If you’ve yet to hear about Zoomaal, the very first Middle Eastern crowdfunding platform, you’re just in time to get acquainted. Not only is Zoomaal supporting entrepreneurial projects all over the Middle East on an ongoing basis, they’re also currently hosting the Collaborative Spaces Challenge. This initiative aims to shine a spotlight on promising coworking spaces, makerspaces, incubators, and other inventive projects in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa region).
The Zoomaal team itself began in Alt City, a coworking space in Beirut. Together with Mideast Creatives, another platform supporting entrepreneurs in the Middle East, Zoomaal is helping participants in Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia acquire funding and attention. These countries ranked the highest registration rates, and were thus chosen to participate in the challenge. Mideast Creatives vowed to match funding up to $50,000 on all projects combined.
Who’s Doing What?
Qafeer, a makerspace in Egypt where startups can work on their prototypes, has already surpassed its funding target by thousands, and still has a few weeks left in the challenge. Another competitor, Debbo 52, is an art incubator based in Tunisia. One group of entrepreneurs in Sudan hope to develop a brand new coworking space called Khartoum Innovation Hub.
These are just a few examples of the 30+ projects involved in the Collaborative Spaces Challenge. Each project has a unique funding deadline, many of which will occur sometime in the next 4 weeks. Unfortunately, projects that don’t hit their target funding goal will not receive any funding. However, several projects have already soared past their expected target and are still receiving donations.
Abdallah Absi is the CEO of Zoomaal, a public speaker, and a self-proclaimed tech geek. Despite dropping out of college at just 21, Absi wasted no time founding multiple successful companies and making a name for himself as a leader of innovation in the Arab world.
“If you can involve more people, you’ll get better feedback and advice, more buzz, and ultimately more funders,” he told New Worker magazine. With this strategy in mind, Zoomaal is providing coworking spaces with a crowdfunding platform and the tools needed to flourish.
Dissatisfied Workers Signal a Need for Change
For the MENA region, coworking spaces and other innovative entrepreneurial projects hold special significance. In 2013, a Gallup poll showed that workers in the MENA region were among the most disengaged workers in the entire world. In countries like Algeria, over half reported that they did not enjoy their careers. In Syria, an incredibly dismal 0% reported themselves as being “happy” workers.
With these alarming stats in mind, it’s easy to see how coworking spaces might play a pivotal role in transforming and improving the lives of workers in the MENA region. One recent study suggested a correlation between coworking spaces and lower stress levels. It also revealed evidence that coworking spaces foster better interactions between coworkers, improve focus, and even increase income in many cases.
Besides a general lack of career satisfaction, the MENA region is still plagued with inequality in the workplace. Women earn less than men, and are still a fairly rare sight in successful businesses and new startups in the region. A compounding problem is unemployment, which has risen in several parts of the MENA region – particularly those not situated near oil.
Addressing these issues along with Abdallah Absi is Arthur Steiner, founder of Mideast Creatives and cofounder of NewSilkRoads. “Inorder to help developing countries, it is very important to stimulate meeting places and innovative centers where entrepreneurs can work together. Coworking spaces are the ideal driving force of the creative economy,” he said in an interview.
Get Involved – Fund a Project or Start Your Own
For those interested in drumming up support for their coworking space or other creative project, Zoomaal may be the place to start researching. While sign-ups are closed for this particular challenge, you can still hop on board to support one of the many projects in the running. Simply visit Zoomaal.com and click the “Projects” button. Those in the Collaborative Spaces Challenge are marked with a small red “s” flag. Each project’s profile page tells the story of those involved, and how they hope to expand and develop with newfound support.
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