10 Egyptian University student teams win seed funding and incubation for their start-up companies at the “2011 INJAZ Dare to Dream: Egypt’s Young Entrepreneurs Competition”

INJAZ Egypt today announced the winners of the 2011 “Dare to Dream: Egypt’s Young Entrepreneurs Competition,” which is sponsored exclusively by Mobinil and held at the American University in Cairo. Ten student teams from Egyptian universities won a total of 350,000 LE in seed funding for their start-up companies from corporations such as Mobinil, Exxon Mobil, and Abraaj Capital.

This year over 1000 university students from across Egypt formed start-up companies as part of the INJAZ Egypt Company Program. On Saturday, 24^th September, the top 500 students- 21 teams from 11 Egyptian universities- presented their start-ups in a trade fair to esteemed judges from Mobinil, Exxon Mobil and Abraaj Capital.

To encourage and strengthen these young entrepreneurs and contribute to building a strong economic and social future for Egypt, Mobinil selected eight start-ups to receive seed funds plus incubation to make them financially sound, legally registered, profitable and sustainable.  Additionally Exxon Mobil and Abraaj Capital will each seed fund a team.  Moreover, Boeing will provide a fund for incubation of the start-ups.  

The event is the culmination of Injaz Egypt’s top program – the Company Program (CP). During the CP, students form small start-up companies over the course of the semester, helped by a volunteer mentor from the private sector. Students think of a product, assign roles like CEO, marketing, finance, human resources, sell shares to raise capital, manufacture and sell their product. 

“INJAZ Egypt congratulates the winning student teams and is happy to have contributed to helping them build a stronger economic future for Egypt through Dare to Dream: Egypt’s Young Entrepreneurs Competition,” said Dina El Mofty, Executive Director INJAZ Egypt.

Mobinil Chairman, Iskander Shalaby commented:  “We are proud to support this excellent program especially as it is in line with our recently announced initiative that aims to create jobs for 100,000 Egyptians.  Mobinil will continue to work with major NGO’s to help provide employment for Egyptian youth by empowering them with proper training which is crucial for job creation and economic development”.

It is worth noting that Iskander Shalaby has been Chairman of Injaz Egypt’s Board of Directors since 2007.

Judging the student teams were: Mr. Ashraf Halim, Vice President Commercial, Mobinil; Mr. Zeyad Mourad Head of Media & Sponsorships, Mobinil; Mr.Ahmed Mohy, Direct Marketing, Mobinil; Mrs. Shaimaa Abdel Azim, Corporate Social Responsibility, Mobinil; Ms. Reem El Saady, Executive Director, GAFI; Dr. Hadya Hamdy, Advisor to the Chairman and Professor of Entrepreneurship, GUC; Mr. Nader Eskandar, CEO, MIT; Mr. Ashraf El Khatib, Manager, Price Waterhouse Coopers; Ms. Nihad Shelbaya, Public & Government Affaires Manager, Exxon Mobil; Mr. Alaa Hafez, Chairman, Max; Mr. Andy Wells, Chairman, Exxon Mobil Egypt; Mr. Seifallah Zoghby, Prinicpal, Abraaj Capital.

The event was MCed by Mohamed Safi and concluded with a performance by Cairokee. 

INJAZ Egypt is grateful to Mobinil, Exxon Mobil, Abraaj Capital and Boeing for their generous support of this year’s competition. INJAZ also thanks our Public Relations sponsors: Hill & Knowlton, social media sponsors: Egypreneur, as well as media sponsors: Al Masry Al Youm.