Minly, an Egyptian celebrity shoutout platform has acquired Dubai-based Oulo to combine services and expand reach for an undisclosed value.
Both startups allow fans to connect with athletes, musicians, and other celebrities, and the merged businesses will combine their roster of celebrities across the Arab region.
Minly enables fans to request personalized videos from celebrities, influencers, or musicians for a price — similar to the US’ Cameo. Minly has accumulated over 130k users, who can choose between around 1k celebrities, including Tamer Hosny, Hazem Imam and Sawsan Badr. The company recently launched Minly Watch, a service which gives users the ability to virtually attend events. The platform debuted with an exclusive concert from Egyptian rapper Wegz which had over 32k attendees.
Founded in 2020, Oulo operates similarly to Minly, it allows users to pay for customized video messages from over 300 celebrities across Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, including Bassel Khaiat, Ali Jaber and Maguy Farah.
“Historically, the majority of pan-Arab celebrities were either Egyptian or Lebanese. Therefore, combining forces unlocks immense synergies as, together, we dominate the two most important sources of cultural content,” Kamal Nazha, Oula’s founder, said.
The acquisition follows Minly’s recent seed round where it raised $3.6 million off the back of a year of growth for the platform. It acquired 130,000 users and 1,000 celebrities in just over a year.
“Our mission is to become the number one creator economy platform in the region, and speed to market is critical to achieving this,” Minly chief Mohamed El-Shinnawy told Tech Crunch in an interview.
