News

Revibe Has Raised $2.3 Million For Planned MENA Expansion

The Dubai-based online marketplace for refurbished electronics plans to expand across the region while contributing to the circular economy.

Published

3 years ago

July 10, 2023

Nour Nasir

Revibe

Dubai-based startup Revibe has raised $2.3 million in a seed funding round that will allow it to expand its product portfolio across the MENA region, while enhancing the refurbished electronics platform’s contribution to the circular economy.

The investment was led by Egypt’s Flat6Labs and French-based venture capital fund Resonance, plus several other angel investors. Revibe, which primarily sells refurbished smartphones, laptops, and tablets, will now be able to scale its supply chain and diversify its portfolio to include other categories of electronics later this year.

The company was able to grow 500% within seven months across the Gulf countries, with a particular focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“Our success has come from always meeting our pledge to customers. But we are expanding all the time, and our goal is to gradually introduce all categories of electronics,” explained Hamza Iraqui, co-founder of Revibe.

Revibe’s strategy aligns with the concept of the circular economy — an economic system that focuses on reducing the use of new natural resources and minimizing waste.

Also Read: Dubai-Based Startup Alfii Raises $2.5 Million In Seed Funding

“Refurbished electronics represents a massive opportunity, especially in this time of economic challenges and growing climate awareness, where consumers are more mindful of their carbon impact while facing decreased purchasing power,” noted Maxime Le Dantec, partner and co-founder at Resonance.

Revibe was founded in 2022 and uses a business-to-consumer selling model that offers refurbished electronics at 30-70% less than brand-new items. The company’s team of engineers makes a 50-point check on all products listed on the marketplace and uses artificial intelligence to monitor quality and meet its strict selling standards.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

5 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.