By John Lee. UAE-based venture capital fund EQIQ has announced a $3-million anchor investment in a new digital banking startup led by Iraqi-American finance veteran Hussain Qaragholi (pictured). The total $15-million funding round will support the launch and early growth of the next-generation, AI-driven platform. The new venture aims to transform Iraq's underdeveloped banking sector […]
By John Lee. Netaj -- a Baghdad-based innovation firm that offers venture support, strategic consulting, and capability-building for entrepreneurs and institutions -- has announced the official launch of Nawat, which it describes as the country's first-ever Venture Capital (VC) Studio. According to a press release, Nawat is designed to identify, support, and invest in high-potential […]
Plans for a new Iraq venture fund have been announced by some of the Iraq ecosystem's pioneers, Omar Al-Handal (The Station), Bassam Falah (Innovest ME, Ruwwad Al Iraq), and Mohammed Khudairi (Iraq Tech Ventures), who will serve as the fund's General Partners. The partnership is called Iraq Venture Partners (IVP), and it plans to invest […]
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Most development agendas for Iraq putatively support entrepreneurship and the need to support private sector development through its focus on the growing number of unemployed youth in the country. UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) recently […]
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. Much gets written about the struggles of small businesses in Iraq. With 36 private banks in Iraq, and high interest from the Government of Iraq to support MSMEs, especially in terms of access to finance, we […]
