RiseUp Summit, the leading event for MENA region entrepreneurs, rounded up its second day of activities with an in-depth set of sessions that took attendees on a journey into entrepreneurship ecosystems from Silicon Valley to Japan and Dubai and showcased the challenges and successes of Egyptian entrepreneurs.
Mohamed Hamdy, Head of future platforms at Dubai Future Foundation– which aims at enabling the future of Dubai for the advancement of humanity- spoke today about the narrative that integrates the approach towards the foundation’ programs and initiatives.
Among the day’s highlights was a talk by Kohzo Hirose, Director for economic affairs for Jetro Istanbul, who spoke about Japan innovation, VC investment situation in Japan in addition to a summary of the J-start-up program.
In a Fireside Chat on the Tech Stage, entrepreneurs from Egypt talked about their journey to Silicon Valley. Three young Egyptian Entrepreneurs that were mentored in Silicon Valley shared how that experience impacted their business mentality and improved their local business mindset.
Also today, IBM launched its “Start-Up with IBM”, the Global Entrepreneurship Program initiatives solely aimed at startups. “Start-Up with IBM” includes a free one-year subscription on IBM Cloud to utilize 190+ cloud services for a monthly credit of $1000 that can be extended up to $10000. Which means up to $120000 free cloud credits for startups. In addition, a whole support team will be at the startups’ service to give technical sessions and mentorship in order to facilitate the migration of their systems to IBM Cloud. Since businesses nowadays demand the use of Cloud technologies, “Startup with IBM” allows developers as well as non-tech savvy startups to perform the testing and implementation of their business model ideas on Cloud for a year free of charge. This offer is available for all Startups that have been in the market no more than 5 years.
Last night, as part of the RiseUp Summit 2018 activities, the Flat6Labs Demo Day graduated eight startups from its second cycle of the fiscal year 2018. This cycle has entrepreneurs coming from all across Egypt and the startups are working across various industries, from Scientific Research, Medicine and professional services to Real Estate, F&B and waste management, offering innovative online and digital solutions set to disrupt the market.
Ramez El-Serafy, Flat6Labs CEO says “I am proud to witness such bright and passionate entrepreneurs, representing an exquisite display of diversity”. He adds, “ We are now excited for Cairo’s Twelfth cycle and look forward to welcoming new, innovative and disruptive technologies in Egypt”.
Tomorrow, the RiseUp Summit will conclude with prominent speakers including Jack Pau, chief of staff of Jack Ma, Alibaba, Dr. Farouk El Baz and media personality Lamees El Hadidi.