UAE Tech Podcast Al Bawaba Business

Leo Dovbenko is CEO and Co-Founder of YallaMarket and YallaHub, an aggregator providing ecommerce fulfillment and warehousing services. What’s interesting about Leo is that he began his journey training as a software engineer, but found his real passion working in bars and swish restaurants as a student at Uni. Pretty soon he was working with big brands, and managing larger locations.

As so often on the UAE Tech Podcast, this is a story of taking a slightly different path. By combining experience in the F&B industry with software design, development and a clear enjoyment of business strategy, Leo found himself riding the coattails of a booming food-tech industry.

Tune in for a discussion on 15 minute delivery, the VC industry, the importance of data, and why quick commerce will be an increasing percentage of revenue for the high-street store going forwards.

Legends of Bezogia is an Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORG) combining tokenomics, NFTs and competitive ranked gaming with the blockchain. That means players can invest in a Bezoge avatar, mint magic blocks, sell in-game items and become part of the Bezogia community.

The UAE has long invested in cybersecurity, hosting globally significant conferences and attracting talent in this space for at least the past decade. At the same time, the field of cybersecurity is shifting as the sophistication of the digital economy matures. Satista estimated that the digital economy will grow to $53 trillion US dollars next year, up from 13.5 trillion in 2018.

As the global economy faces a period of sustained economic uncertainty, we talked about Cashew’s early mission, the importance of forming partnerships with banks and larger institutions and why expanding into markets such as KSA or Oman, makes the UAE an increasingly attractive destination.

‘Yap’ means ‘Pay’ backwards. It’s a neobank established in the UAE, working on a move to KSA, and offering a range of services for B2B and B2C clients. The company markets itself as a financial technology - not a bank.

The idea is called “cCommerce”, or “collaborative commerce.” According to Investopedia, it means “the optimization of supply and distribution channels to capitalize on the global economy by using new technology efficiently.