News & Highlights

  • OCTOBER 2023
  • VIDEO

10 Year Anniversary of the MENA Research Center

To mark its 10 year anniversary milestone, the MENA Research Center unveils a video series aimed at shining a spotlight on the significant diversity of enterprises in our region and the important role played by family businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit shaping local economies. The Center has had the honor of turning some of the powerful stories into HBS case studies, and the videos feature a distinguished lineup of speakers, including faculty members, subject matter experts, and the case protagonists. In addition to those themes, the Research & More segment introduces perspectives from leaders representing key departments at HBS with which the MENA Research Center collaborates: Executive Education, External Relations, Global Initiative, Global Experience Office, and MBA Admissions. Watch the videos here.
  • SEPTEMBER 2023
  • CREATING EMERGING MARKETS INTERVIEWS

Creating Emerging Markets Interviews: Middle East & North Africa Region

The Creating Emerging Markets project provides a unique research and teaching resource on business leadership in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East over recent decades. At its core are over 170 interviews by Harvard faculty with high impact leaders in business and social enterprise. There are three recent CEM interviews focused on leaders in the MENA region: Adib AlZamil (Saudi Arabia), Amina Laraki Slaoui (Morocco), and Badreddine Ouali (Tunisia). The Creating Emerging Markets project is led by Professors Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna.
  • SEPTEMBER 2023
  • COLD CALL PODCAST

Can Remote Surgeries Digitally Transform Operating Rooms?

Launched in 2016, Proximie was a platform that enabled clinicians, proctors, and medical device company personnel to be virtually present in operating rooms, where they would use mixed reality and digital audio and visual tools to communicate with, mentor, assist, and observe those performing medical procedures. The goal was to improve patient outcomes. Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, aspired for Proximie to become a platform that powered every operating room in the world, but she had to carefully consider the company’s partnership and data strategies in order to scale. What approach would position the company best for the next stage of growth? Harvard Business School associate professor Ariel Stern discusses creating value in health care through a digital transformation of operating rooms in her case, “Proximie: Using XR Technology to Create Borderless Operating Rooms.”
  • MAY 2023
  • EVENT

Alumni Event in Egypt

On May 31st, the Center partnered with the HBS Club of Egypt to host an intimate gathering in Cairo featuring Professors Michael Chu, a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, and Alvaro Rodriguez-Arregui, a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. The Professors focused their discussion on the rationale behind using business as a tool to respond to some of society’s most pressing problems, drawing examples from the cases they have taught in MBA courses. The event was attended by 20 alumni and friends of HBS.

New Research on the Region

  • February 2024
  • Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoferry had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoferry was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting away from a consumer facing online fashion stylist marketplace to a B2B model offering an AI-powered fashion styling advisor. The timing seemed right as the AI market in the region was booming, backed by the Saudi government. There was also virtually no competition. Moreover, large businesses had expressed an interest in signing up. The trouble was the AI was not ready yet, it could not generate styling advice on its own and still partially relied on input from the freelance stylists that Taffi attracted through the marketplace. Was this the right time for Taffi to pivot? The case chronicles the founding of Taffi, the pivots it made and why, and describes the challenges Geoferry faced during her journey of entrepreneurship and how she addressed them. The case serves to provide a founder’s account of setting up and operating a startup in Saudi Arabia. The case also explores how Saudi Arabia stimulated the development of a startup ecosystem through a multi-pronged approach, and provides a background venture funding in the region.

  • February 2024
  • Case

Finberg: Corporate Venture Capital in Turkey

By: Paul A. Gompers and Namrata Arora

In December 2021, Murat Özyeğin, Chairman of Fiba Holding, along with Ömer Mert and İhsan Elgin, engaged in discussions about the future of United Payment, a fintech company in which Finberg, a subsidiary of Fibabanka, held a 20% stake. Finberg, established in 2018 as Turkey's first fintech-focused corporate venture capital firm, had invested significantly in United Payment, contributing to its substantial growth in transaction volume from $352 million in 2019 to almost $865 million in 2020. With an offer from OYAK, Turkey's largest pension fund, to invest in United Payment, the leadership team deliberated on whether to accept the proposal or wait for further growth opportunities, considering the company's plans for international expansion and the competitive landscape in the fintech sector. The decision involved weighing the potential benefits of OYAK's investment against the risks of stiff competition and its implications on United Payment's competitive advantage and profitability.

  • February 2024
  • Case

Nuwa Capital: Investing During Uncertainty

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Nuwa Capital (Nuwa) was a venture capital firm based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The business was founded in 2020 by Khaled Talhouni and his partners Sarah Abu Risheh, and Stephanie Nour Prince (they were later joined by Nitin Reen and Victor Sunyer). Together, they had a combined experience of nearly 20 years investing in over 300 companies, including some of the Middle East and North Africa’s most successful startups. In a startup ecosystem as nascent as theirs, their track record eclipsed most other firms. By August 2021, Nuwa had achieved a first close on its fund and, in response to changing market conditions, pivoted their investment thesis to earlier stage startups. One of the industries they decided to invest in was foodtech, and they had been in advanced stages of conversations with Calo, a Bahrain based foodtech player. The team was conducting their already accelerated due diligence when they received word that another investor had just met Calo and was willing to take Nuwa’s spot. Promising founders like Calo’s were hard to come by and Nuwa had to decide quickly. The problem was that Calo did not, on the surface, fit Nuwa’s thesis. However, it had the potential to only after a pivot. The case chronicles the founding of Nuwa and describes the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and investors in the Middle Eastern startup ecosystem, and Nuwa’s decision to pivot their investment thesis. The case also explores how Saudi Arabia and Dubai stimulated the development of a startup ecosystem through a multi-pronged approach. The case then describes Calo, its industry, and Nuwa’s investment thesis, and explores whether Nuwa should invest in Calo.

See more research

Dubai Staff

Alpana Thapar
Executive Director
Sadika El Hariri
Research Associate
Fares Khrais
Senior Researcher

Cairo Staff

Ahmed Dahawy
Research Associate

Istanbul Staff

Yasemin Çağlar
Associate Director, Educational Programs
Gizem Cihan Dinçsoy
Senior Researcher
Zeynep Mağgönül
Assistant Director, Administration

Tel Aviv Staff

Orna Dan
Senior Researcher