In conclusion of E-Khorda: the SRI incubation programme for e-waste entrepreneurs, a grand event "Startup Nova – Entrepreneurship Explosion" was organized by Innoventures on the 5th of December, 2017 in Cairo. The innovative finalists, who had been endorsed to reach the Startup Reactor’s fourth and final stage, were eligible to present their projects before a high-level panel of experts.
As the main partner and supporter of Startup Reactor, CEDARE participated in the Startup Nova. During the event, CEDARE valued the emerging startups' novelty and highlighted the importance of empowering pioneer enterprises and providing them with financial and non-financial support. Other partners as VC4A, JuiceLabs, and Intercap were also present.
During the course of the event, entrepreneurs showcased their progress throughout the accelerator program in front of an esteemed panel of judges, in presence of a bunch of investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, industry experts and professionals, among others. Startup Nova was closed by honoring the 4 top performing startups by giving out cash prizes totaling up to 15,000 Euros. The winners were: Happiana (1st Place), BionicLimbs (2nd Place), Agrona (3rd Place), and Imaginators (4th Place). The winning startups may continue to receive full acceleration benefits of Startup Reactor Accelerator by Innoventures.
The 10 contestants were Agrona, Tracktech, TechnoRecycle, BionicLimbs, Imaginators, Tomatiki, Nezaker, Ekacia, Okhtub, and Happiana. The pitch was followed by a reception meant for networking. The successful gathering was a genuine opportunity for linkages between industry experts, investors, mentors and entrepreneurs.
E-Khorda: the Incubation Programme set by SRI Egypt Project provided 13 start-ups, for over 10 months span of time, with the needed training on business and technical topics such as business modeling, cash flow analysis, technology assessment, 60 hours of individual technical consultancy sessions, 5 business sessions on finance, in addition to marketing and pitching skills. The start-ups were carefully evaluated according to business feasibility, technology and process innovation, besides social impact.
This remarkable achievement is accomplished in the context of the Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) Project in Egypt, which is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) and implemented by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT) and the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region & Europe (CEDARE) in partnership with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), the World Resources Forum Association (WRFA), and Sofies.