Award TR35 | ||
 | ||
Born 1980 (age 36–37) Beirut, Lebanon Awards 2009 Young Global Leader, 2011 Top Innovator under 35, 2013 Arab Creativity Award, 2013 Distinguished Alumni AUB, 2016 AUB History Maker Education University of Southern California, American University of Beirut Known for Wamda, Yamli, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Angel investor Profiles | ||
Habib haddad the problem of typing arabic
Habib Haddad (born 1980) is a serial entrepreneur, early stage investor, and ‘startup activist’. He is the cofounder and CEO of Wamda, platform of integrated programs that aims to accelerate entrepreneurship ecosystems throughout the MENA region. He is also a Venture Partner of Wamda Capital, a growth capital VC fund, with investments in startups like taxi-hailing app Careem, LittleBits, and Jamalon.[1]
Contents
In 2007 Habib founded Yamli, the leading Arabic transliteration and smart search engine. In 2011, Yahoo! acquired a license to Yamli’s technologies. He is also the founder YallaStartup,[2] one of the first support organizations for MENA Entrepreneurs.[3]
He currently holds a Research Affiliate position at the MIT Media Lab where he focuses on the science behind building a community. Habib is also an active angel investor. He is also the founding engineer of Mok3 (now EveryScape),[4] an MIT spin off building image based modeling products.
Habib won numerous awards. In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader and was named as a top innovator under 35 (TR35) by the MIT Technology Review in 2011. The Arab Thought Foundation awarded him the "Arab Creativity Award" in 2013. The same year, the American University Beirut honoured the entrepreneur as a distinguished alumni and, in 2016, counted him among its AUB History Makers.
He has also often spoken on the opportunity entrepreneurship represents for the MENA region, as well as demonstrated his support to causes via technology, founding Relief Lebanon to support relief efforts during the 2006 war.[5] Habib also co-created Alive.in, a website that brought 100s of translators to transcribe and translate voicemails from the Egyptian protesters after the government shut down internet.
Habib sits on various boards of startups and nonprofits and regularly speaks on innovation and entrepreneurship.[6]