Moniify, a new digital business and finance news platform backed by Egyptian billionaire entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris, launched in Dubai on Monday.

The company, which has been recruiting aggressively for journalists and social media content creators across emerging markets, has five years’ backing from Sawiris, executives told Zawya.

Sawiris is the Chairman of Moniify and Michael Peters is the CEO. Peters was the former CEO of Euronews, in which Sawiris previously held a majority stake. The platform is designed to cover emerging markets from an emerging markets viewpoint, rather than from a western or Wall Street market perspective.

Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Moniify
Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Moniify
Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Moniify

Revenue will be from paywalled premium content as well as events and sub-brands, Bishr said. 

Coverage is starting from the GCC and Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and moving on to Africa and Latin America in the future.

The executives declined to comment on the budget involved, but Zawya understands that hundreds of millions of dollars have been made available to the project with Sawiris as its sole backer.  

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Daniel Luiz)

imogen.lillywhite@lseg.com