MIT Enterprise Forum Announces Winners of 13th Arab Startup Competition

Every year, MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab chooses the absolute best of the best that the ecosystem has to offer, pitting entrepreneurs against each other in three different tracks: Ideas, Startups, and Social Entrepreneurship. The winning teams are awarded $45,000 in equity free funding, as well as mentorship, coaching, and media opportunities.

This year is no different, even with a global pandemic moving the event online, with six startups from across the Middle East chosen from 53 semifinalists and over 4,000 total applications.The teams pitched to a different set of judges depending on track, who evaluated startups based on MIT Enterprise Forum’s criteria: team, innovation, scalability, and financial sustainability.

“The participants of this competition are a perfect example of the inspiration, ambition and excellence that we seek to establish and achieve in order to become a culture rooted in youth and talents in the Arab world,” says Hussein Jameel, Director of Community Jameel, which served as the competition’s main partner. “These events provide all [the necessary] support in order to transform the ideas of future entrepreneurs into a tangible reality by providing a real and integrated business environment that ensures the graduation of generations of entrepreneurs who are able to innovate and create within a competitive business landscape.”

The winners are:

Startups Track:

1. Winner: Mindfulness meditation app Tawazon. (Palestine)

2. First runner up: Edtech startup Telp. (Saudi Arabia)

Ideas Track:

1. Winner: Healthcare startup Draw It. (Jordan)

2. Runner up: Sustainable construction technology company Infrastic. (Lebanon)

Social Entrepreneurship Track:

1. Winner: Accessibility information crowdsourcing app Entaleq, by Helm Consulting. (Egypt)

2. Runner up: Special needs tech solutions provider Eazytron. (Syria)

Photo from MITEF's 12th edition of the Arab Startup Competition.