LONDON: The Cairo-based video analytics startup Mintrics has its eye on global expansion after becoming the first company from the Middle East to graduate from tech giant Google’s launchpad accelerator program.
The Google project supports startups from a specific region with a network of mentors, workshops as well as thousands of dollars of equity-free support, helping companies in their early stages of development take the next step.
Mintrics was one of 11 startups chosen to participate in the latest Africa-focused program, first announced in August.
The Egyptian company is aiming to use this experience to build up its presence in the Middle East and North Africa region, before using it as a springboard for worldwide expansion.
“We see the Middle East, specifically the GCC, as our launchpad for global (growth),” said Adel Heikal, communications officer at Mintrics.
The company was first set up in 2016 by co-founder and CEO Tarek Nasr alongside Tarek Shalaby and Muhammad El Zahlan, as an offshoot from their creative agency ThePlanet, after they saw a need to help major brands and ad agencies analyze how people interact with their video online content.
Its platform gives content creators the ability to see how their videos perform on social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Via a dashboard, it compares the performance of content against historical performance and industry averages.
There are still many regional companies and brands that are not “data-driven” when creating their video content, Heikal said, particularly in the Mena region.
“Video is still a niche to a certain extent in Mena in terms of content producers that make data-driven decisions, especially outside of the performance marketing angle. That being said though, the opportunity is huge, and the market is on the cusp of exploding as Internet penetration rapidly increases,” he said.
Performance marketing is when advertisers will only pay agencies or marketing firms when an advert achieves a specific and measurable outcome such as a “click.”
Mintrics has already caught the eye of investors, securing funding from Dubai-based venture capital fund Numu Capital, last year.
Its current valuation stands at $3 million, said Heikal, adding the company was on the lookout for further investment.
The company is looking to expand its existing business development desk in Dubai.
Saudi Arabia has been identified as a key growth market, though Mintrics has not confirmed plans to expand into the Kingdom yet, said Heikal.
The country is an attractive market for online advertisers, with one of the highest reported rates of YouTube usage in the world.
“There are few big content producers in Mena. That being said they are increasing in number, especially in high Internet penetration markets like Saudi Arabia and UAE and we also see a big opportunity to grow globally,” he said.
“We are software-as-service, so anyone from any country can use it. We have acquired many customers from the US, Sri Lanka and more.”
