Egypt's Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), an affiliate body to the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), announced a new list of six innovative tech-fueled startups that won the 21st round of its Start IT competition. Start IT is a nationwide over-the-year business plan competition targeting Egyptian entrepreneurs with ICT-related prototypes/ proof of concept who are willing to commercialise their ideas and turn them into enterprises. Egypt has earned an enviable position in the area of entrepreneurship and startups arena. According to MAGNiTT's annual 2018 MENA Venture Investment Report, Egypt was the fastest growing ecosystem in 2018 – receiving the second highest number of deals at 22% of all deals, up 7% from 2017. The Acting CEO of ITIDA, Maha Rashad, said, "Stimulating tech and digital innovation ecosystem is a key pillar of ITIDA's strategy with the aim of positioning Egypt as regional and global competitor in high-end IT services and value-added innovation." "Our IT business incubator that is run by TIEC is characterised by offering a full-fledged incubation package to early-stage tech startups including a fully-equipped working space. This is in addition to other distinguished services such as access to markets and outreach opportunities like funding promising startups' participation in ICT and other related shows such as GITEX Future Stars in Dubai and CES in Las Vegas.", she added. The TIEC, which has been launched in 2010, aims to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in ICT and mobilise the different components of the ecosystem. The centre is the first of its kind in Egypt, the second in Africa and the fourth in the Middle East and Africa region as being an accredited member of the EBN, an international community of smart and specialised organisations. The list of winning companies includes: 1- Garment IO is a smart IoT platform tailored to boost the productivity of the Garment manufacturing industry. It is a plug and play, software/hardware solution providing garment factory managers and owners a complete overview of production processes, labor performance, and production cost calculation. 2- El Zatona is a cloud POS platform that helps in automating the management of the sales processes for small shops. The app works online and offline and can be used via mobile or web with no need for any special hardware. 3- Green Fashion Store is a website and a mobile app that enable users to market recycled products such as clothes and bags produced by households using factories' fabrics remnants/waste. 4- Mowafer Care is a mobile application that facilitates the provision of medical services for individuals who cannot afford to have medical insurance. It provides users with low-cost medical services using physical card holding ID and mobile application including medical network (+5000 service provider). 5- Marketizer is a POS platform that facilitates the management and sales of inventory for small shops in Upper Egypt governorates including Assiut, Sohag, and Minya. The Marketizer enables easy access and management of information as the POS desktop application is also connected online to mobile and web applications. 6- Harmonica demonstrates a modernised and advanced approach towards matching people together through a set of scientifically driven, technologically enabled, and culturally sensitive set of inquiries that are validated by our matching algorithm. Harmonica provides users with reliable and intuitive opportunity to discover their life-partner.
