Startup Grind Takes Off in Gaza to Highlight the Strip's Active Ecosystem

Startup Grind Gaza is hosting the CTO and Project Manager of Eureeca, a global crowd-investing platform, Mohanad Shurrab for a fireside chat as part of its annual activity in the besieged strip. Shurrab has worked with firms including Logicteca Solutions and Ganz in Canada, Palestine and elsewhere. He holds a masters degree in digital electronics and parallel processing from Sussex University.

The event is hosted by Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) and will be taking place at Bitihub at the Capital Mall from 4:30 PM to 6 PM. PICTI assists technology entrepreneurs to commercialize their ideas by designing, developing, implementing and promoting those initiatives that will support the development of entrepreneurial business ventures by providing them with an integrated package of world-class business development services that will nurture and support the commercialization of ideas and enhance the development and growth of dynamic enterprises including micro, small, medium and high growth model.

Powered by Google, Startup Grind Gaza is part of a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs in 200 cities worldwide. "We help brand Gaza's startup sector and attract attention to its ecosystem," they write on their Facebook event page. 

The urgency of meetups like Startup Grind Gaza comes in the wake of violence and tighter grip on the borders of the strip from the Egyptian and Israeli sides. This ongoing geopolitical conflict takes a toll on the economic development of the troubled strip. According to a 2015 study by the Islamic University in Gaza, low employment, high informal sector and low invested capital in the city’s industrial establishments reflected negatively on the level of productivity in Gaza’s establishments. A PCBS (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics) labour force survey data indicated that in the fourth quarter of 2008, 45.3 percent of firms in the West Bank are informal compared to 65.7 percent of enterprises in the Gaza Strip. But organisations like Gaza Sky Geeks are bringing new life into the nation's economy, launching coding bootcamps, accelerating startups to help Gaza startups compete globally.

You can register through this link. 

Read our story on the Gaza startups competing globally despite the siege here. 

Main Image: An attendee documents 2017's Startup Grind Gaza, courtesy of Startup Grind Gaza.