Dubai: Best Islamic Economy Startup award goes to a mobil app

irhal_arabicThe “Irhal” Islamic travel mobile app has won the first prize for being the most innovative application developed by a startup in the field of Islamic economy at The Entrepreneurs Day Awards hosted by Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority in Dubai. More than 300 companies took part in the competition. Ten startups were shortlisted for final presentations before a jury of international seed and angel investors.

“We are honored and humbled to receive this award,” said Irfan Ahmad, CEO and founder of Irhal.com. “Such appreciation gives us the impetus to keep going.”

Irhal is an Arabic/English Islamic travel app which has 90+ city guides. Besides traditional travel information on places to visit, shopping, hotels, etc., Irhal also has GPS enabled maps showing Halal restaurants and mosques. It also has prayer timings and Qibla direction for each city. Irhal is available both on the Android and iOS formats.

The Irhal.com website has over 200,000 visitors from the Middle East. The mobile app is positioned to be the must-have resource for all Muslim travelers globally. According to a 2013 Thomson Reuters study, Muslims spend over $130 billion every year in leisure and business travel and 31% of this amount is spent by travelers from the GCC alone.

Shahla Ahmed Abdul Razak, Deputy CEO, DSOA, said: “I would like to congratulate the winners – they truly deserve this recognition from a platform that we anticipate will grow over the coming years. I would also like to acknowledge all participants and supporters who took this as a learning opportunity to expand their knowledge and horizons in technology-based entrepreneurship and products that support the UAE’s Islamic economy.”