The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum of the Arab Region announced today the 9 finalist teams who were qualified to participate in the third and final round of the third edition of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition. This competition is in partnership with by Abdul Latif Jameel Company.
The Forum issued a statement, outlining that the 9 finalists were selected from a total of 1,852 applications from 13 Arab countries, making it one of the largest competitions in this field, out of which a total of 177 applications were qualified and graded. Each business plan was graded by three jurors, the final grade being the average of the three.
According to the Forum’s statement, the 9 qualified are from the following countries: 3 from Egypt, 3 from Lebanon, 1 from Yemen, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates, and they will have their final oral presentations on the 4th of June in Cairo where the top 3 winning teams will be selected.
The qualified to the final round are Mohamed Abouelhoda, Sameh El-Ansary and Moustafa Ghanem from Egypt for “EG-Bioinformatics”, and Hazem Rafaat Gebeily, Mohamed Ahmed Nayer, Ahmed Ibrahim Mostafa and Al-Motaz Bellah Al-Agamawi for “IB- Interneting Behavior”, and Islam Samir Badreldin, Mostafa Abdel-Rahman Elwakeel and Amr Abdel-Rahman Elwakeel from Egypt for “BioBusiness”. Also from Lebanon, qualified teams are: Esraa Haidar, Zakaria Zayour and Dina Zayour for “Mulch and More”, Marwan Bitar, Imad Khoury and Rodrigue Fadoul for “Dental Vision”, and Rana El Chemaitelly, Nadia Alamah and Rola Ayoub for “The Little Engineer”. “Arabiccoach.com” was presented by Amad Almsaodi, Mohammed Almussaabi and Saeed Alfagieh from Yemen, “LeNO for IT and Business Solutions” was prepared by Omar Ishak Karram, Naheel Hashem Zaben and Lina George Rabadi from Palestine, and “Vastry” by Mohamed Hawass, Syed Muhammad Zahir Shah and Hussam Hawass from the United Arab Emirates.
These 9 teams were selected from a total of 30 semi-finalists from 9 Arab countries who were competing in the second round. The 30 teams submitted their final business plans on April 14th after participating in a workshop last March in Beirut presided by Ken Morse, Executive Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge, also with the participation of Booz & Co, the global consulting firm, who trained and coached the qualified teams to enhance their skills for the final projects’ presentation. Also Booz will dedicate June 3rd to accompany the 9 finalists and prepare them before the final evaluation session.
The MIT Enterprise Forum is also honored to have Mr. Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Aramex in Jordan and Mr. Samer Kanachet, Chief Operating Officer of KIPCO in Kuwait as part of the jury who will assess the 9 finalists’ presentations.
The MIT Enterprise Forum is to grant the winner a $50,000 prize; $10,000 shall be awarded to the first runner-up and $5,000 to the second runner-up.
The MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is organized with the full support and in partnership of Abdul Latif Jameel Co. which is the main partner of this initiative. Its support over a five-year period in the Arab world is vital for the initiative’s sustainability and progress.
