Denis Opudo
The School of Business’s Venture lab (V-Lab) will be celebrating its fifth birthday with a Demo Day at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The Demo Day will be used to showcase the services and products offered by 13 incubated companies graduating from two programs from V-Labs Spring’18 FinTech Cycle and Arab African International Bank (AAIB) Cycle 10. AAIB initiative will collaborate with AUC venture lab as a co-founder in 2013. This will be in relation to AAIB’s belief in the ability of entrepreneurs in Egypt.
The partnership between the two bodies brings a unique collaboration between academic and financial institution for the entrepreneur’s interest. According to AAIB’s CEO Hassan Abdalla, the future growth of Egyptian economy relies on the hands of the youthful population. He adds that the Egyptian financial sector should take part in empowering entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt. This is because the financial sector is an important player in the Egyptian economic sector.
Director of AUC V-Lab, Ayman Ismael and chair of entrepreneurship and assistant professor at AUC Abdul Latif Jameel said that they were happy to put up the Demo Day for 13 incubated companies and they were also happy to launch their own angel investment network. They added that V-Labs’s service delivery has been successful and challenging at the same time over a period of five years. The body has managed to grow and reach its target for a bigger and sustainable impact yearly. On the other hand, Sherif Kamel, dean of the School of Business said that AUC Venture Lab has played well its role in growing the Egyptian entrepreneurial ecosystem. It does this by giving a diversified group of services and activities that look at the needs of Egyptian startups and promising entrepreneurs. According to him, the institution is happy to be recognized as the best university-based incubators in the region that offers services to students on campus and also the community as a whole. UBI Global ranked AUC Venture Lab as one of the three Top Challenger University-based Incubators in the Middle East and North Africa region for the year 2017/2018. This shows the commitment of the school to creating a scalable impact on the society.
Kamel said that the Venture lab will go on to interact with a number of constituents in the ecosystem via developing partnership agreements and partnership with the association. It is also looking forward to collaborating with investors, networks, sponsors, and mentors not forgetting capitalizing on AUC’s intellectual capital across a number of fields and disciplines and out of campus to support young and promising entrepreneurs who can bring change.
The incubated firms in the AAIB Cycle10 areas listed below; Owls, FilSekka, Pixellion, CubeZy, Badgewell, YallaSa7el, Sports of Egypt, DentaCarts, VIA and INDOTS. Three startups incubated in the Spring’18 FinTech Cycle will have time to also audition their services and products. The three are YallaPay, Q-Less, and Hood. The VIA links its clients to a wide range of vendors via communication technology giving users a chance to order purchases easily and have them ready for picking from the vendor’s location.
The CubeZy startup is a platform that facilitates the link between tutors, centers, and clients looking to book both online and offline educational and recreational courses. On the other hand, DentaCarts is an online platform that supplies dental medicines to dentists. This allows them to browse products, purchase them and have them delivered at their comfort. INDOTS startup produces reliable, plug and play home monitoring solutions. It uses that to alert users in case of a break-in, gas leakage or fire and notifications are made through client’s phones. YallaSa7el offers families and friends vacation rentals via simple booking process at pocket-friendly prices. FilSekka offers mothers information about pregnancy, medical and non-medical products and services apart from information about their motherhood journey.
Sports of Egypt is a platform that documents the offline results of the national sports competition. This goes all the way from athletes to competition’s results, venues, and dates. Badgewell gives people a chance to record a number of educational and professional experiences. This includes articles published, done assessment, webinar attended, courses and previous job posts. Owl startup gives online community a chance to share real night thoughts, exchange advice and discuss their daily experiences. One is able to access the platform at specified threads and hours. Pixellion offers retail insights for suppliers and retailers via taking, processing and analyzing images that are in store. the platform’s services are based in AI.
Q-Less offers digital solutions that make connectivity easier between businesses and payment service providers. This allows customers to finish payments, make tuition payments and renew their subscription in the Egyptian sports and education sectors. Hood offers a car installed devices ability to detect errors and the car users are in a position to tell if the errors are minor or need an immediate attention. The app is also in a position to keep records of cars mileage, history and movement. YallaPay is an app that offers payment solutions where users can buy an event ticket, pay for a trip or sell products or services.
