This company is part of Executive’s Top 20 in science and technology. Read more stories of our special report on entrepreneurship in Lebanon, as they’re published here.
Eurisko Mobility
Industry: Mobile
Project/Product: Celluloid
Year of incorporation: 2010
Product launch: 2013
Employees: 23 in Lebanon out of 25 total, and hiring
Board of directors: Yes, three members
Founders: Edgard Hanna, Ziad Hanna, Zack Morad
Eurisko Mobility’s main business is mobile app development, as well as working on developing products, both from their lab in Zouk Mikael. An element that scored highly with Executive is that, while Eurisko Mobility expanded into the US in 2013, they kept the majority of their team in Lebanon. This means the company still has a positive impact on the economy, creating high value jobs while using Lebanon as a developer’s kitchen.
The main business follows the classic service model, largely consisting of custom mobile development and consultancy services for clients. Essentially they are approached by clients with ideas, and propose functionalities for the apps to have, or, in the case of particularly tech savvy clients, roll with whatever they may propose.
Rooted in a firm belief that mobile technology is the future, the company has a clear drive and direction while remaining adaptable to business needs. “It was a technology that was taking a hold of the world. We knew that everything is going to go mobile,” says Morad.
Their push into the mobile industry has been rewarded handsomely. While they did not disclose their financial performance numbers, they have served over 120 unique clients, according to Morad, many of whom are returning customers. They work for media portals, TV stations, and develop products for corporate apps and games. They became profitable in 2013, and have grown 100 percent year on year according to the cofounder.
Besides creating a successful business, they have worked with new exciting mobile technologies involved in building leap motion and oculus rift games. But what really makes them stand out from other service centered mobile businesses in our eyes are the products they are developing in house.
They have released a film discovery app, Celluloid, based on award winning technologies that were developed by US tech and media executive Dwight Marcus, in which Morad invested in 2001 for development, and which they are now using on license. The technology works thanks to a display algorithm and metatagging, and Celluloid makes use of it to stream seven second trailers of films based on a search criteria by genre, which eliminates the redundancy of searching for and watching trailers online. They are currently working on an update that would allow the search to be more specific, such as searching for films that are available on Netflix.
“It’s not going to change the industry per say but it’s going to change the way people search for films,” says Morad. The team has a strong database and film background, which Morad claims helped structure a very powerful search algorithm.
Going forward, they are considering making Celluloid into its own company. They are seeking to raise $1 million for Celluloid independently.