US embassy, INJAZ open door for Startup Egypt’s 2019 applications

CAIRO – 16 November 2018: The U.S. Embassy in Cairo and INJAZ Egypt announced this week the launch of Startup Egypt, one of the largest entrepreneurship pipelines in the country.

This week is marking the Global Entrepreneurship Week, where startups around the world celebrate their successful projects that emerged from simple ideas. Moreover, that is what Start Up Egypt is looking for as it opens the door for youth aged between 21 and 30 years old from any field of study to tap into 2019 applications.

“For us at the US embassy, this is now the 11^th year that we are celebrating and commemorating innovation entrepreneurship. We want to be part of the solution in Egypt,” said the Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Dorothy Shea on Tuesday. “Through training, mentorship, and networking, Startup Egypt 2019 will get businesses off the ground and support the growth of Egypt’s private sector.”

Shea further added, “We think that this is a great way for us to show our partnership for the government and the people of Egypt, and we love to work with these young people who are very enthusiastic to bring their ideas to the marketplace.”

Answering Egypt Today’s question on the selection process of the participating start-ups, Shea said that they have partners who know young people who have promising ideas, and they can take them to the next level.

In her speech at an event marking the global day, Shea encouraged more young people to actually apply for the program, to prove themselves to INJAZ Egypt, and to go through the process.

“We are so proud that this program has helped launch 65 startups, and most of them have gone on to create extremely successful businesses locally, regionally and internationally,” said Founder of INJAZ Dina El Mofty.

During the event, successful models of projects that were supported by INJAZ were displayed, including: Excuse My Content, which was presented by its co-founder Mostafa Sharara.

Sharara, whose major pharmacy, decided to shift his career, and challenge social pressure and stereotypes to pursuit his hobbies in filmmaking and photography.

Thus, he established his video content agency, which is specialized in “creating advertisements to tell stories that add value to life rather than selling fake content,” he said.

The application process consists of three stages, through which applicants have to pass each one to be elevate to the next stage. The stages are: Ideation, Validation and Incubation.

For selection criteria, INJAZ listed six points for applicants to make sure they fulfill before registering, including: being an Egyptian citizen; the age range should be between 21 and 31 years old; individual applicants are not accepted, they should be a team with a minimum number of two members and a maximum of 5; applicants should not have received any previous investment; commitment to the proposed project should be evident and candidates should have relevant experience to their projects.

Following the incubation period, the most successful applicants through Start-Up Egypt will be invited to the United States to then be exposed to the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Silicon Valley and other places.