Syria's Tech Startups Find a Refuge in Jordan (original) (raw)

For years, Hussam Ali Kaj ran a thriving Web design studio in his native city of Aleppo, in northwestern Syria. Then business dried up as his textile and pharmaceutical customers began leaving the war-torn country. So in January, at the suggestion of a friend, Ali Kaj enrolled in a month-long training boot camp run by Oasis500, a startup accelerator in Amman, Jordan, that has been actively recruiting Syrian ventures. Ali Kaj then persuaded Oasis500 to invest $30,000 in his new company, Websity, a website builder and content management system designed for Arabic speakers. “I’ve been working the last 20 years to achieve something, and suddenly you lose everything, and you have to start somewhere else in a new country,” says the 45-year-old Web designer, whose two children stayed behind in Aleppo. “It’s not a pleasant experience.”

Ali Kaj is part of a Syrian exodus set off by the two-year-old conflict between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. More than 1.4 million have registered as refugees with the United Nations. The better off have departed for Europe, while a greater number of displaced business owners have landed in Turkey, Lebanon, and other countries in the region, where they often work menial jobs to get by.