Even five years ago, it might have been difficult to find many real tech companies in Dubai. But I’ve found some at all levels of development, from a startup that is drawing attention from Silicon Valley, called MENA Commerce, to Jamalon, a 65-employee online Arabic language bookstore that is beginning to scale up and seeking its B round of funding. Founder Ala’ Alsallal moved from Amman, Jordan, to Dubai to manage the company’s launch of print-on-demand — which is far better to run out of Dubai, he told me, because the shipping costs out of Dubai’s busy airport are cheaper. There’s also, of course, Souq.com, the Middle East’s first unicorn, founded by a Syrian.
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