The Best Of What’s Going On In MENA

Hind Hobeika and The Instabeat Story

Instabeat is an innovative startup company founded by Hind Hobeika in Lebanon, a country that is seeing an entrepreneurial boom of its own thanks to the Lebanese people's "hardwired" entrepreneurial spirit, keen business sense and recent forward thinking economic policies and governmental stimulus packages., most notably the Lebanese Central Bank's bold moves to promote investment in early stage Lebanese startups. Instabeat has developed swimming goggles that integrate essential electronic applications for all swimmers. Founder Hind Hobeika, a young Lebanese entrepreneur, overcame the challenges of being a hardware entrepreneur with the help of Stars of Science. The first version of the product includes a heart rate monitor that continuously and instantaneously tracks the heart rate of an athlete during activity, and gives them real-time visual feedback inside their goggles. By allowing athletes to monitor their performance closely and track progress over time, Instabeat has the potential to transform the way swimmers train worldwide. The next iteration of the product will include feedback from 20 Olympian swimmers, Hind Hobeika revealed after winning the 2012 MIT Enterprise Arab Business Plan Competition.