As a one-of-a-kind company in Alexandria, icealex promotes and enhances the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem as well as build impact-driven ventures. It does so through its incubation programme that hosts bootcamps, retreats, mentoring, and consultation designed modules for 56 promising females in the creative, educational, and environmental sectors. In 2016, icealex became the owner of the first business incubator in Alexandria, called Startups of Alex. Then, icealex launched i*lead, a women-led initiative that aims to enable an ecosystem for female entrepreneurs through a set of various services and facilities e.g. dedicated entrepreneurship training programmes, peer-to-peer mentoring, and on-the-job support. icealex celebrated International Women's Day at the closure of its pre-incubation programme Ladies Startups League , by graduating 14 female-led startups. The programme aims to incubate female entrepreneurs and owners of startups, provide them with technical, consultative and legal support, and help women to build their capabilities and turn their ideas into real business that contributes to creating job while innovatively helping solve societal problems in an innovative. This cycle focused on three important sectors: education, environment, and creative industries. A ceremony was held on Saturday, 7 March in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where 14 startups presented their projects in front of Ahmed Bastawy, Managing Director at icealex, Mike Harker, Public Diplomacy Officer at the US Embassy in Egypt, a number of investors, and public figures interested in entrepreneurship. Monetary prizes distributed to startups in the three sectors, which were chosen by the jury during the celebration. Voyage, Velatura, and Tawleafa won first place with a cash prize of EGP 10,000 offered by the US Embassy for each startup, while Farasha , Mesh Plastic, Agab Studio won second place with a cash prize of EGP 7,000 offered by Start Egypt Programme for each startup. Ladies Startups League is operated by icealex and the i*lead initiative, sponsored by the US Embassy in Egypt and in cooperation with local partners such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Start Egypt Programme, the Entrepreneurship Centre the at Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, Youthinkgreen Egypt, and Edventures Incubator.
