Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) is lending its support to eight technology startups at the 4YFN 2021 startup event, one of the world's largest exhibitions for the mobile industry. The 4YFN (4 Years From Now) event, which is taking place in Barcelona, aims to help the startups expand their business network, and connect them with investors looking for cutting-edge founders and latest technology solutions. It will take place from 28 June to 1 July. Capitalising on the networking event, ITIDA joins the international gathering with home-grown startups as part of its mandates to support local enterprises and entrepreneurs. This highlights Egypt's robust and diverse start-up ecosystem, and showcases how the country is fast-becoming a regional hub for entrepreneurship and digital innovation. The list of the Egyptian startups to watch include: Adzily: A digital out-of-home (DOOH) network targeting an audience in hundreds of locations at the same time. Cardoo A fast-growing startup developing affordable smart devices to help youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to enhance their day-to-day lives. ElGameya: A rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) model based mobile application that offers its user a platform to digitise their private money cycles, or get matched to users with similar saving/lending capabilities in a public circle. ElGameya's app also features a built-in marketplace enabling users to access exclusive discounted products as a cash-out option. E-POD (Electronic Payment On Delivery): a specialised financial technology (FinTech) mobile app offering a secure platform to shop and pay online, allowing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their sales by 25%. Paynas: A fintech startup with a mission to harness technology to make a difference to small companies. It aims to do so by providing financial and non-financial benefits to their employees that unlock access to new and improved ways of saving, moving, and borrowing money. Backed by strategic alliances and partnerships with global players, including Visa International and Banque Misr, Paynas is paving new roads to empower SMEs and the millions they employ. Talents Arena: It provides creative gigs and unlimited job opportunities, alongside modern personal financial solutions. Webville: An artificial intelligence (AI) company focused on content and computer vision solutions. The company's latest breakthrough is ARTVILLE, which is an AI STUDIO for e-commerce content generation. The studio helps e-commerce companies automate their product photo-editing processes using Machine Learning and Computer Vision. WideBot: A B2B SaaS platform that empowers businesses to build smart, AI-enabled chatbots capable of speaking both formal and informal Arabic languages. These chatbots are trained by millions of annotated datasets within 16 domains in 12 dialects. All of the participating startups will have an opportunity to meet and connect with global talent, in addition to pitching and networking with top global Venture Capital firms. The 4YFN exhibition will feature hundreds of startups and established companies from across the globe. Additionally, it will incorporate a series of keynotes by influencers and pioneers, discussions among top experts of the industry, as well as insightful startup pitches. Egypt is home to the region's largest start-up ecosystem. The digital startups scene is evolving and is being supported by progressive legislation, diverse technical capacity-building programmes, and novel funding mechanisms.
