US-based VC Openner to launch accelerator, invest in 50 Egyptian startups

CAIRO - 15 September 2020: Washington DC-based venture capital firm Openner.vc announced that it's currently accepting applications from Egyptian start-ups.

It clarified in a press release that this step aims to identify brilliant founders with brilliant ideas to expand and scale them locally, regionally and globally through their local accelerator. 

Openner is a venture capital firm based in the US, focusing on investing in startups that demonstrate technological innovation and have the passion and courage to reshape the future. Openner provides custom-defined funding, technology and business resources as well as infrastructure, access to customers and investors. 

Applications are open all-year round, as no specified one-size-fits-all program will be implemented across all 50 selected start-ups. Each portfolio start-up will be subject to a custom-designed program tailored to its needs, combining cash injection with growth resources while focusing on the startup’s product development, tech development and distribution. This means that founders will be able to fully concentrate on sales and customer acquisition, while functions like marketing, engineering, UX/UI and public relations will be provided by the accelerator and its partners. 

Openner is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in technology-based startups globally, which invested in over 100 startups. Entering Egypt with its accelerator program is set to enable the firm to invest in 50 Egyptian startups. Openner deployed $25 million in over 100 portfolio companies in the US since Q4-2016, with an aggregate valuation of $2.95 billion.

The accelerator helps transform pre-seed and seed startups with a minimum viable product (MVP) into growth and/or acquisition-ready, proven by its strong global performance track record in successfully raising Series A funding for 90% of their pre-seed and seed investments. Their primary focus is to work with startups to help them build sustainable, resilient and scalable businesses.

“We want startups to organically grow into revenue generating companies without having to raise funds, match them with a strategic investor when they are ready for rapid growth and position them as acquisition-ready,” Founder and General Partner of Openner Ash Rofail said. “We have a very strong and proven track record building companies that have exited or have become leaders in their target industries, with 10% of our portfolio companies exiting within three years of operation. Openner is entering the Egyptian market because it believes in its geographic and cultural centrality, and its promising tech talent.”

Openner historically co-invested with Andreesen Horrowitz, NEA, Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, YCombinator, Goldman Sachs and several other global top-tier VCs, and its portfolio companies received follow-up investments from ExxonMobil, Mastercard, CitiVentures and other multinationals, as well as from dozens of tier-1, US-based VCs.

Openner accelerator offers seed funding, technical product development, business development, legal, operations, backoffice as well as a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others, in addition to strategic guidance from top international executives who are mostly exiters and repeat founders, a path to fundraising, licensing deals and acquisition through its publicly traded company in the US.

Applications are ongoing all-year round and can be accessed here: https://openner.vc/apply/.