Meet the 14 Egyptian Startups Heading Off to Silicon Valley with Injaz

Injaz Egypt teamed up with TechWadi, Boeing and the American Embassy, to take 14 Egyptian entrepreneurs on a tour to the world's entrepreneurial hub, Silicon Valley, for the second year. The team, which arrived to the American startup wonderland yesterday, will visit the headquarters of prominent tech startups, as well as the valley's successful entrepreneurs, throughout the next 10 days. “We believe in the power of mindset changes, and having them dream big. Last year, being exposed to the hub of technology and entrepreneurship in the world opened their minds in such a way that it was a transformational experience,” Injaz's CEO, Dina El Mofty told Startup Scene at the breakfast they organised just before their departure. 

"Many of them came back saying: 'our thinking was very focused and small, now we are thinking and dreaming big.' That’s what we love to see," El Mofty explains. "They are meeting not only the top companies in the world; they are meeting the biggest entrepreneurs and investors who will give them true valuable experience, which is better than any class you can take.”

 “We believe that the Egyptian startup scene is super interesting," said Katherine Jernigan, Assistant Cultural Attaché of the American Embassy, which supports the event. "We think that when Egyptian entrepreneurs go to Silicon Valley and are able to see how things work in the US, they get to expand their conception of what they can do, and come back to Egypt and take their business to the next level.”

“When you get experience and see people who have been successful in expanding their business in the heart of entrepreneurship in America, and you get exposure to different ways of doing things, different processes,  any additional information you can have can be enormously helpful. One of the things that we support is having Egyptians create a sustainable and economically stable Egypt," El Mofty says. 

The importance of thinking global

El Mofty, who has led the training and mentorship of thousands of entrepreneurs in the country of Pharaohs, explains that, beyond the anecdote of a journey, the importance of the tour is encouraging the global mindset amongst Egyptian entrepreneurs. “When you are able to have that mindset, that you are thinking bigger, you will achieve dreams as big as the goals you set for yourself. And when you do others that have done it, it inspires you to do the same," she concludes, as she introduces us to the 14 entrepreneurs taking off to connect with the startup hub: 

 Abdelkader Ahmed, AlMaqarr

 AlMaqarr Coworking Space is one of the leading Coworking Spaces in MENA, founded in 2012 and operating in 3 locations, AlMaqarr has built a very coherent community with an exceptional reach that enables it to provide coworking management services.  

Mohamed Sherif El Dib, Monkeys in Tuxedos

Monkeys in Tuxedos LLC is a creative studio with a focus on communications and branding. The biggest edge is the process, whereby a design thinking approach is adopted to creatively solve business, branding, and communications problems. They have served tens of clients in different fields and areas, growing their credentials over time. "We are also working on a digital platform, creating original Arabic content for children with an edutainment concept, and launching a digital department as well," says Sherif El Dib. 

Reham Taha, Furnwish

Furnwish is a home furnishing platform enabling home owners to discover, visualize and experience furniture using advanced AR/VR technologies and creating tools to empower retailers/design professionals in better showcasing their products and services for an engaging online shopping experience

Ebrahem Anwar, El-Mawkaa

 El-Mawkaa is a platform that engages between all construction industry stakeholders in the MENA region and to serve as a hub for any person interested in the construction domain can Communicate, Submit online bidding, suppliers sell and deliver to the targeted customers, Gain and share knowledgeand  Know the latest prices of construction materials. His co-founders were this year named as Egypt's 25 under 25 by Startup Scene. 

 Ismail Sabry, Cycliste 

 

Cycliste is a bike sharing program that provides users with a bike at anytime and anywhere. Users go on a mobile app, locate the nearest bike, unlock the bike through the application, ride the bike to their destination and leave it there without worrying about its security or maintenance. Sabry was also a part of Egypt's 25 under 25 in 2017.

Ahmad Amin, Epic VR

EpicVR is a virtual reality entertainment arcade manufacturers that revives the arcade amusement industry by providing complete arcade units with state of the art vr games and gaming accessories. Thus recreating the era of out of home entertainment.

 Nada Donia, Nawwar

Nawwar is a startup that creates customized animated videos and infographics for educational startups and organizations. The startup empowers educators to become great content creators by helping them turn their content into engaging videos and infographics using visualizations and analogies that can help students learn in a fun way. "We also organize an animation school which is an intensive course to teach beginners motion graphics and advanced animation techniques through face to face workshops and online videos," Donia explains.

Mostafa Korany, Incaa & Co. 

Inca & Co is a design based retail brand founded in Cairo, Egypt in 2015, by Mostafa Korany, Mostafa El-Nahawy and Ahmed Fadda. The brand aims at reinventing the familiar industry of home fabrics in Egypt, though its been an industry long established with certain practices, inspired by its authenticity and heritage. "We have a strong passion for design, travel and art direction, which pushed us to combine the three and in a retail brand that is inspired by travel to produce design and artfully craft them in settings, home furnishings and lifestyle products," says Ewis. 

Waleed Hatim, Ship’n bag

 

Ship'nbag is a web and mobile-based platform that matches between buyers and the nearest arriving travelers on a global scale. Instead of buyers going through the dilemma of asking for favors and searching for friends and acquaintances through social media, the entrepreneurs are creating a platform to fulfill their needs and bring them in direct contact with travelers. Ship'nbag solves a single equation: providing a low cost, ultimately secured item, bought within the shortest period of time and shipped with a sense of love, connection and responsibility by a caring traveler to a longing buyer. "Our aim is to redefine the individual shipping and shopping experience through utilizing the power of our shared economy," Hatim says. 

Ahmed El Said, Canzopekia

Egypt mainly depends in production of aluminium on importing Bauxite ore and make an electrical analysis for it to produce pure aluminium and this process cost us a lot of money and energy. Canzopekia believes that there is no such thing that is away. When we throw anything away it must go somewhere, so we are working to make the best use of these thrown cans by recycling it with melting to get our product "pure aluminium moulds".

Eslam Mahmoud, Fast Forward

Fast Forward aims to bridge the education gaps in the educational system. The first educational gap that it bridges is career choice. It brings together a community of influential individuals by revolutionizing education through unconventional approaches. Fast Forward is a platform that aids individuals in their career choice through career simulations. These career simulations offer individuals a chance to visit a company in their fields of interest, and simulate that profession for a day. This is done through the Fast Forward mobile application, connecting individuals to companies in various fields.

Mostapha Khalil, Palma

Palma is a fashion e-commerce startup. "We design all of our products in house, outsource production and do our own quality control on them, and sell them with affordable prices through our website," Khalil says. 

Omar Abdelaziz, Gazef 

Founded in 2013 by four travel enthusiasts who shared a thirst for adventure, and a common mission to break the norm. Gazef came to life with a goal to urge people into stepping out of their comfort zone. While others were hopping on tour buses for touristic sightseeing, Gazef travelers would get on dirt bikes and encounter locals; building human connections through cultural exchange. Gazef dedicates itself to covering all corners of the globe, bringing you a myriad of adventure trips to choose from.

Waleed Abdelrahman, Mumm

The homemade food startup is one of the first of the 100-150 projected to secure investments from the 500 Falcons capital fund. Earlier in 2016, Mumm closed its first investment round with Egyptian VC A15, and was recognized this year by the World Economic Forum as one of the region’s top 100 startups in the field of tech. “We want to be the first company to create a tech product focused on food at the office,” says Abdel Rahman. 

Photography by @MO4Network's #MO4Productions.

Photographer: Andrew Habashy.