The problem
Big tech buyers need skilled R&D capacity at sustainable cost, while Palestinian software graduates face a small local market, restricted movement, and few employers able to pay for their skills — talent that would otherwise emigrate or sit idle.
How it works
Exalt runs a Ramallah delivery center where vetted engineers work as dedicated outsourced teams on its clients’ products: web services, backend and API development, mobile apps, and digital-transformation programs. Founder and CEO Tareq Maayah started with contract work for Siemens in 1997; the company spun out of Siemens’ optical division as an independent firm and later reinvented itself around services, embedding its teams in clients’ R&D routines.
Pain points
Expensive in-house R&D for multinationals, a shallow bench of senior engineers in a constrained market, and graduates of universities like Birzeit with strong training but limited local demand for it.
Business model
Contract outsourcing: multi-year dedicated-team engagements and project-based development, billed to foreign clients. All of the firm’s work is for export, turning engineering hours into services revenue without depending on local purchasing power.
Challenges
Revenue concentrated in a handful of large tech buyers, competition for senior talent from emigration and remote freelancing, and the friction of checkpoints, permits, and travel restrictions on the on-site collaboration that enterprise clients expect.
Funding
No public record of venture funding — Exalt grew as a bootstrapped exporter on client contracts. Founder Tareq Maayah personally funded its independence after Siemens divested its majority stake when the telecom bubble burst (Light Reading). Its anchor break came in 2008, when Cisco began outsourcing R&D projects to three Palestinian firms including Exalt (Cisco Blogs).
Latest — Aug 2013
The 12 August 2013 issue of Forbes featured Cisco’s pledge to develop the Palestinian ICT sector: outsourcing work to Exalt and two other Palestinian firms, whose workforces had since grown 65 percent — a ripple effect that pulled more American tech giants into Ramallah outsourcing (Cisco Blogs).