Honours
In their own words
“Push really doesn’t work at all. Pull does.”
The story
Khalifa Manaa describes himself as from Finland and based in Dubai. He has been described as a product specialist, startup mentor, venture builder and occasional angel investor. He founded Shapr, where he was CEO, and before that co-founded RideHoop. He has mentored founders at Next Level and on in5 Dubai's Build your Startup with AI programme. In July 2024 he co-founded Sampo AI with Saif Al-Essai. Now trading as Sampo Pricing, the company offers competitor price monitoring, pricing recommendations and automated repricing for e-commerce retailers, with integrations including Shopify, WooCommerce, Salla and Zid. In January 2025 Sampo announced a $750,000 pre-seed round co-led by Omantel Innovation Labs and Waad VC, with Hexnture and Saudi angel investors taking part; the company called it the largest pre-seed investment in Oman. At the time it reported a database of more than 10 million regional products, and its website cites an average 22% rise in customer margins.
