A look into the startup specializations of Beirut, Dubai, and Amman

Different places do different industries differently – and over time they may come to be identified with the industries they do well. Los Angeles is world renown for filmmaking while Detroit was once the global center of the auto industry. In the same way startup ecosystems can begin to be identified with particular sectors. That’s true across the world – including here in the MENA region.

In 2012, TechCrunch posted an article based on data compiled and analyzed by the Startup Genome project. Among other things, the analysis revealed that companies founded in Silicon Valley were about half as likely to build marketplaces than those in New York. At the same time, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley were twice as likely to create game companies.

As an ecosystem accelerator based in MENA, Wamda has been able to compile similar research since it was founded more than three years ago. A quick search of Wamda’s regional startup database reveals that since 2002, Amman, Beirut, and Dubai have seen comparable levels of early-stage startup activity – judging solely by the number of companies founded in each city.

With 163 companies, Dubai only slightly edges out the other two cities. Amman and Beirut were host to at least 145 and 136 startups respectively.

Original article by Ahmed Moor

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A look into the startup specializations of Beirut, Dubai, Amman