The UAE-based B2B talent reservation platform, Soul Artists, founded by Suhail and Zaid Khoury in 2018, has recently announced receiving $350,000 in a fund round led by Falak and Wasel.

Soul Artists allows companies to book musicians and artists in different mediums like dancing, circus, visual & performing arts, folklore, and even handicrafts. These artists are able to create free profiles on the platform, after which they would be provided with a specialized talent management team. The platform also offers accessible wallets, payment protection and allows users to conduct phone calls. 

WAYAa spoke to Suhail Khoury, Co-founder of Soul Artists, about the fund round and how the startup will be being its expansion.

“Funds are for marketing and advertising the Soul Artist platform in Saudi Arabia and expanding it in a way that would benefit from the Kingdom’s focus on promoting entertainment as part of its 2030 vision. It also aims at developing our services in the Middle East” said Suhail Khoury on their goal from the recent fund.

Khouri views educating the market about new methods of reservations as the biggest challenge they faced, given that the entertainment market hasn’t been updated for decades. “At the beginning, we spent a lot of time and effort educating artists and companies about a more advanced, faster, safer way to work in this business”.

Despite the entertainment industry enduring damage caused by COVID-19, the period of which people witnessed social distance and strict lockdowns worldwide, starting from the closure of places of social gatherings and the cancellation of concerts or even their postponement until further notice, Soul Artists kept providing consultations and developing tools in the platform, improving the system in an effort to support artists.

When asked about the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, he answered “I believe that startups in MENA are doing great work, and we are lucky to be in a place and time that encourages new ideas and gives an opportunity to anyone to achieve their dream”