Hayi

Hayi (Arabic for ‘neighbourhood’) seeks to digitize neighbourhoods across the MENA region. Our mobile application provides a social network and exclusive platform for neighbours to connect, share information and befriend those in close proximity.

At the core we aim to bridge the communication gap between 3 community stakeholders, namely: Neighbours, Local Businesses, and Community Management (Nakheel, Damac, Emaar etc). Neighbours struggle to make real connections in their community and suffer from isolation and loneliness. Businesses don’t have access to hyperlocal marketing, costing them in missed customers and higher ad spends. Community Management operations and support are inefficient, which leaves residents frustrated. Currently neighbours attempt to solve this problem by joining Facebook and Whatsapp groups, however these are not optimised for neighbourhoods, most often filled with spam & fake accounts, and expose residents mobile phone numbers.

We solve this problem by creating an exclusive platform tailored to each neighbourhood with an environment of positive-sum exchange between the local stakeholders, where verified neighbours can connect for free, community managers can handle communications efficiently and where local businesses enjoy hyperlocal marketing by offering residents special discounts on the Hayi application. Revenue will be generated through selling annual subscriptions to local businesses to access their neighbourhood of choice, and ad revenue through google adsense.

Our startup enjoys first mover advantage in the MENA region, with an extremely scalable product being able to cater to all demographics. With a diverse professional background in Marketing, Finance and Software Engineering, we are confident that our founding team is uniquely equipped to successfully implement and expand this product across MENA, before our international US & EU competitors enter the region.