AngelHack Ramallah Gathered 65 Entrepreneurs From Across Palestine
With "seamless technology" as this year's theme, a business idea titled "Smart Public Transportation" won first place.
A total of 65 entrepreneurs from all around Palestine gathered between August 9th and 10th for Ramallah's AngelHack Hackathon for this year at the Bank of Palestine, to drive technological ideas and to come up with awesome pioneering ideas. The event was organised by Growth, hosted by Bank of Palestine in partnership with ArabWIC. It was also sponsored by Polish Aid, Palestine for Sustainable Development, and supported by Ibtikar Fund, Pitman English, and Careem.
This year's challenge is Seamless Technology. "Hackathons are built for rapid innovation, and rapid isn’t always pretty," states AngelHack's website. "But no matter the roadblock, broken code or bumps, we continue on and push forward, together." AngelHack is a US-based hackathon organisation which sources, advises, showcases, funds, and supports the most promising developers, designers, and entrepreneurs in over 65 countries through hackathons, the Silicon Valley HACKcelerator, Code for a Cause and other programmes focusing on social impact ventures or collaborations.
The hackathon ended with a presentation of the ideas brainstormed during the workshops. First place went to the "Smart Public Transportation," which aims to help users optimise their journey, improve efficiency and transparency for public transportation riders. This will be made possible by giving drivers tools to provide real-time information regarding the location of public transport buses. As a reward, AngelHack will provide them access to 13 weeks acceleration at Hackcelerator program. Meanwhile "Stadav" team won second place; it is a booking application of stadiums, sports buildings, and game tickets. The team behind Stadav received a free English course provided by Pitman English. Finally, the third place went to Rejoy team who want to recycle plastic waste in a joyful way that would benefit the environment and in turn all users. They received a $100 credit from Careem.
First, AngelHack's regional director Christina Wilson played out the conditions of the competition to kickstart the competition. After everyone was walked through the rules of the game, it was time for a training workshop to help the teams present their ideas. The hackathon included mentors from different fields to help and guide the teams in their entrepreneurial ideas. The teams then presented their ideas before a jury, which included Raya Sbitani, Rasha Qawasmi, Ambar Amleh, Sameh al-Far, and Nael Ramadan.
Main Image: Raya Sbitani, Head of Investor Relations at Bank of Palestine. Courtesy of AngelHack Ramallah.
