Episode 38-Venture Into Iraq: Start-Ups on the Rise

Majlis & Markets

After years of instability, Iraq’s political and security situation is improving, opening up new opportunities for economic growth. With a young, tech-savvy population, many are starting businesses in areas like fintech and e-commerce. The potential is there, but challenges like funding, infrastructure, and regulations still slow things down.

Our guest today is Zahra Shah. Her experience spans roles at the United Nations, Gaza Sky Geeks, and Re:Coded, where she focused on supporting refugees, entrepreneurs, and youth through tech education and innovative programs
Since 2019, she’s been leading Iraqi Innovators, a media and data hub supporting Iraq’s investment ecosystem. Her work gives key insights into startups and helps shape the future of Iraq’s industries.
In this episode, we talked about several topics including:

• Iraq’s start-up ecosystem potential
• The day-to-day challenges entrepreneurs face, like limited funding and tricky regulations
• Broader economic challenges impacting start-ups

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Intro theme song-Arab and Muslim by StockMusic via Pixabay

Chapters

1. Episode 38-Venture Into Iraq: Start-Ups on the Rise (00:00:00)

2. Monologue intro (00:00:48)

3. Beginning of discussion (00:01:46)

4. Zahra's background (00:02:18)

5. Moving to Iraq (00:06:03)

6. Why invest in Iraq? (00:08:45)

7. Opportunities in Iraq's tech ecosystem (00:12:43)

8. Challenges facing entrepreneurs (00:14:20)

9. Scale-up funding challenges (00:16:35)

10. Comparing to Egypt and other ecosystems (00:18:32)

11. Gulf investors (00:20:20)

12. Broader economic challenges (00:21:16)

13. Banking sector (00:23:11)

14. De-dollarisation (00:26:33)

15. Physical infrastructure (00:28:13)

16. Role of incubators and accelerators (00:29:58)

17. Iraqi Innovators (00:32:00)

18. Upcoming projects (00:35:42)

19. Getting in touch; social media (00:36:26)