Amira Elhamy covers “Rise up summit 2019”, hosted in its new destination AUC new Campus for the first time, with exclusive quotes for MEO
With its 2019 slogan “ Journey to Growth” Rise up summit” 2019 was held on a bigger scale, on Dec 5th at the American University new Campus at the fifth settlement
Rise up is the biggest summit for entrepreneurship and startups in Egypt, for the last 7 years it hosted, region’s top entrepreneurs, startups, investors, creative masterminds and many business companies; this year rise up succeeded to go from a local event to a global one, it hosted talks and sessions by some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, it held workshops, business sessions, on a 3 days business marathon.
Provost Ehab Abdel Rahman, American University in Cairo, in his exclusive quote to MEO, explained that Rise Up summit gives a great opportunity for business information exchange and networking under one roof for entrepreneurs and investors.
“I believe such an event gives an excellent opportunity for Egypt’s economy to flourish, as a strong private sector means sustainable job opportunities; accordingly, the stronger the private sector the stronger the economic growth; we should not depend on the governmental sector in everything! We need to create a private sector with young minds who are able to think for themselves in an innovative way, and this is actually how we educate our students, in AUC, says Abdel Rahman.”
Provost Abdel Rahman, added that the Egyptian economy, is currently witnessing a very promising stage as all indicators show an increase in Egypt’s foreign reserves that reached almost $45,3 billion.
“I believe, we are on the right track, and I am very hopeful for the future of the Egyptian economy to reach a stage where the Egyptian citizen can experience the outcomes of economic developments, says Provost Ehab Abdel Rahman.
Mohamed Hamza, AUC venture Lab Manager, who have assisted 170 founding teams to bring their business models to life, explains that the entrepreneurship sector in Egypt is expanding every year, in AUC venture Lab we help young entrepreneurs establish their startups, we give them the necessary funds & guidelines and we link them to potential investors, says Hamza.
“AUC hosted Rise up, which was a start up itself years ago, we gave them all the support needed for many years; at the beginning it was held at the Greek campus in Tahrir square, this year we gave more room for expansion and we hosted the summit at the new campus.”
“AUC venture lab opens its door to young entrepreneurs, we receive requests from around 450 entrepreneurs, we meet them all, then select around 100, to work with in a 3 days workshop, the final selection panel chooses 25 starts ups, to work with for 4 months; they submit their business ideas and within 4 months we give them all the needed guidance to become a startup company, after the 4 months, we actually try to link them with potential investors in the market; from the start ups we helped, 80% are effectively operating within the market and 48% were able to work with investors,” explains Hamza.
“At AUC venture Lab we are mainly focusing on projects that are mainly related to financial technology, as the Egyptian President is calling for focusing on such a sector, along with digitalization, I believe start ups will massively lead the leap in these fields,” noted Hamza.
“In fact the startups that AUC venture lab supported, have created almost 8,000 job opportunities within the Egyptian market, this is something to consider! Furthermore, startups, as Swvl, Pay me, Elmenus are all startups that recorded major success in the market. I also would like to add that the government is giving all the support to startups, the Ministry of Investment did establish an initiative that calls for startups to submit their business ideas, the initiative was named “Fekretak Sherketak,” explains Mohamed Hamza.
On another note, to MEO, Mr. Alaa Adris, Associate Provost of Research Innovation for Creativity at the American University in Cairo, explains that hosting such an event like Rise Up is actually tuned with the vison of AUC for the future, which is creating more development in research based areas and focusing on establishing a new entrepreneurial activities. “So by hosting Rise up we are actually complementing a new mode of operation for the university, we are actually committed to creating an academic program that serves entrepreneurship,” says Adris.
“ By boosting the entrepreneurial sector in Egypt, new ideas will be translated into impactful economic activities; ideas must be unleashed by a business economic model and a human horse power behind it,” noted Adris.
Related to the current economic state of the Egyptian economy, Dr. Adris explains that the macro-economy is making a lot of progress; however we need to work more on the micro-economy, which involves distribution and engagement of labor market into the production cycle.
Farah El Masry, Co-founder and Creative director of Doodle Factory, which is a fashion and lifestyle brand that aims to empower vulnerable children with the use of their drawing as product designs, says that participating in Rise up summit gives a good opportunity to communicate her business idea and brand.
“Participating in Rise Up gives a lot of legitimacy and visibility to my brand; many people trust my brand because they saw its display at Rise up summit for the past 3 years,” Says El Masry.
My business idea is to use the artistic drawings of unprivileged children, as designs for notebooks, laptop cases, calendars, etc, and the financial return of selling these products covers the financial expenses of children in need for surgical operations, educational needs or shelter needs.
“It is always very challenging to create and market your product, execute the level of quality that you are aiming for. Highlighting the uniqueness of your product is definitely a market challenge, adds El Masry.
With its new Slogan “Journey to Growth”, Rise Up summit 2019, recorded another success story that is worth to examine.
