Qatar’s first global business-to-business (B2B) portal will be launched soon by C1ME, the regional distributor for Commerce One, reported the Gulf News on Sunday.
C1ME's chief executive, David Brown, said the project is being promoted by C1ME, Kuwait-based International Investor and Q-Tel.
Qatar will be the company's second marketplace in the region after the first opened last December in Kuwait, said the paper.
Additional ones will come up in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, the Levant and Maghreb.
Brown told the paper that profits are invested into local projects and his ultimate vision is to have 14 marketplaces in the Middle East.
"People were under the perception that you could have a global trading hub but what they wanted was privacy. So, we set up hubs," he said.
"This allowed people to trade globally but connect locally and that is how Commerce One was born."
Based on the success of C1ME in the last nine months, the paper said that promoters approved a second round of financing.
An additional 4.2 million shares were issued taking the total to $15 million.
C1ME was launched about a year ago with an initial capitalization of $12 million – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
