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Samer Karam

Lebanese entrepreneur, investor, author, and activist

Samer Karam is a Lebanese entrepreneur, investor, author, and activist. He founded Seeqnce, the first startup accelerator in Lebanon, created the Accelerate conference, and has had a leading role in building Lebanon's startup ecosystem and promoting, advising, mentoring, and investing in startup ecosystems across the world.

In a 2017 article about Beirut's tech scene, tech journalist Monty Munford said Karam is "probably the most influential tech person across the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region." Karam created Blogging Beirut, a citizens' photojournalism website, in 2004. During the 2006 Lebanon War, it became one of the most visited blogs in Lebanon. In 2007, he founded his first tech company, Wunbox, with a concept similar to Google Wave. He also started a couple of businesses based on Twitter. During this period, Karam co-authored scientific papers on community information and location technology. With his campaign "Flip the Switch", Karam lobbied the Lebanese minister of communications into tackling the nation's stifling connection speeds. During the Egyptian revolution of 2011, he kept a real-time online register of missing persons.

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