Women Science Co-Founders Win First Place at the GIST Startup Training in Egypt
A startup that makes science easier to understand has taken the top prize at the GIST Startup Training in Alexandria, Egypt. Along with valuable training, the team will also receive seed capital to help their startup grow.
Co-founders Amal Aboulhassan and Mariam Farrag, from Egypt, took the top prize with their startup Material Solved. Material Solved is a science communication startup that translates dense scientific results and terminology into informative graphics and videos.
As the first place winners, Aboulhassan and Farrag will receive $2,000 USD in seed capital as well as $20,000 USD in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits. These credits can be used for tech training or scaling on the cloud – critical resources for science and technology startups.
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The second place prize went to founder Basel Hammoda. His startup 3D Property Viewer provides real estate buyers and sellers an immersive 3-dimensional viewing experience. As the second place winner, Hammoda will receive $1,000 USD in seed capital and $10,000 USD in AWS Credits. Finally, the Spirit of GIST award went to co-founders Karim El Sayed and Abdelrahman Desouky. Their startup Vortex has created an underwater remote operated vehicle. AWS also generously provided everyone who participated in the GIST Startup Training with $1,500 USD in AWS Credits. The four-day GIST Startup Training in Alexandria provided participating entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn valuable business skills, practice their pitch and learn how to scale into new markets. The training included working sessions with experienced entrepreneurs as well as interactive activities to help founders discover new customers. Participating startups then competed for startup resources during the Demo Day, which takes place on the last day of the training. During the Demo Day, these entrepreneurs learned about the social impact their startup can have in their communities. |
"Entrepreneurship is not only about building business and making profit, it is also for creating good jobs for the community and developing ways to empower others,” said Nancy Corbett, U.S. Consul General to Alexandria during her Demo Day remarks.
As part of the startup training Demo Day, GIST also hosted GIST Investors Egypt for angel investors. The training provides participating investors a chance to learn about concepts such deal sourcing, portfolio management and exit planning. The investor training in Egypt also focused on investments into cleantech and fintech.
The GIST Startup Training in Egypt was made possible thanks to Egyptian partner Icealex and GIST implementation partner Venturewell. The GIST Investors training in Egypt was made possible thanks to Egyptian partner Alexandria Angels and VentureWell.
The GIST Initiative is the U.S. Department of State’s flagship science and technology entrepreneurship program, which supports young innovators in more than 130 emerging economies around the world.