It could be argued that the hallmark of any tech publication coming of age is the release of an arbitrary numerical ranking with vague criteria and questionable logic.

If that’s true, then FWDstart’s day has at long last arrived.

While lists often get a bad rap, and mostly for good reason (ahem, vanity exercise) – the best ones can plug a real information gap.

We’ve got fintech 50 lists. We’ve got top VC lists. And we’ve got an annual list with a suspicious track record of crowning future frauds.

What we don’t have is a centralised directory of MENA diaspora founders building some of the most category-defining companies in the world.

The sheer density of MENA diaspora founders building globally, from the Valley to London, Paris, and New York is immense.

What we’ve found frustrating is how often we came across many of these founders, household names aside, purely by chance, through happenstance and algorithmic luck.

So, to remedy this, we’ve built an interactive dashboard of 50 founders from MENA backgrounds building around the world.

The MENA Diaspora 50 is our attempt to make something fragmented a little more legible – to show who these founders are, what they’re building, and where they’re doing it.

Let’s be clear: this list is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be.

It’s a curated selection based on a few simple, transparent criteria:

These criteria will evolve over time. So will the list. For those worried the list skews towards later-stage, fear not, nearly 60% of the startups in our rankings are at the pre-Seed or Seed stages.

To support that evolution, we’ve built an interactive dashboard that lets you explore these companies in more depth including: founder bios, funding history, investor networks, sector categories, and geographic distribution.

A couple of very quick takeaways:

Geography: The top four hubs; San Francisco, London, New York, and Paris, account for the majority of companies, 82.4% to be exact. No surprise given the capital, talent, and technical density that inevitably amass there.

Nationality: Lebanese founders represent nearly 30% of the list. That’s not a coincidence – decades of political fragility, the long tail of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), periodic conflict spillovers, and economic instability have contributed to one of the world’s largest diasporas relative to population – with more Lebanese living abroad than at home.

Sector: AI and fintech dominate, especially in early-stage funding. Devtools also represent a significant share, a reflection of how many highly technical founders choose to build outside the region, where capital, talent, and developer ecosystems are deeper. Deeptech is also meaningful, often driven by founders leaving to access infrastructure and risk capital that simply isn’t available locally.

All of this and lots more, including a data insights breakdown spanning stage, geography, sector and founder background.

To celebrate the launch, we’re offering a limited-time 25% off all plans 👇

As a premium subscriber you’ll also get access to new analysis and case studies published weekly, unlock all past deep-dives (60+ pieces), exclusive interviews with leading MENA-based founders and VCs, and our exclusive MENA founder and VC playbooks.

Plus, you’ll be supporting an independent regional tech publication that actually gives a sh*t!