a Vibrant, Growing Tech Scene

OK, Beirut, Lebanon may not yet be a startup hub like Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, or even Dubai. But recent success stories suggest that the Middle Eastern city is emerging as a serious contender. They...