ChangeLabs boosts entrepreneurship growth in Egypt, accelerates 10 innovative startups
ChangeLabs held a six-week programme in Cairo, Egypt recently to provide effective training, mentorship and support to innovative startups who needed guidance to shape their progressive ideas into long-lasting business investments. Among the 300+ selected applicants, 10 startups from various industries such as Education, Transportation, AgriTech, Real Estate and Health, have graduated from ChangeLabs’ first cohort which was run in partnership with Blom Bank Egypt, FMO, Amazon, Fekretak Sherketak and Entrepreneurship Academy by SANAD.
The programme provides startups with a world class curriculum, a network of global mentors, diverse speakers and ample opportunities to test and pitch. On August 22nd, the companies will be pitching for up to EGP 2 000 000 in funding.
In the presence of leaders like, Shorouk Zidan, Shehab Marzban, Jeroen Hartevelt, Dalia Ibrahim, Mohamed Morsy and Walid Hassouna, a Demo Day also will be conducted at the Ministry of Investment to embark the success of the first cohort of ChangeLabs.
The founder of ChangeLabs, Karim Samra, commented, “We believe entrepreneurship can change the world. The ten startups we’ve chosen here in Cairo are the embodiment of that vision, as they represent brilliant Egyptian youth becoming part of the solution, taking responsibility for their own and their country’s future.”
Jamal Khayat, a ChangeLabs Managing Partner, added, "There's a market gap in supporting early-stage impact-centered startups resulting in massive untapped potential, Changelabs is designed to address this gap."
The ten startups joining Demo Day are:
- Cyyan: a long-term shared economy rent services platform.
- Youspital: a medical services mobile application.
- Lendor: an online goods sharing platform.
- Nash2: a parenting services & products platform.
- Presto: an on-demand courier service for small and home businesses
- Proteinea: an insect-based fish food company
- OTO: a one on one online English language tutoring platform.
- Vlaby: an online lab experimentation platform.
- The Rent: a rent collection mobile application.
- Well.Fit.Go!: a personal weight loss coaching application.
Ahead of the deployment of the SEED funding on Demo Day, the aforementioned startups will get a chance to showcase their collaborative feat and hard work of six weeks. Investors, partners and representatives from FMO, the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and the European Union in Egypt are invited as a panel to judge these startups.
ChangeLabs aims to educate and prepare Egyptian social entrepreneurs to compete in market exploring new ventures. This programme is led under the theme of “Design, Test, Iterate”, aiming to develop startup ideas and accelerate the growth of entrepreneurship in the region.