Generation Start-up: UAE’s Play:Date – the app that finds friends for your child – The National

Generation Start-up: UAE’s Play:Date – the app that finds friends for your child – The National

The socialising app, which is looking to raise $300,000 to expand to Saudi Arabia and Egypt by 2022, wants to hire more mothers

















Shamim Kassibawi, founder of Play:Date. The company wants to raise an additional $300,000 after securing $250,000 from New York venture capital company Modus Capital Courtesy: Play:Date 









Watching her sister raise four children and juggle the family's budget with other responsibilities made Shamim Kassibawi wonder how she could help ease the load for busy parents who want to keep their children engaged.



It was also an issue among couples within her social circles.



"I was meeting people who were the first couples to get married within their circle. While their friends were out partying, they were struggling to get play dates or the wife was not working and they could not afford to send the kids to nurseries,“ Ms Kassibawi says.



"The idea came to my mind for kids to make friends online and I started to think about how to commercialise that.“









I'm so big on this being an Arab app going to the rest of the world ... We're a UAE-based