As part of its MENA expansion, Egyptian media and entertainment company Minly has announced the purchase of Oulo, a Dubai-based celebrity shoutout platform focusing on the Levant area.
Minly, a company co-founded by Mohamed El-Shinnawy, Tarek Hosny, Bassel El-Toukhy, Tarek ElGanainy, and Ahmed Abass last year, allows customers to purchase customised video greetings and shoutouts from their favourite celebrities.
The platform, which is available on Android, iOS, and the web, has seen significant organic development, with more than 130,000 registered users and over 1,000 celebrities.
In June, 4DX Ventures, B&Y Venture Partners, and Global Ventures co-led a US $3.6 million early fundraising round, and the company is now pursuing its development goals with the purchase of Oulo. The transaction, according to Minly, solidified the company’s position as the region’s top creative economy platform and will accelerate its development trajectory and consumer reach.
The united company will be known as Minly and will provide its combined knowledge across the whole area. Kamal Nazha, the creator and CEO of Oulo, will join Minly as a chief commercial officer as part of the purchase (CCO).
“We are delighted to join forces with Kamal and the Oulo team. Consumers want authentic access to celebrities more than ever before, whilst stars need platforms to connect personally with their fan base. These market dynamics are very powerful, and scale is a competitive differentiator,” said Mohamed El-Shinnawy, co-founder and CEO of Minly.
“Minly and Oulo share a common passion to create authentic enjoyable moments by connecting creators with their fans in unique ways, so we’re very excited about our future together in this fast-growing market.”
Nazha, the creator of Oulo, claimed he believed in the adage “if you can’t defeat them, join them.”
“I’ve always admired and respected the vision and execution of Minly, so I’m naturally very excited to join Shinnawy and the whole Minly team on this journey,” he said.
“With its top-tier technology, investors, and team members, Minly is very well positioned to develop and dominate the creator economy market in the region and beyond, and I am very motivated to ensure this happens.”
