Introducing Iraqi Innovators

See what’s happening in Iraq’s tech ecosystem (Arabic below).

In the past 19 months of living in Erbil, i’ve seen a huge amount of growth in the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem across Iraq and the Kurdish region. There were very few, if any, co-working spaces, makerspaces and startups but the last year gave birth to Lezzoo Eats, The Station, Dakakenna, Sandoog and so much more!

One of the only up-to-date ecosystem maps of Iraq, however, it doesn’t include startups and co-working spaces that have emerged in the last 9 months.

Despite these massive feats, there’s still one piece of that puzzle that is missing. Where’s a source of reliable, unbiased and non-political news about all of this? Why is Iraqi and international news still talking about ISIS and protests when there’s so much more happening here? These topics are all important, but so is the fact that Iraq is finally making moves to catch up with the rest of the world, and we need to shout that out from the rooftops. Not only to change international public perception of Iraq as a war zone, but to further promote the expansion of the tech sector by attracting investors, companies and most importantly, providing Iraqi youth with a source of information on technology.

Hey, investors. I’m especially looking at you.

So here it is, a blog about all the awesome tech news across the country. A country that is overcoming 15 years of conflict. A country known as the “cradle of civilization”. And a country where 58% of the population is under 25. There is endless opportunity for startups to launch, fail and thrive to create solutions to Iraq’s unique problems, and if you want to know about these stories and more then keep an eye on this blog. Or, you know. Just follow us for the fun gifs. We’ll aim to post a new story every week.

Since writing this, we’ve launched our own platform! Check it out here

Note: Medium doesn’t support Arabic text hence an image being used.