Viaka Newsletter: Female Consumer & Wellness Demo Day and Fireside Chat About Lebanon's Startup Ecosystem
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Hi all! This week, we’re recapping our virtual events over the past month.
Female Consumer & Wellness Demo Day
This month, 3 startups from the Viaka Network with a particular eye on female consumers and wellness in the MENA region and beyond presented their startups to a panel of 4 investors. Thank you Kenz, Viv, and Mind Easy for sharing your work, and Sujude Dalieh, Fawzi Itani, Naayl Kazmi, and Chaghig Demrijian for their feedback!
I had the chance to take part in the Viaka Demo Day and it was a wonderful experience for me to get Kenz in front of a new audience and connect with investors and peers. I highly recommend joining the Viaka community to network, connect, disrupt and unite MENA and US ecosystems together! - Christina Ghanim, Kenz
Lebanon’s Startup Ecosystem Fireside Chat
In partnership with LebNet, Viaka hosted Timothy Motte (Realistic Optimist), author of "The Lebanese startup ecosystem hasn't failed. It's just not solely in Lebanon anymore." to moderate a discussion with Sami Saad, VP of Investments of IM Fndg, one of Lebanon's leading startup investment entities.
This event was perfect for those based in North America and beyond looking to learn more about Lebanon's startup ecosystem.
Promising Opportunities from Our Partners
New opportunities added in March 2023
To advise:
eComz is looking for experts in lead generation & sales expansion into new MENA markets, particularly KSA.
Designer-24 is looking for expert advice to help them build a strategy and template to effectively franchise their model in smaller MENA markets.
To invest in:
Anecdote is raising a seed round to continue building out their AI platform that Instantly brings qualitative customer insights to product and CX teams.
To receive investment from:
533 Syndicate is looking for promising founders across stages and industries. Ticket sizes as low as $20K and as high as $100K.
Click on the button below to see all current opportunities & get involved:
Exciting Announcements From Our Network
Below is a list of updates, wins, and asks emanating from members of the Viaka Network in the “West.”
Viaka’s April virtual events are already in the works - a MarTech & Audio Demo Day and a Panel on MENA Builders in AI. Join the Network below for the exclusive invite.
If you’re a member of our Network and would like to share your own update next week, email info.viaka@gmail.com or submit an update via this form.
Read of the Week
Viaka has launched a Network Reading List, where Network members are encouraged to submit media suggestions of their own.
Our suggested read this week is this piece from Emergent, about digitizing Africa’s informal retailers.
Check out Viaka’s full reading list here.
Weekly News Digest
Check out our weekly digest — we provide news from all across the MENA startup ecosystem, every single Friday. Be sure to follow our LinkedIn and Twitter for more.
That’s it for this week. Thank you! 👋
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