Entrepreneurs seek to create a technology hub in Gaza
So far, four GSG companies have secured outside investment from Arab-focused venture funds
When Iliana Montauk moved to the Gaza Strip in 2013, what most struck the former Google staffer and Harvard graduate wasn’t the poverty, the rubble from decades of conflict, or the lack of reliable electricity. It was the drive and focus of the citizens.
“I had never seen such hardworking people except at Harvard and in Silicon Valley,” Montauk recalled. “People just want to lead a normal life.”
Montauk is seeking to harness that energy with Gaza Sky Geeks, a start-up “accelerator” she runs in Gaza City. Backed by Google and the US charity MercyCorps, it nurtures business ideas and connects entrepreneurs with investors. The native of Berkeley, California, is convinced Gaza’s young population and adaptable spirit can create unlikely tech success stories in the Philadelphia-sized territory, which is ruled by Hamas.
So far, four GSG companies have secured outside investment from Arab-focused venture funds. Tevy lets television viewers chat about shows as they’re broadcast; Datrios is a social network for Arab soccer lovers; Wasselni is a carpooling and taxi app for trafficchoked Middle Eastern cities; and DWBI Solutions automates data analysis. Montauk aims to secure funding for another four GSG start-ups this year.
While Israel’s eight-year blockade of Gaza limits imports of materials like concrete and chemicals out of concern they could be used in battle, computers and smartphones are widely available. And young Gazans are as addicted to Twitter and Facebook as youth anywhere. Gaza’s unemployment — the highest in the world at 43 per cent, according to the World Bank — means the tech sector faces almost no competition for bright minds.
At a five-day ‘boot camp’ last month in GSG’s offices by Gaza City’s harbour, a oncethriving port that’s closed to shipping by the blockade, about 40 aspiring entrepreneurs showed off their ideas. Men in jeans and T-shirts and women in headscarves and long skirts perched on multicoloured couches with laptops and smartphones, chatting in English with volunteer mentors who had flown in from San Francisco, the UK and Dubai.
Their challenges differ dramatically from those of most start-ups. A top priority is a business-continuity plan — typically an arrangement with a company in the lessvolatile West Bank or offices abroad — to keep operations running if war flares up. And meeting potential partners can be complicated. The Gaza airport has been shuttered for over a decade and locals need permission from the Israeli or Egyptian governments to leave.