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Why Egyptian Startups Shine in the Middle East and North Africa Regions

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The mass upcoming of new startups in Arab Spring are linked to highly innovative thinking and wholehearted technological youth leaders. Despite the fact that all countries face challenges in the startup ecosystem, the success stories in Egypt worth admiration.  However, the entrepreneurs also face some challenges such as financial, legal havocs among others. The greatest battle that young enterprise members fight in the country is the culture. For instance, the older generation still advice their children to seek formal jobs including health, engineering, and teaching professions. It is produced enough to incorporate entrepreneurship skills in the education curriculum to aid in critical, design and innovative thinking. The new generation is physical and mentally ready for the take off in the business sector.  In order to realize success in the startup field, the mindset of Egyptian parents needs to change. This will allow their parents to make deliberate decisions necessary for entrepreneurship spirit.  Silicon Valley plays a key role in mentoring upcoming entrepreneurs regardless of the cultural battle.

The RiseUp Case

A global phenomenon RiseUp was launched back in 2013 from a humble grassroots foundation.  The vision of the startup is “to connect startups to the most relevant resources worldwide.” It serves as the binding factor that enables the business sector to achieve their potential objectives. The system works by connecting investors, entrepreneurs and the local stakeholders to a global platform. The effort so far has facilitated the identification of new talents, resource distribution creation of a suitable business environment. The four pillars that RiseUp mission is based entail Connect, Summit, Meetup and Explore. The summit component is 3 days with 1 stop shop entrepreneurship marathon. During the workshops, the startups interact regardless of their sources through inspiration talk, group discussion, and a pitch competition.

Riseup in the last five years has managed to partner with 110 institutions, 9,566 attendees, and 307 investors. Other achievements comprise of 520 speakers, 190 exhibitions, 22 sponsors and 510 volunteers.

Startup Sign of Change in Egypt

The Egyptian national is best known worldwide for their intense perseverance.  The ancestors in this country are the pioneers of innovative movement a long time ago. They fought hard to resolve illiteracy, poor business environment, inflation and many others. The situation in Egypt has created a good foundation for the recent startups both in the NEMA and global perspective. The current startups launched by the new era are very ambitious to exploit any business opportunity for profit maximization agenda.

Startup Nova – Entrepreneurship Explosion has announced fifth cycle application aimed at supporting innovative ideas in the country. The program will be 6month accelerator initiatives which provide a networking opportunity for the country startup ecosystem. Besides open application for any interested company, the company also bring on board other specialists track for collaboration. For instance, Mum which is a homemade food delivery won $200,000 funding from 500 startups early this year. Mum startups offer food products, a creation of employment and opportunities for Syrian refugees to benefit from entrepreneurship.

Another startup showing bright future is the Vezeeta which is a healthcare booking platform. The company obtained about $5 million funding in a period of 2 years operation. The funding came from Egypt’s Technology Development Fund (TDF), Swedish Vostok New Ventures, Silicon Badia and Emirati BECO Capital. This new capital investment will foster the expansion of the startup in MENA and internationally as well.

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Written by Denis Opudo

Am an engineer who's a tech blogger, hit me up on [email protected] and we base our discussion on technology in Africa and the rest of the world.
Denis the Tech guru

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