Egyptian startup Hoopoe Digital is a pioneer in “physical intelligence”, a generative-AI field focused on transforming physical venues into data-driven, intelligent spaces.
Founded in 2019 by Mohammad Omara, Hoopoe Digital uses WiFi infrastructure along with big data and machine learning to offer a wide range of web-based, location-ware targeted services.
Unlike traditional smart venues, “intelligent venues” interact with visitors, offer services, answer questions, and respond in real time – creating human-like engagement with the environment.
“Using Smart WiFi — which leverages the venue’s existing infrastructure — alongside Digital Twin and other AI technologies, we enable seamless interaction, enhanced experiences, and intelligent operations within physical spaces,” Omara told Disrupt Africa.
Omara founded Hoopoe following his experience with a previous venture, which had developed a global WiFi network using crowdsourcing technology. While managing this network, he identified significant limitations in existing third-party hotspot management solutions, specifically in feature functionality, revenue generation capabilities, and data-driven location intelligence services.
He thus founded Hoopoe Digital with the vision of creating the world’s first Smart WiFi marketplace, designed to address these limitations and provide comprehensive WiFi management solutions.
“We identified a significant gap in WiFi hotspot management solutions,” Omara said.
Having set out to fill that gap, completely self-funded, Hoopoe has already provided its services to the likes of Amazon, McDonald’s, Burger King and Qatar mobile operator Ooredoo.
“Our market penetration began modestly with a small café in East Cairo as our initial client, generating under US$50 monthly revenue for the first six months. This period proved valuable for refining our solution and establishing our business model. During this development phase, we strategically formed multiple commercial and technical partnerships that significantly accelerated our market reach,” said Omara.
“By integrating our solutions into partners’ established digital offerings, we achieved distribution at scale through these existing sales channels. This partnership-driven approach created a powerful multiplier effect – each time a partner’s product was sold, our solution was included, providing immediate revenue and creating opportunities to upsell and cross-sell additional services to an expanding customer base. This strategy has enabled us to achieve substantial market penetration while maintaining efficient customer acquisition costs.”
Hoopoe Digital has already managed to expand its operations into Middle Eastern and European markets, and is targeting expansion into the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and South Africa this year.
“Our B2B SaaS business model provides a strong foundation for global expansion in all directions, enabling us to scale efficiently across diverse international markets,” Omara said.
“We charge our customers a yearly subscription per service per WiFi access point. So far, we have more than 15,000 access point subscriptions.”
