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The last couple of years have witnessed a surge in the number of Arab startups that have managed to catch the attention of foreign investors and dip into the pockets of US sharks. Spanning Beirut to Dubai, Jeddah, Amman, and Cairo, among others, the Middle East region is making its presence felt on the global tech scene. Google is expected to open up a tech hub for entrepreneurs of the Arab region, based in Dubai, in April 2015, in partnership with startup incubator Astrolabs. Moreover, governments of the Middle East and Levant region have been slowly but surely taking notice of the tech entrepreneurship scene. According to TheWall Street Journal, “Dubai’s government said it would invest $1.23B in building an ‘innovation’ community of buildings, incubators and investment funds over the next 10 years.” In Lebanon, as per Intermediate Circular 331, La Banque du Liban has approved to guarantee 75% of startups funding by banks via venture capital and seed funds.

We mention herein a sample of startups pinning themselves on the international scene, all out of the Middle East, marking a refreshing large-scale pan-Arab tech renaissance.

• Feelit (KSA):

Founded by Mohammed Alkadi, Albara Hakami and Omar Aleisa, Feelit is a Saudi-based social network for feelings. It is an app that allows users to “communicate emotionally” through making sharing moods and emotions possible. One can choose a certain emotion by clicking a face describing that emotion and opting to either embrace the feeling—so people get user-generated links from all over the web, including articles, photos and music that contribute to the feeling—or to squash that feeling once and for all. Feelit had raised $100K from Silicon Valley-based investment company, BootstrapLabs, in addition to funding from Saudi angel investors and $15K from Silicon Valley investor Will Bunker. With the help and guidance of BootstrapLabs, Feelit is scheduled to relocate to Silicon Valley in the near future. Feelit is now available on both iOS and Android.

• Instabeat (Lebanon):

Instabeat, founded by Lebanese competitive swimmer-turned-engineering/entrepreneur Hind Hobeika, is a sports technology startup specializing in wearable technology for swimmers. The Qatar Foundation’s Stars of Science contestant designed a waterproof monitor which can be mounted onto any kind of goggles to show swimmers their heart-rate, the speed at which blood rushes to the head, and other variables—such as the level of drag and number of laps—, all necessarily to appraise and monitor the swimmer’s performance. Founded in 2011, Instabeat has raised a total of $2M as of date from a combination of crowdfunding on Indiegogo Inc., in addition to the contributions of local angel investors and venture capitalists in and outside of the Middle East. The first batch of the device is sold out. Plans to start shipping the second batch worldwide and sell in US retail stores were stalled due to some technical glitches, but they are happening in the near future. Instabeat can be pre-ordered at $149.

• Tamatem (Jordan; now Moutain View, CA)

Tamatem, (the Arabic for ‘tomato’) was founded in Jordan as a mobile game publisher catering to the Arab world, its language and culture. All games developed by Tamatem are in Arabic and feature cultural elements related to the region and understood by all. According to the Tamatem webite, the gaming scene is the Arab world is “dynamically changing [to] the better.” This does hold true, as Arabic is the 4th biggest language in the world, and the Middle East has more than 60 Million Arabic smart phone users. Launched in 2013, Tamatem is committed to promoting mobile games and revolutionizing the Arabic mobile gaming market. They build in-house games and partner up with developers to help them in publishing their games. Tamatem boasts a team of experts from Yahoo Games, Peak Games and GREE, as well as former members and founders of Wizards Games. Tamatem had raised a total of $450K as of September 2013 and reached 6.5 million downloads by the end of 2014. They are headquartered in Mountain View, CA.

• El Wafeyat (Egypt):

Cairo-based ElWafeyat.com (Arabic for ‘deaths’) is working on producing a platform akin to a social network with content like websites, pages, photos and posts to memorialize deceased family, friends and loved ones in the form of online obituaries. The platform—founded by Youssef ElSammaa, Omar Hamdalla, Nesma El Far, Con O'Donnell and Ashraf Maklad — is an alternative to handwriting death notices and delivering them to a Cairo newspaper’s office (which sometimes costs up to $1,000). The startup was accelerated by Flat6Labs and managed to spark the attention of prominent San Francisco Bay Area angel investor and founder of California’s 500 Startups Dave McClure. El Wafeat received $100K in seed funding from 500 Startups and went to Mountain View, Calif to join the accelerator’s four-month program. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nesma El-Far, one of the three 24-year-old co-founders of ElWafeyat, says they “aim to go global.”

• Wuzzuf(Egypt):

Wuzzuf is a recruitment platform in Egypt created and managed by BasharSoft, a technology firm founded in 2009 and specializing in developing innovative online recruitment solutions for top enterprises and organizations. Wuzzuf aims to provide an online recruitment experience for both employers and job seekers by modeling how human recruiters actually think and work. This is done through simulations of how employers understand specific job requirements and resumes, and how people "communicate" at the two opposite ends of the hiring spectrum: applying and recruiting. Wuzzuf distinguishes itself from other recruitment websites through providing usability and job matching intelligence. They achieved profitability while bootstrapping in Egypt and are now looking to expand into regional and global markets. They are scheduled to pitch at the 500 Startups Demo Day on May 8.

• i3zif (Jordan)

A group of music lovers came together and decided to converge efforts to bring music within the reach of everyone, in any place and at any time. It all started with guitarist Bisher Abu Taleb and cameraman/editor Ayham Abu Hammad. i3zif teaches users how to play musical instruments through pre-recorded video tutorials. It is the first of its kind in Arabic, even teaching the basics of Oriental singing. The website provides high-quality musical education, a gap that needs to be filled in the Arab world. The pilot was in partnership with a Queen Rania education initiative, in 15 public schools. The team plans to take the initiative to Qatar and the UAE in the near future. They have received funding from MENA Venture Investments. I3zif participated in a 500 Startups boot camp in Silicon Valley.

• Gallery AlSharq (Jordan):

This is an initiative by Jordanian CEO Riham Mahafzah, winner of the 2013 MIT Pan-Arab Startups Competition. A Middle East royalty-free stock photography repository, Gallery AlSharq is creating a large collection of visual content and media and design elements such as images, illustrations, audio and video clips. The service fills the need for authentic and original content representing the MENA region. The content provided can be used to accompany media articles and enrich regional artworks, showcasing the real beauty and livelihood of the Middle East. Gallery AlSharq started with 3,000 images back in 2012 and now has more than 85,000 images by photographers from all over the MENA region. Gallery AlSharq was accelerated by TechWadi and Google for Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. They received $100K as of August 2014.

• Feesheh (Jordan):

Co-founded by Nur Alfayez and Fahed Farraj, Feesheh is an effort out of Jordan to sell musical instruments and professional audio equipment online at competitive prices. The first online musical store of its kind in the Arab world offers a large selection of Western and Oriental instruments of authentic brands. The platform will also include instrument reviews for a more satisfactory customer experience. Feesheh received $100K back in August 2014 through seed funds and has already expanded into the UAE. The team is presently looking at emerging and international markets to broaden their reach. Feesheh will be going to Switzerland in February to pitch to a panel of European investors at the Seedstars World event. They have also garnered the attention of international investors, including Oasis500, investors in the GCC, and the Silicon Oasis Founders, owned by the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority.