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"Rocket Internet is increasing its focus on the Middle East after it announced plans to pump \u20AC300 million (around $410 million) in the region and Africa via two new projects with South Africa carrier\u00A0MTN.\r\n\r\nThe companies are creating two joint ventures --\u00A0Africa Internet Holding (AIH), announced this week, and\u00A0Middle East Internet Holding (MEIH) --\u00A0which will function like incubators to create new Internet businesses. Rocket Internet already has a presence in both regions -- via lifestyle sales site Namshi, Uber-clone Easytaxi and others -- and the new organization will &amp;quot;develop existing ventures... and launch new companies even faster and more successfully,\u201D according to Rocket Internet co-founder\u00A0Oliver Samwer.\r\n\r\nAIH is expected to be up and running in the first quarter of 2014, with MEIH following in the second quarter. Rocket Internet tells us the investments are being made wholly by MTN.\r\n\r\nImage via John A. Davis / Shutterstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/me/2013/12/20/rocket-internet-partners-with-operator-mtn-to-invest-400m-in-startups-in-middle-east-and-africa/>