I just did a DNS look up on Nahel.com and found that their MX records point to “mail1.aramex.com” and “mail2.aramex.com”.
There was a strong rumour that Fadi Ghandour, the CEO of Aramex had made an investment in Nahel.com, I guess this puts it beyond a doubt. The Aramex / Nahel.com partnership extends further than I first thought.
This is also why Aramex treats so poorly nahel's competitors and that they all left Aramex, as well as other big online stores like souq.com now offering an alternative to aramex after so many complaints ... not a good move aramex
I agree. We were initially considering the use of a local courier service - but this doesn't make sense - how do you work with someone who you know has conflicting interests to your own?
It probably would have been a better idea to be more transparent - and use an alternative structure - say a separate investment arm to invest in Nahel.com and ensure that the relationship between the two remained vendor and customer only.
In this case it's clear that there's more going on than we initially thought. This doesn't feel like a pure Angel investment from Fadi Ghandour.
I have no idea about the background to the relationship, although there has been vague rumours of a partnership.
One point though - and again, this comes from someone with no knowledge of the situation - is that this could also be a helping hand type angel move, giving a smaller startup access to a bigger company's IT infrastructure. This was the model that was supposed to be used by Bayt.com's Intilaq incubator/angel investment project (which is, I think, now dead in the water).
The idea of a conflict of interest where a service provider has a preferred relationship with one customer is a serious one, and all I would say is, why not just ask Fadi? He is quite responsive both on twitter and over email, and all my experience with him is that he is one of the most decent, principled and passionate champions of entrepreneurs and young people in the Middle East.
Did you check the website recently? ;)