Palestinian Hassan Hamdan Receives Award At 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

gsea10_403.jpgPalestinian entrepreneur Hassan Hamdan, Co-Founder of Optimal Technology Solutions and recent graduate of Modern Science and Art University, has been awarded the “Lessons from the Edge Award” in the 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Competition.

The award was given as a specialized category within the GSEA, a program of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the premier competition for students taking a full course load of classes while running a revenue-generating business.

He also came up as the Overall Second Runner Up in the competition, chosen from among 2000 student entrepreneurs from 44 countries; and earlier this year, he was picked as the Middle East Regional Champion by GSEA.

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Win Free Incorporation & Online Advertising With Falcons’ Lair Business Competition


Virtuzone, a virtual UAE-based free zone, in partnership with Dubizzle, the UAE’s leading online classifieds service, have launched a new business competition under the name of ‘The Falcons’ Lair’, offering entrepreneurs an opportunity to make their business dreams a reality.

Entrepreneurs whose ideas are chosen at the end will get an offer from Virtuzone to set up their company for free, including all the costs for the first year of incorporation; and they’ll get the equivalent value of that in online advertising on Dubizzle for free. The competition’s official site claims this amounts to an accumulated value of over AED 100,000.

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Fourth Edition Of Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition Launched In Jordan

The Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC) is officially launching its 4th cycle for 2010 – 2011.

This comes as part of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship’s continued effort to empower Jordanian entrepreneurs to take their ideas or startups to the next level.

The vision of QRNEC is to evolve and expand into a comprehensive entrepreneurship enabler, involved in fostering creativity, incubating viable concepts, and facilitating the success of entrepreneurial ventures to a level that affects the cultural orientation of the Jordanian community.

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MENA ICT Forum 2010: 30 Tickets To Be Sponsored By Oasis 500

MENA ICT ForumThe MENA ICT Forum 2010 taking place in Amman, Jordan on October 10-11, 2010; which we previously announced here, is building up to be quite the event; but there’s been one little problem for entrepreneurs, and that’s the high attendance price, with tickets costing US$1000 for Int@j members and US$1500 for non-members.

Oasis 500, the new ICT seed capital fund that was launched from Jordan, as an initiative designed to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into businesses, though they’d lend a hand in getting entrepreneurs to attend the forum.

Oasis 500 will be sponsoring 30 free passes for entrepreneurs, so that they can get to spend two days with regional and global ICT leaders and key decision makers. These free passes are available through a video competition titled “Why should I be invited to attend the MENA ICT Forum?”

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CERT-Wharton Entrepreneurial Planning & Innovation Competition (EPIC)

CERT|Wharton Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)For the first time in the Middle East, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT), have partnered to launch a business plan competition for young entrepreneurs.

The CERT-Wharton “Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)” is open to all students from accredited academic institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and all Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) alumni.

The top eight teams will share US $50,000 in cash prizes to jump start their businesses, with the winning team receiving US $20,000.

The CERT-Wharton EPIC business plan competition offers students a comprehensive, four-month platform to help them gain the entrepreneurial knowledge and expert feedback needed to launch their new business ideas.

CERT-Wharton EPIC helps teams develop their business plans in both a collaborative and competitive environment.

The competition is structured as follows:

  • Teams need to submit an executive summary of their business plan. (Deadline: December 20th, 2009)
  • These submissions are evaluated and up to 25 teams will be selected – known as the “Top 25”.
  • These “Top 25” submissions will be further evaluated and the top eight teams will be selected to participate in the finals – known as the “Great Eight” finalists.
  • The “Great Eight” finalists will prepare and submit a full business plan for evaluation.
  • The “Great Eight” finalists will present a formal pitch to a panel of judges.  Winners will then be selected.

For further information and to register, check out the official website:  CERT-Wharton “Entrepreneurial Planning and Innovation Competition (EPIC)”

Berytech Launches 2009 Incubation Awards Of Up To $100K

Berytech Incubation Awards 2009Berytech, the Lebanon based tech startup incubator, has launched a set of new incubation awards of up to $100,000 US Dollars  for the most innovative technology projects.

A committee of experts will be selecting the projects based on the following merits: technological and scientific quality, creativity, economic sustainability and growth potential, job creation potential, target market and export potential, as well as the motivation and implication of the candidate(s) and the quality of the team behind the startup.

The obtained award should allow entrepreneurs to take their idea from project to company phase, while benefiting from the following services of Berytech: Business hosting (including office space, furniture, desktop facilities, …etc.); Computer equipment, Internet connection, web hosting; Coaching throughout the project development phase; Participation in communication, marketing and other networking events; Expert consultancy; Entrepreneurial training; and access to funding sources such as Kafalat or the Berytech Seed Capital Fund.

Applications are open until November 30th, 2009; entrepreneurs just need to download and fill in the following application form, and submit it in time.

The winning projects and teams will be announced in December 2009, with their integration in the incubator to start happening as early as January 2010.

Third Edition Of MIT Arab Business Plan Competition Launched

MIT Arab Business Plan CompetitionThe MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is a competition designed to encourage all entrepreneurs in the Arab world to start their own company and, ultimately, create a nest of leading firms in the Arab world. It also brings to the Arab world all the MIT expertise in entrepreneurship and in running such competitions.

The equivalent of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition in Boston is called the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competition and has created a number of leading firms and thousands of jobs.

The Launching Ceremony for the 3rd MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is taking place tonight (October 12th) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the Four Seasons Hotel. The event will include an address from Mr. Hussein Shobokshi (President, Shobokshi Development & Trading; Managing Director, Okaz Printing and Publishing), in addition to testimonials from last year’s winning teams.

The website is open now for registration by interested candidates. They are required to fill the online application form consisting of a series of questions that summarize their business idea and the means of implementing it.

The deadline for submitting applications is Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 23:59 GMT.

The competition is open to all Arab nationals with a business idea, with the only requirement being to be part of a team, with each team comprising of minimum 3 individuals, of which at least 2 should be citizens of the Arab world. The business concept put forward by the team should also be implemented in a country within the Arab world.

Thirty teams will qualify for the second round of the competition, and invited to Beirut to attend a one-day workshop lead by Ken Morse, Managing Director of MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge, MA; and designated a mentor who can help with developing their business plan.

After they submit their full business plans, only 9 make it to the final round and invited to Cairo to give oral presentations of their business plans; with 3 winning teams to be selected and announced during the awards ceremony.

All entrepreneurs interested can go to the competition’s website and Apply Now.

# MIT Arab Business Plan Competition

Arab Technology Business Plan Competition 2009 Semi-Finalists

The Arab Technology Business Plan CompetitionThe Arab Technology Business Plan Competition, which is a regional Technology investment competition organized by Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) in cooperation with Intel Corporation, has just announced the list of semi-finalists for this year’s edition of the competition.

The list of 12 semi-finalists includes, in no particular order:

  • AqarMap (Yemen): An online real estate marketplace.
  • Telephone line powered lamp (Palestine): A solution to the frequent power outages in Gaza.
  • EDOM (Jordan): A system to produce green energy.
  • m-CASH (Palestine): A mobile payments solution.
  • Human Heater (Jordan): A new innovative heating product.
  • Therapeutic Vaccines (UAE): Vaccines to help treat chronic inflammation and cancer.
  • NovelMed (Egypt): New medical device.
  • Eye Controlled Typing (Palestine): Technology to help people with physical disabilities use computers.
  • Collapse Analysis (Egypt): Software applications to analyse building structures.
  • Wiphone (Egypt): Technology to convert earth frequency into wifi frequency and vice versa.
  • Blue Soft/Blue Phone (Egypt): Solution to minimize train accidents.
  • HFF (Egypt): Technology to  extract hydrogen from water and use it to generate green energy.

The competition provides the Arab entrepreneurs with a number of needed tools and skills through training and mentoring, in order to turn their Technological innovation into business opportunities.

The top 3 winners will get cash prizes of $10k, $6k and $4k respectively; and will have the opportunity to show their business plans in front of venture capitals, angel fund and investors in the ASTF Investment in Technology Forum.

The top 2 winners will also get to represent the Arab World in the world wide finals of the Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge (USA).

Seedcamp Week 2009 – Applications Now Open

SeedcampSeedcamp Week is an intensive week-long event held in London every September and is targeted at young entrepreneurs from across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Applications are submitted online and based on these, a judging committee will select up to 20 teams to participate in the event.

The focus of this week is around providing an incredible experience for the 20 selected teams. There is a diverse mentor network of serial entrepreneurs, corporates, product designers, venture capitalists, recruiters, marketing specialists, lawyers and accountants that help the selected teams put together the foundations of a viable business.

The aim of this week is to collapse the time it takes startups to make and develop these critical relationships from months to a week and establish an unrivaled foundation on which the business can be built.

At the end of the week the funding decision will be made to invest up to €50K each in 5 teams for a small equity stake (5%-10%). (Sometimes, more than 5 teams are selected.)

The funding amount is purposely kept low enough that teams do not have to give away a large portion of their companies. The idea is to take enough money to develop a great product and build towards a higher valuation. As such preferred stock, board rights, or other rights often required by institutional investors are not asked for.

The three months following Seedcamp Week and the investment, is when the winning teams with the Seedcamp team begin building the product and company together.

The provided funding covers the teams’ move to London for at least three months, in which they are also provided access to services worth 2-3 times the invested €50K. The goal of this 3-month period is to help grow and nurture the teams by providing the same level of intensity and in-depth focus on developing the product and business.

During the course of the three months, the groups will have an opportunity to take advantage of the same ecosystem of experts which participated in the Seedcamp event through weekly dinners, topical lunches, conferences, and continued mentorship on various issues from scaling the business to raising further funding to M&A. Additionally, during the three months, assistance will be provided with all the paperworkto set up a company properly.

Six weeks into the project, a Demo Day is held where teams can show their products to the other groups from Seedcamp and a select group of investors. And eleven weeks into the project, an Investor Day is held where startups can present to potential investors.

For those interesting in knowing more about Seedcamp, check out the Seedcamp website; and those who want to apply can use this Seedcamp application form.

From the Arab region, Content Syndicate participated in Seedcamp Week 2007 and was nominated as one of the top 10 startups out of 260 participating startups from 40 countries.

MENA 100 Business Plan Competition: A Call For Arab Innovative Entrepreneurs

MENA 100The MENA 100 Business Plan Competition, which is organized by the MENA-OECD Enterprise Financing Network, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and the MENA Center for Investment, has just been launched.

The primary objective of the MENA 100 business plan competition is to encourage existing and inspire potential entrepreneurs and connect the 100 best of them in the Middle East and North Africa region with potential sources of finance to generate business transactions.

The MENA 100 Competition addresses innovative entrepreneurs, from the 18 Arab countries participating in the MENA OECD Investment Program (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen).

What entrepreneurs can expect from the competition:

  • Connect with counterparts from around the region and worldwide to conceive new ideas, enter new markets and find new resources.
  • Exposure for the winners through the awards ceremony and the media.
  • Connection to a network of professionals providing technical support and offering financial and in-kind support to candidates.

Applications will be accepted until August 31st. It is possible to apply online in French and English through the website: www.mena100.org

The 100 finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects at an event in Manama (Bahrain).
There will be one winner per country and a selection of three regional winners.

The top performers will be awarded with cash and in-kind services, representing professional services donated by sponsors of the competition, as well as MENA business angels (BA) – venture capital funds (VC) for all participants.
Winners will also be invited to participate in the MENA-OECD Business Day.

[Via: Mohd Khawaja]