UAE based ExploreTECH, the digital marketplace connecting technology vendors and buyers in the hospitality and travel industry in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), looks back at a highly successful first year of operations since its launch in January.
The business registered over 1,100 buyers, has an average of 3,500 monthly users – grown organically - and saw a 95 percent growth in product listings. The platform currently lists over 1,000 hospitality and travel technology products across 12 main and 97 sub-categories.

Built by industry professionals for industry professionals, ExploreTECH is driven by a team of experts who have all lived the pain points of traditional technology procurement for years. AI-enabled, the platform makes it easy to search, discover, compare, and procure for hospitality and travel businesses through its AI powered blended search, turning the often-complex sourcing process simple.

Unlike many other marketplaces, ExploreTECH is technology agnostic and doesn’t have a pay-to-win but data-to-win model. This encourages all tech vendors that are servicing the MEA region to verify their content and make it available to buyers in both English and Arabic through two-way connectivity with Tarjama, which is key in the region.

“I’m thrilled that we have had such a successful first year,” said Co-Founder & CEO Mona Faraj.  “It confirms that we’re on the right track with our vision to drive industry innovation and simplify tech procurement through automation.”
To date, USD 2,4M has been invested, backed amongst others by pre-seed investors Antoine Medawar and Alanood Tahlawi, Anil Chandirani representing the Satguru Group and Livingroom Dubai. To fuel its growth, ExploreTECH has embarked on a seed funding round of USD 2M which is expected to close in April 2024.

“It’s been an incredible journey so far and thanks to our early adopters who saw the value of ExploreTECH even before launch, we’re seeing vast demand from the industry for our marketplace. Our next seed round will power the 2024 blueprint for module development which includes a tech stack builder, product reviews, multi-lingual options, and the build of our much-anticipated automated RFP tool, which will be a first of its kind for our industry in the Middle East and Africa,” Faraj added.

Market research shows that the MEA region has a potential 100,000 users and its inventory is growing at a remarkable five percent annually. Globally, there are over 2.5 million potential users, with 350,000 of them in ExploreTECH’s addressable market. “As we continue to develop new features, users can look forward to a seamless and transparent procurement process in a single URL for all things tech and give us the opportunity to scale the business to other geographies and verticals,” concluded Faraj.
For more information about ExploreTECH please visit: https://www.exploretech.io/en