Egypt-based celebrity platform Minly acquires Dubai’s Oulo

Minly, a MENA-based media and entertainment startup, announced today that it has acquired Oulo, a Dubai-based celebrity shoutout platform, for an undisclosed fee.

The acquisition is coming six months after Minly raised a $3.6 million seed round and off the back of an impressive year of growth that saw the platform — which connects fans with athletes, musicians and stars through personalized experiences — acquire 130,000 users and 1,000 celebrities in over a year. 

Oulo, on the other hand, is a video gifting platform with more than 300 celebrities across Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The company was founded in 2020 by Kamal Nazha.

The merged business will operate under the Minly brand and roll out its combined experience offerings across the GCC region. And as part of the transaction, Nazha will join Minly as the chief commercial officer.

There are over 450 million people in the MENA region. One out of three are between the ages of 18 to 30 — a group with a deep connection to social media and fast contributing more to the global creator economy. Minly is optimizing its solution to capture a budding audience in the MENA region. 

When Minly CEO Mohamed El-Shinnawy, spoke to TechCrunch in June, he mentioned that the company was doubling down on building local celebrity acquisition teams across MENA and the GCC. One wouldn’t have interpreted his statement as an expansion rather than a literal acquisition play.