wamda.com - Since 2006, female entrepreneurs from around the world have competed annually for the prestigious Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, in search of international recognition and sponsorship.

This year Eman Hylooz, founder of the first Arabic digital platform for book recommendations and discussions Abjjad, tried her luck and made it through as one of 17 finalists out of 1,700 applicants.

“I think that the final decision depended on the social impact of the startups and their hiring capabilities,” the 31-year-old Jordanian said. “In the end, I think we were chosen because our idea is unique and successful.”

Passion leads to startup

As an ardent reader and former software developer, Hylooz founded Abjjad in 2012 after she noticed the lack of an online database for Arabic books. Abjjad, which refers to the first four letters of the Arabic alphabet (أ ب ج د), tries to fill the gap between Arabic readers, Arab authors and publishing houses.

“Abjjad is different than Amazon in that it looks more like the book-discussion platform goodreads. It’s basically IMDb for books,” Hylooz said.