PopArabia, Reservoir Media’s Abu Dhabi-headquartered partner focused on the Middle East and North Africa, has acquired MENA label and digital distribution company Viral Wave.
The announcement on Monday (April 20) noted that the acquisition marks “an important milestone in PopArabia’s continued growth”, by adding distribution services to scale the company’s existing publishing and label services across the region.
Monday’s press release added that Viral Wave’s operational subsidiary in Cairo, Egypt will join PopArabia’s existing team members to create a staff of over 30 across Egypt, Morocco, and the UAE, further extending PopArabia’s presence in the region and expanding the global footprint of PopArabia’s partner, New York-based Reservoir.
The Cairo-based team will report to the newly appointed PopArabia General Manager for Egypt, Rania Ibrahim, who joins the role after more than eight years with ViralWave, most recently serving as Senior Commercial Manager.
In her new position, Ibrahim will report directly to Spek, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PopArabia and Executive Vice President of International & Emerging Markets at Reservoir.
Developed by A15, the MENA-focused, Cairo-headquartered VC firm backing tech and digital businesses across Egypt and the MENA region, Viral Wave has established itself “as one of the region’s leading distributors”, according to Poparabia and Reservoir.
Viral Wave clients include regional superstars Ramy Sabry, Tamer Ashour, Ahmed Saad, Ramy Gamal, Tamer Hosny, Ruby, and Saber Rebai, as well as emerging voices like Algerian hip-hop star Didine Canon16.
Photo: Becky Yee
“This is a transformative day for PopArabia.”
Spek
“This is a transformative day for PopArabia,” said Spek. “What began as a belief in the untapped value of Arabic music has grown into a regional rights platform with deep roots and truly global reach.
“With the acquisition of Viral Wave, we are bringing together complementary strengths to better serve artists and rights holders as a dominant indie powerhouse. We’re across the region and embedded – with a much bigger platform now to operationally execute.”
Credit: Becky Yee
“Acquiring Viral Wave marks a meaningful turning point in PopArabia and Reservoir’s emerging markets story. Our strategic approach to growth in the region will enter a new phase, with even more comprehensive operations.”
Reservoir Founder and Chief Executive Officer Golnar Khosrowshahi also commented: “Acquiring Viral Wave marks a meaningful turning point in PopArabia and Reservoir’s emerging markets story. Our strategic approach to growth in the region will enter a new phase, with even more comprehensive operations.
“We will be establishing a physical presence in Egypt, the longstanding cultural hub of the region, and, after spending time with the Viral Wave team in Cairo, I am confident their expertise in distribution and label services is the perfect addition to our existing capabilities across MENA.
“We’re excited to leverage that ecosystem and find moments of synergy across our network to enable even deeper support of local talent and bring their music to listeners worldwide.”
“We’re proud to have built Viral Wave into a leading player in digital music. This sale to PopArabia reflects a shared vision—creating lasting value for artists and rights owners and contributing to the growth of Arabic music at scale.”
Karim Beshara, A15
Commenting on the deal, Karim Beshara, Managing Partner at A15, said: “We’re proud to have built Viral Wave into a leading player in digital music. This sale to PopArabia reflects a shared vision — creating lasting value for artists and rights owners and contributing to the growth of Arabic music at scale.”
With this acquisition, PopArabia says that it now administers a combined catalog of nearly 100,000 Arabic songs, including recent investments in both “iconic and emerging artists,” such as Nancy Ajram, Mohamed Ramadan, Bedouin Burger, and 7liwa, whose latest album charted in the Top 10 on the IFPI Official MENA Chart for North Africa upon release.
The Viral Wave deal represents the latest in a run of MENA acquisitions by PopArabia and Reservoir, and the most significant in operational terms — adding distribution infrastructure and a sizeable Cairo team rather than catalog alone.
Since Reservoir formed its joint venture with PopArabia in 2020, the two companies have executed a string of deals designed to build what Khosrowshahi has described as “the largest holder of Arabic music copyrights.”
By acquiring Viral Wave, PopArabia is for the first time integrating a full-service distribution operation into its platform, giving the company capabilities across the value chain in the MENA region, from rights acquisition and publishing administration, through to digital distribution, music supervision, and performance rights collection via ESMAA.
The deal also formally establishes PopArabia’s physical presence in Egypt, a dominant market for Arabic music, complementing its existing operations in the UAE and Morocco.
The acquisition also comes at a time of significant momentum for MENA as a recorded music market.
According to IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026, published in March, MENA was the joint second-fastest growing region globally in 2025, with recorded music revenues increasing 15.2% year-on-year, building on 22.8% growth in 2024, when it was the single-fastest-growing region worldwide. Streaming accounts for 97.5% of total recorded music revenues in the region.
PopArabia’s expansion in the MENA region follows the news in February 2026, that activist hedge fund and existing Reservoir shareholder Irenic Capital Management submitted an unsolicited, non-binding indication of interest to acquire all of Reservoir’s outstanding equity at a price of between $10.00 and $11.00 per share in cash — a bid that, as MBW reported, values the company at between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, including debt.
Days later, Wesbild, Inc. and Richmond Hill Investment Co. — entities linked to the Khosrowshahi family and Reservoir board member Ryan Taylor, together controlling approximately 65% of the company’s outstanding shares — submitted a competing non-binding proposal at $10.50 per share, representing a roughly 39% premium to Reservoir’s February 25 closing price.
Reservoir’s board said it was evaluating both proposals, and a law firm subsequently announced an investigation into whether the $10.50 offer fairly values the company for minority shareholders. As of mid-April, RSVR shares were trading around the $10 mark.
Despite that backdrop, the Viral Wave deal signals that Reservoir’s emerging markets strategy continues to advance.
PopArabia’s growth has also served as a model for Reservoir’s broader international push: in April 2025, the company launched PopIndia, a Mumbai-based subsidiary modeled on PopArabia’s regional playbook, with Spek overseeing both entities in his role as EVP of International & Emerging Markets.
