Hussam Hammo
The story
Hussam Hammo studied computer science at Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman and in 2006 co-founded Faye3.com, an early Arabic social network that passed a million users. While at Maktoob he came across Travian, a German strategy game that had more Arabic-speaking players than those of every other language combined, yet no Arabic version. In 2009 he co-founded Wizards Productions with two Maktoob colleagues to make browser games for the Arab world. When the studio tried to build its own ambitious game it ran out of money and closed in 2012, and Hussam lost his savings. In 2013 he started Tamatem with a simpler idea: take games that already worked and make them feel local, joining 500 Startups in California the week after registering. Its drifting game Shake the Metal swapped exotic cars for vehicles common on regional roads and passed five million downloads. Tamatem has since published more than 70 games with over 300 million downloads and raised an $11 million Series B led by Krafton, the maker of PUBG.
By the numbers
Their company
JordanGamingTamatem
Amman-based publisher localising mobile games for Arabic-speaking players
