8 March 2012 - Barcelona, Spain - Mubawab, the classifieds startup for the Middle East and North Africa region announced today that it has received $850,000 in funding from Spain's leading Web consortium and international angel investors.

Mubawab (http://www.mubawab.com/), operating 17 local country websites across the Middle East and North Africa, announced today that it has received $850,000 in funding from Grupo Intercom, Spain's leading Web consortium, as well as from international business angels, to develop the leading classifieds portal for the region. Well-known Web brands emerging from Spain that Grupo Intercom has previously backed include Softonic, eMagister, InfoJobs and BuyVIP.

Kevin Gormand, Mubawab CEO, comments: "We're delighted to have the backing of such esteemed investors, and the team is totally committed to building Mubawab into a household brand across the region in the coming months."

Mubawab's aim is to make it easier for people across the Middle East and North Africa to find everyday things online - from real estate to cars, jobs and household items.

Reflecting positive take-up by its target audience, the company also announced today that it is now serving 600,000 visitors per month and generating several thousand user-posted classified ads each day - after just 14 months of company operations. Mubawab's content comes from users, as well as through feeds and partnerships with local businesses and portals.

Despite its rapid growth, Mubawab also faces unique challenges specific to the Middle Eastern market. Shadi el-Hajj, Mubawab CTO, explains: "The Arab online market is still young but with the popularity of social networking and mobile telephony, it's maturing faster than the underlying economic infrastructure. For example, many countries in the region don't have reliable street addresses but yet demand for location-based services is emerging. This often creates the need to really think outside the box with the technical solutions we go for."

-Ends-

ABOUT MUBAWAB
Mubawab is an online classifieds website for the Middle East and North Africa, allowing users to browse and post free ads for real estate, cars, jobs and everyday stuff. Mubawab means "classified ad" in Arabic and was founded in 2011. For more information and the full list of country websites operated by Mubawab, please visit http://www.mubawab.com/.

PRESS CONTACT
For more information, media materials or access to management, please contact:
Tom Dibaja
+34 696 025 284  (GMT hours)
tom@mubawab.com

© Press Release 2012