Breaking baladi bread with Zooba CEO Chris Khalifa (Ep 15)

In 20 years of working in private equity, Hossam Abou Moussa has seen the makings of great businesses across industries in Egypt and other emerging markets. At Actis, he is a partner in the private equity business, as well as chief operating officer of the unit. Actis is one of the leading investors in emerging markets, and currently operates roughly USD 10 bn under management. In Egypt, they have invested in some of Egypt’s biggest companies, including CIB, Edita, International Diagnostics Holding, and Fawry.

In our last episode of the season and the year, Abou Moussa outlines the three fundamental aspects investors look for in a business and how to leverage them for fundraising, as well as how to choose a business partner or investor, and when to choose private equity as an option.

** Subscribe to Making it here for free  https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can learn about Actis here: https://www.act.is/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hend El Sherbini took over her mother’s testing facility MK Lab in Egypt and rebranded it to Al Mokhtabar in 2004, with the intention of providing affordable and quality testing beyond Cairo. 

16 years later, El Sherbini sits atop Integrated Diagnostics Holding, a merger of Al Mokhtabar and Al Borg. 

IDH is the first Egyptian company to list on the London Stock Exchange, and has since become a regional player with over 450 facilities across Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria and Jordan. El Sherbini speaks to the merits of institutionalizing her family business and highlights the role consolidation plays in enabling affordable healthcare.

** Subscribe to Making it here for https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out IDH here: idhcorp.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ali ElFakharany got hooked on sports data as a university student, and the blog he started to analyze the Egyptian Premier League blossomed into a company in 2017. But the local market was not ready for Arqam’s services, and so Ali turned to Europe. In 2019, Arqam was acquired by UK-based Statsbomb in a share swap agreement that retained Arqam’s team and Ali leading the data product. 

Today, Arqam’s data collection center in Egypt has become an essential service to 42 European and US clubs, including teams from the English Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga, and the MLS, providing data analytics services to every level of a sports franchise. We discuss the ups and downs of going from a local luxury to a global essential service and how owning the value chain of data collection and analysis made Arqam FC a viable investment for Statsbomb.

** Subscribe to Making it here for free  https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out Arqam FC here: arqamfc.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hisham Shawki and Nancy Zayed launched MagicCube in 2014 with the intention of eliminating the redundancy of hardware-based security currently used in mobile and IoT devices. The primary target of their technology is the USD 48 bn POS hardware market, a strategy that attracted investments from Visa and CIB’s VC arm CVentures. Beyond financial services, the security platform has major applications in industrial machinery, medical devices, and autonomous vehicles.

The implications on emerging markets looking to improve financial inclusion are undeniable. By removing costly barriers to entry caused by manufacturing and deployment of hardware components, the technology can help bring a greater portion of the informal economy into the system. 

Hisham and Nancy take us back to how they went from building software in Egypt to working at tech companies that arguably changed the world, and share with us their favorite stories about meeting Steve Jobs.

** Subscribe to Making it here for free https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out MagicCube here: magiccube.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With brick and mortar retail seeing declining growth in developed markets fueled by competition from e-commerce, Majid Al Futtaim tells a story that might look a little different in emerging markets. Malls here still see growing popularity and Majid Al Futtaim’s retail brands are household names in Egypt and the region.

Ahmed Galal Ismail led Majid Al Futtaim Ventures for 10 years prior to his current role. Today, Ismail leads Majid Al Futtaim Properties, the arm responsible for malls, hotels, communities and project management within the conglomerate. His tenure managing the fashion, cinema and entertainment arms of the business equipped him with a critical ethos - solving for experience and not function. 

** Subscribe to Making it here for free  https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out Majid Al Futtaim here: majidalfuttaim.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If your business sells time — yours or your team’s or both — then this week’s episode is for you. 

Lawyering is perhaps the world’s second-oldest profession — and the source of endless jokes, the vast majority of them (pleasantly?) tasteless. 

Today’s episode features a lawyer — and an awfully nice one, at that — but think of him as a stand-in for every business in the service industry, from ad agencies to engineering consultants, PR types and accountants. 

From attracting and retaining talent, to creating culture and monetization, Bahaa Alieldean discusses the similarities and universal challenges facing law firms as well as other service providers. We explore creating corporate structure and how micromanagement prevents founders from transitioning away from day-to-day operations into traditionally accepted CEO responsibilities.

Bahaa is a law professor and practising corporate lawyer specializing in capital markets, banking transactions and dispute resolution. He established his law firm ALC Alieldean, Weshahi & Partners in 2003 favoring a model of collective practice with specialization groups over the traditional office of a solo practitioner.

** Subscribe to Making it here for https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.You can check out Alieldean, Weshahi & Partners here: http://www.alc.law/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The majority of Egypt’s population are unbanked and have no access to financial services. Thanks to fintech players like Fawry, this is changing quickly — and for the better. When Ashraf Sabry founded Fawry in 2008, he knew he wanted to leverage his experience and technology in a business that had recurring revenue. Flash forward and, a decade later, Fawry is now a payments platform that connects over 29 mn customers through 166K service points across the country, and can be used for over 850 services ranging from utility bills and school tuition, to traffic fines and insurance. 

Ashraf talked to us about building the platform from the idea stage to becoming a major listed company on the EGX with international shareholders. He told us how the company was built with local talent, the company’s early stage challenges, and what’s next for Fawry.

** Subscribe to Making it here for https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out Fawry here: www.fawry.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zooba sells taamiya, not falafel. When Chris Khalifa launched Zooba in 2012, the goal was to elevate Egyptian street food from cheap, delicious, everyday sustenance to a global brand. By 2020, Zooba’s value proposition had already shaped a loyal following at home and abroad with branches in Egypt, a franchise agreement in the GCC, and a New York outpost — opened just before covid-19 hit. 

Chris talks to us about what it takes to change people’s perception on how much street food should cost through the power of a strong brand. We discuss introducing new food to foreign markets, teaching Westerners how to say Taamiya, and how Zooba survives economic crises.

** Subscribe to Making it here for free https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

You can check out Zooba here: www.zoobaeats.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Making It is back for its third season. Making It is a show about building great businesses in Egypt. Each episode brings you a one-on-one sit-down with a CEO or founder at the top of their game. They are leaders at the helm of businesses going through different stages of growth and they discuss with us the issues they face, the challenges they have to overcome, and what it takes to “Make it.”

This is our second season to come out since Covid-19, and a full return to working from the office has yet to take place. The majority of our guests were recorded remotely. This season’s guests span industries ranging from food and retail to fintech and healthcare.

Season three kicks off on Thursday, 8 October, but until then, you can catch up on season two with: 

• Omar Hagrass, Co-founder and CEO of Trella
• Hoda Mansour, Managing Director of SAP Egypt and Frontier Markets
• Tarek Assaad and Karim Hussein, Algebra Ventures Managing Partners 
• Sahar Salama, Founder and CEO of TPay Mobile
• Amr Abouesh, CEO and Managing Director of Tanmeyah
• Laila Sedky and Adel Sedky, Founder and CEO of NOLA
• Mohamed El Kalla, CEO of Cairo for Investment and Real Estate (CIRA)

** Subscribe to Making it here for https://bit.ly/35lugvb.

** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance and economics in Egypt (also free) at www.enterprise.press.

Making It is grateful for the generous support of:

CIB, Egypt’s number-one private-sector bank and the partner of choice for CEOs and leaders of businesses at all stages of their growth stories.

The United States Agency for International Development, which has a 40 year history of inspiring Egyptian success in partnership with the Government and people of Egypt.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Enterprise Show is an Egypt-focused business, policy and pop culture talk show, produced by Enterprise, the daily brief on all matters business, finance, and economics. Each episode will see us sit down with interesting and impactful business leaders, policy-makers, and cultural icons to discuss their life's successes, failures, and their views on major topics that shape Egypt today

Listen to the pilot episode with International Cooperation Minister Rania Al Mashat here:
https://bit.ly/3iGasdy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.