News

Google Cloud Backs DXB Female Founders Event Series

Hosted at Google Cloud’s Dubai office, the series provides female entrepreneurs in the UAE with mentorship, skills, and networking opportunities.

Published

2 years ago

February 12, 2025

Nour Nasir

google cloud backs dxb female founders event series

The DXB Female Founders (DFF) monthly event series — an initiative supporting women entrepreneurs in the UAE — has secured sponsorship from Google Cloud. Hosted at Google Cloud’s Dubai office, the series will offer female founders a space to connect, learn, and develop critical business skills.

Kicking off today, the DFF series will feature monthly events, each built around a unique theme. Attendees can expect hands-on workshops, expert-led discussions, and real-life founder stories designed to provide actionable insights for aspiring and established entrepreneurs.

The first event focuses on Founder Stories, featuring Saba Yussouf, General Partner of Nettle Ventures. Saba, who sold her first business at 24 for £2 million and now leads a $60 million biotech company, will offer first-hand advice on investor readiness, key funding strategies, and what investors seek in a startup.

Adding to the lineup, Marisa Peer — celebrity therapist and best-selling author of I Am Enough — will deliver a session on overcoming self-doubt, building confidence, and achieving business success. With experience coaching top athletes, executives, and high-profile individuals, Marisa’s insights will be invaluable for founders looking to break mental barriers and reach their full potential.

The series will also welcome Nacho Floristan, Director of Generative AI Solutions Architecture at Google Cloud, alongside other accomplished female founders who will share their entrepreneurial journeys.

Faranak Farahmand Pour, Director of Global Strategic Initiatives at Google Cloud, highlighted the impact of this initiative: “Through our support of the DXB Female Founders event series, we aim to help unlock the immense potential of female talent in this region and contribute to the UAE’s ambitious goals for economic growth and technological advancement”.

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Nicki Bedford, Founder & CEO of DXB Female Founders, echoed the sentiment: “DXB Female Founders is committed to equipping women entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to thrive. We’re incredibly grateful for Google Cloud’s sponsorship, which allows us to reach more women and connect them with world-class expertise”.

By offering practical skills, fostering meaningful connections, and providing access to top-tier mentors, the initiative aims to contribute to the UAE’s vision of technological progress, economic diversification, and a thriving innovation culture.

For more details about the initiative or to register for upcoming DXB events, head to the official website.

Related Topics:Dubai Google Google Cloud

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Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

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The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.