ITEX 2026: Iraqi AI and tech startups expand

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi, regional, and international technology enterprises showcased cutting-edge solutions in artificial intelligence, network synchronization, and enterprise digital transformation during their participation in the Iraq International Information and Communications Technology Exhibition in Baghdad. The participating companies expressed strong ambition to expand operations and capture growing commercial opportunities in Iraq’s rapidly developing technological sector. Hassan Abdul-Baqi Khalaf, founder of domestic startup Al-Burhan for AI Image and Video Recognition, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the venture originated from registered patents specializing in automated media verification and tamper protection against digital forgery and deepfakes. Khalaf—a computer science student at the American University of Iraq – Baghdad (AUIB) collaborating with a doctoral partner in mathematics and physics—highlighted that their platform processes requests for more than 3,000 daily active users across private corporate clients and the public. Delivering up to 95 percent accuracy in identifying manipulated content, the company is leveraging its inaugural exhibition presence to pursue operational partnerships with federal entities, specifically the Ministry of Interior, to detect fabricated media and enhance sovereign cyber verification tools. International infrastructure providers also underscored their entry into the domestic market. Engineer Ahmed Mustafa of Canada’s Al-Mamas, an IT and network engineering specialist, revealed that the firm is seeking to establish an operational foothold in Iraq following successful deployments in the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt. Al-Mamas holds exclusive distribution rights across the Middle East and North Africa for precision German-manufactured timing and synchronization hardware, which is critical for maintaining ultra-low-latency architectures across telecommunications networks, industrial automation, data center facilities, and distributed artificial intelligence systems. Highlighting regional corporate expansion, Samer Al-Yasin, sales director for Qatar-headquartered conglomerate Mannai Corporation, affirmed that Iraq represents a fertile and attractive destination for long-term tech investment. Marking its second exhibition appearance in Baghdad, Mannai—which employs over 15,000 personnel across the Gulf—formally established its Baghdad branch three months ago and is actively preparing to launch regional offices in Erbil and Basra. Al-Yasin emphasized that the group is deploying enterprise digital transformation, cloud integration, and systems architecture tailored for federal ministries, banking institutions, and healthcare providers, aiming to transfer its regional technical expertise to drive national modernization and support sovereign institutional revenues.