By Omar Al-Khalidi ~
In one of Baghdad’s tiny co-working spaces in Karada, the soft buzz of laptops and sighs of collaboration are heard. Under the sheen of fluorescent lights, clusters of young Iraqis gather around mockups of designs, batches of presentation pitches, and streams of code—planting what most of today would term Iraq’s burgeoning digital renaissance.
Having endured decades of conflict and underdevelopment, Iraq is quietly building a healthy startup ecosystem—one ably spearheaded by young, technology-literate business leaders, entrepreneurial business executives, and a new network of domestic and international backers. In challenging climate, the technology ecosystem of the country is turning out to be a light of hope, inspiration, and resilience, and a model of the ways that innovation can take even the blackest of challenges and transform them into possibilities.
“We’re not waiting for change anymore,” says Nour Hamid, co-founder of the logistics startup Tajarib. “We’re building it ourselves, one line of code at a time.”
A New Generation of Builders
Businesses such as Miswag, “Iraq’s Amazon,” expanded dramatically, providing e-commerce in a firm that earlier depended upon human touch. Miswag, established in 2014, has more than 200 employees and achieved millions of investments. Its rags-to-riches success is inspiring the next generation of business owners to dream big and think digital ¹.
Erbil and Baghdad are the nation’s foremost tech hubs today, where early-stage startups such as The Station in Baghdad and Re:Coded House in Erbil are offered seed capital, mentorship, and space to co-work. These aren’t offices—idea hubs and haven for risk-takers.
Investment and Infrastructure Rising
While still in infancy, the investment environment within Iraq is on the recovery path. Iraq Venture Partners and Orange Corners Baghdad’s opening with the backing of the Dutch government is linking prospective startups and capital as well as mentoring ².
Second, the Central Bank of Iraq has also been encouraging fintech in the way of digital payment services, which have been providing ease to mobile banking and cashless transactions. This is important in a nation where more than 80% of its population was not finding pleasure in banking services ³.
Countrywide expansion of fiber-optic networks also is underway and being supported by the Iraqi Ministry of Communications, and this should substantially improve internet penetration and speed—monsters of any viable technology sector.
Women in Tech: Breaking Barriers
One of these trends is also the growing number of women on Iraq’s tech scene. Organizations like Code for Iraq and Women Techmakers Baghdad are offering equal opportunities where women can join and fill spaces that have been relegated to the backburner.
“Technology doesn’t discriminate on gender, only your skills,” says 23-year-old software engineer Ranya Al-Attar. “We need society to recognize that reality now.”
In 2023, over 40% of Re:Coded’s coding bootcamp students were women—proof of a cultural revolution that’s finally gaining altitude ⁴.
Fixing Real Problems, Online
The best thing about the Iraqi tech boom is that technology here is not foreign-centric. Startups here are not copying Silicon Valley models—their start-ups are solving Iraq-specific problems.
Consider Khedma, for instance, a locally born on-demand home services company for things such as plumbing and electrical work. Or Sandoog, an insuretech company leveraging web-based platforms to reach rural markets in need. These companies show the power of local ingenuity to improve living standards and prop up the economy in bottom-line terms.
“Necessity is really the mother of invention here in Iraq,” states Zaid Majeed, mentor at TechHub Kurdistan. “Our founders understand what their societies require because they see and feel it on a day-to-day basis.”
Yes, there are still challenges—anything from government delays to unpredictable power supply—but the trend is clear: Iraq’s tech industry is expanding, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Iraqi government planning 2024–2030 is summoning digital transformation as an overarching focus pillar, and collaborative arrangements such as between the UNDP’s Innovation for Development program ⁵ are rolling out to a new digital economy.
As Iraq emerges from the ashes, its fate is nearly as certain as ever that it will be coded, not carved out. And if one can tell by tomorrow’s young coders, that fate is already built—glossy, flashy, and Iraqi-hands.
Sources:
[1] How Miswag Is Building Iraq’s Amazon – TechCrunch
[2] Orange Corners Baghdad – orangecorners.com
[3] World Bank: Digital Financial Services in Iraq
[4] Re:Coded Iraq – Women in Tech
[5] UNDP Iraq – Innovation for Development
