The Global Muslim Tech & Startup Conference
Building a Global Muslim Tech & Startup Ecosystem for Social & Spiritual Impact
Muslims around the world are making deep impacts across every layer of technology and startup ecosystems. From the building of the iPhone to Muslim founders throughout Silicon Valley, and Muslim focused companies around the world, the 1st Annual Global Muslim Tech & Startup Conference is designed to bring together technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, community leaders, and diversity & equity experts these diverse sector actors as champions of Muslims in technology.
Over the last 5 years, we have been champions of global Muslim startups, through our reporting and work in global tech ecosystems. The first iteration of what is now the Center for Global Muslim Life was launched as Ummah Wide, where we published our first report on Global Muslim Startups in 2015, with subsequent reports following in 2016, and 2017. In total these reports featured 125 companies
We are working on a report on the Global Muslim Startup space, and showing the growth since we wrote our 50 global Muslim startups articles . While those reports may have been early for the Muslim Startup space, they resonated around the world with the original 2015 article having over 150,000 views, and the subsequent reports having 50,000 and 60,000 views each.
There are a set of companies featured in those original reports that now have in some cases revenue in the millions of dollars. The report would feature the top 20 companies in the space today in 2020, companies like LaunchGood, Modanisa, Haute Hijab, Noor Kids, MuzMatch, Wahed Invest, etc. Of the 121 companies featured in those original articles, only 19 of them no longer exist today.
There has also been huge growth in the networked nature of Muslims in Tech/ entrepreneurship with the growth of groups such as Like Hearted.
In 2017 we were planning a Muslims in Tech conference in San Francisco with 500 Startups and Tech Stars, but the location and costs of an in-person conference were barriers to making this happen.
With the new nonprofit we have hosted a few successful digital conferences, including the 2020 Global Muslim Film Festival, so we have the model down and believe the time is now to launch a conference like this.
The conference, which would be a combination of pre-recorded content and live streaming, rather than just focusing on Muslim focused companies, would focus on the larger ecosystem which I outlined at a speech I gave at the 500 Startups Diversity in Tech event in Los Angeles.
The Core Ecosystems for the conference include:
Muslim Social & Spiritual Impact Sector
Muslims in Global Tech Ecosystems
US
Southeast Asia
Middle East / Turkey
Europe
Africa
Companies focused on Muslim majority populations
Muslim Startups focused on Muslim consumers
Faith, Philanthropy & Venture capital Funding
Diversity, Equity, and Belonging in Corporate Space
These Core Spaces for the Conference include:
Social Enterprise
Faith / Spiritual Impact
Media & Creative Industries
FinTech
Fashion & E-Commerce
Food & Travel
Muslim Tech Sector - Diversity & Equity within large corporations
Education & Children