Nakheel

Nakheel is a Bahrain-based agricultural technology startup founded by Mohamed Khalil and Khaled Metwally to combat the Red Palm Weevil, the deadliest insect pest threatening date palm trees across the Middle East. The company developed low-cost, low-power IoT hardware devices that are inserted directly into palm trees and connected to the internet; machine-learning algorithms analyze sensor data to detect early signs of infestation, alerting farmers via a mobile app before trees collapse. Nakheel maintains a comprehensive GIS database updated daily to track infested tree locations. The company graduated from Brinc Batelco IoT's accelerator program in 2018 and was a semi-finalist in the 2019 MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition. It has expanded operations to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Malaysia, and Spain through partnerships with pest-control companies in the palm tree industry.