The Venture Lab (VLab) of the American University in Cairo (AUC) has been evaluated as the most promising incubator in Africa in the Global University Business Incubators List for 2014. VLab is starting its fourth cycle in February 2015, aiming to develop another ten Egyptian start-ups on its premises. “Being within a university gives us a lot of academic and non-academic resources to help start-ups while they are building their businesses,” VLab manager Sherif Shabana said of the ranking. AUC's VLab is the first university-based incubator in Egypt. It supports early-stage start-ups that are chosen through a selection process that judges the novelty of the start-up's idea, the team's track record and cohesion, scalability and potential for commercialisation, and the team's tenacity and commitment to success. Over 180 applications were filed for the third cycle, making it the biggest so far. “The companies came from very diverse sectors, and a lot of the people involved were serial entrepreneurs, meaning they had also learned from their failures,” Shabana said. One of the start-ups at VLab is Top Choice Admissions, a holistic admissions consulting firm. “VLab hosts high-profile speakers with considerable experience, asking them to share their thoughts on how to scale up,” said Omar Khashaba, CEO of Top Choice Admissions. “Interaction with such individuals is very helpful. The exposure a start-up gets to the investor community and the networking provided are the main assets at AUC's incubator.” When choosing start-ups for the next cycle, VLab looks at the entrepreneurs' level of passion and their potential, from a business perspective, to deliver. “What would increase VLab's value would be if it divided start-ups according to their stage of development, so that every company could get exactly what it needs,” Khashaba said. The writer is a freelance journalist.
