Following almost 6 months of intensive workshops, months of services, and hours of mentorship, Jusoor and Spark, in collaboration with the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD), concluded the Startup Roadshow — Wired with a final Demo Day on Thursday, July 8. Six out of 13 teams were chosen to win cash prizes worth $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000 for first, second, and third places.
The first prize winners are the Jar Thuraya team from the SMEs and the Harika ?ef team from the startups. Each team received a cash prize of $15,000. Jar Thuraya brings together the handcrafted delicacies produced by Lebanese women, contributing to both empowering women and celebrating Lebanon’s natural resources. Harika ?ef delivers pre-packed meal boxes. These boxes each contain the exact ingredients needed to make a particular meal and are rounded with full illustrated instructions on how to prepare the meal with the ingredients provided.
The second prize winners are the Shafak team from the SMEs and the Find a Nurse team from the startups. Each team received a cash prize of $10,000. Shafak is an educational center that provides different courses to Syrians and Arabs in Turkey and the Arab world. Courses include Languages (Turkish, English, Arabic); Turkish curriculum in Arabic; among others. Find A Nurse helps families find and hire the best matching home care providers sourced by local home agencies via an online platform.
The third prize winners are the Eduba team from the SMEs and the Counsela App team from the startups. Each team received a cash prize of $5,000. Eduba is a modern educational startup that offers the ability to learn by following best practices, distance education, customized lesson plans, managed assignments, and complete evaluations. In addition, the platform offers a comprehensive Education Transformation Framework that aims to reshape education in the MENA. Counsela is an online anonymous and affordable psychological counseling platform that caters to people’s psychological needs.
The Demo Day featured several keynote speakers including Ronaldo Mouchawar, VP of Amazon MENA and co-founder of Souq.com; Ahmad Nehlawi, Vice President of the Board of Directors at Jusoor; and Mohammed Skaik, Regional Business Development Manager. The ceremony was presented by Racha Ghamlouch, Co-Chief Aggregator at Digital Digest. The 13 top teams showcased their projects to the judges including Rasha Manna, General Manager of Flat6Labs in Jordan; Amr Seif, c-suite investment professional; Islam Mahdy, Chairman & CEO of Credence; and Amr Fikry, Managing Partner at Lorax Capital Partners. A panel discussion was also held to cover “Investing in Syrian and Host Community Entrepreneurs in the Middle East.” Panelists included Abdulsalam Haykal, Founder and Executive Chairman of Majarra; Dania Ismail, Co-founder of Jusoor and Director of the Entrepreneurship Program; and Hesham Halbouny, Partner - Man Capital London.
Building on Jusoor’s vision “No Entrepreneur Left Behind,” the virtual boot camp was originally launched in February and brought together 6,000 entrepreneurs from Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. The top 50 businesses were selected to participate in the incubation phase, and were provided 3 months of services, including 50+ hours of specialized group business training, 600+ hours of 1:1 mentorship, 100+ hours of 1:1 legal and marketing consultation, and direct business services worth over $100,000 USD. From these 50 businesses, the organizers chose the top 13 teams to showcase their projects at the Demo Day on July 8 and 6 teams won the first, second, and third prizes.
Watch the full event:
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