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As a celebration of the digital excellence seen in the region over the course of the last 12 months, the E-Business Awards 2023 was an invite-only event that was staged with the support of Numai Real Estate and Fluidmeet.

SME Story interview with Washmen CEO Rami Shaar on the launch of ShoeCare, the company's shoe cleaning and restoration vertical. Shaar notes the category required "highly skilled craftsmanship, which is not readily available in the market," and launched after more than a year of R&D.

What inspired you to start ShoeCare as a vertical? Considering the primary business offering of Washmen is laundry, ShoeCare is a natural complement to our customer base. Expansion into the category of shoes has been on our mind for a few years, but the launch had to wait until we found highly skilled craftsmanship, which is not readily available in the market.

Washmen’s journey has been anchored by a focus on the future and scalability, where quality supercedes unsustainable growth. In a world where it’s becoming increasingly easy to avail nearly any product or service through an app, the MENA region is seeing its fair share of players in the on-demand services sector.

Want to change your career, widen your skillset, take up a new hobby or just love learning something new? The new year is the perfect opportunity to upskill, which opens doors to new opportunities.

UAE-based spend management platform Alaan has raised US$4.5 million in a pre-series A funding from Presight Capital, Y Combinator, and angel investors. Coupled with the $2.5 million seed round it raised last year, Alaan has now received a total of $7 million in funding to date.