Innovation Spaces - Egypt
Innovation Spaces gradually emerged in Egypt from 2009 and the numbers have steadily grown. Unfortunately, not all are still operating (e.g., Tahrir Square hub, Cairo Hackerspace, Plug and Play Egypt, El-Minya Hacker space). Most Innovation Spaces in Egypt are located in Cairo or Giza (just outside Cairo) with a small number also located in the famous port city of Alexandria. The District Co-working Spaces , American University of Cairo (AUC) Venture Lab and icecairo are all located in downtown Cairo, while the Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC), UNTIL Lab, Smart Village, Flat6Labs , Fab Lab Egypt , and Giza Hackerspace are all located in Giza. icealex and Alexandria Hackerspace are located in Alexandria.
They range in focus from Pre-Incubation (icecairo, icealex, Alexandria Hackerspace ), Incubation (American University of Cairo (AUC) Venture Lab, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center - TIEC , Flat6Labs, GESR Incubator and Innovation Lab, Nahdet El Mahrousa , Sustaincubator) and Accelerator (Flat6Labs, Injaz Egypt, Sustaincubator) and Co-working and meeting spaces (The District, Fab Lab Egypt Giza Hackerspace, Al Maqarr, Muqaddima Coworking Space - GrEEK CAMPUS , Rasheed22, 302labs , Innoventures Startup Circus). Some innovation centres focused on specific issues, for example Ebni which focused on incubation and acceleration around hardware innovations and Sustaincubator, which is specifically supporting innovation in Food, Renewable Energy and Water.
As part of its plan to promote young talent, MCIT cooperated with the Ministry of Higher Education to establish 8 technology innovation hubs within Egyptian universities to train university senior students within the faculties of engineering and computers and information technology as well as recent graduates. This is in addition to nurturing young people's creativity and supporting young entrepreneurs through innovation hubs and accelerators, and incubators for small and micro enterprises, which in its entirety represent an integrated system for nurturing and supporting the ideas of youth and their projects within each regional university. These 8 universities are considered as Phase 1 of this national initiative. More universities are planned for 2019. The target is to include all the 26 national governmental institutes within the initiative over the next 2 years.
Some are described in more detail below.
STARTUPS OF ALEX is the first Alexandria based incubator launched by icealex (focusing on co-working space, mentoring, training) and funded by the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology under the program of "Intilac National Incubators". STARTUPS OF ALEX aims to connect key stakeholders across the Alexandrian startup ecosystem, including startups with mentors, investors, partners and supporting organizations such as co-working spaces and innovation & technology hubs.
EiTESAL Business Nurturing Initiative (Ebni) is now part of the Borg Al Arab Innovation Cluster, based in the Silicon Waha Bog Al Arab Technology Park. This partk is supported by EgyptInnovate, ITIDA, Silicon Waha, the Ministry of Comunications and Information Technology and USAID. Ebni provides access to seed grant funding, rent free co-working space, access to prototyping space as well as access to technical and business support and accounting and legal services.
The District was established in November 2011 as a commercial co-working space for established entrepreneurs after the ideation stage, offering co-working space, private meeting space, Internet access, and since October 2013, a café. As well as offering paid training programmes onsite, The District received support from the Dutch Embassy to launch an entrepreneur support programme in September 2014 focused on knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer skills sharing.
Affiliated with the international co-working space company icehubs and the AfriLabs Network , icecairo was established in 2012 as a not-for-profit green-tech innovation hub, with a focus on both services delivered via a physical venue (with Internet access, co-working and meeting space, fab-lab facilities, events, training and the GIZ Responsible & Inclusive Business Hub funded under the GIZ Employment Promotion Programme) as well as online, including a blog and online training. Icecairo is "focused on turning environment and social challenges faced by Egyptian communities into opportunities for the creation of green businesses." icecairo has been heavily dependent on funding from GIZ and is trying to diversify revenue streams to achieve sustainability.
The Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) was established in September 2010, focusing on pre-incubation, incubation, acceleration and entrepreneurship and business support. To date, it has incubated 32 companies and supported over 100 startups and early stage companies, and is currently incubating 16 entrepreneurs, half graduates, half experienced professionals. Government funded, it has a national mandate to "stimulate an innovation-based economy through promoting innovation, supporting entrepreneurship and the creation of intellectual property in the ICT field. In November 2018, TIEC has established its IoT labs, which are equipped with latest IoT devices, tools and platforms that support different IoT verticals. The labs aim to be an IoT playground for students, innovators and experts to learn, develop, and pilot their IoT use cases and to collaborate on countrywide IoT solutions. Currently, the operational model for the lab is being approved. The lab will be open to the community in Q1 of 2019.
The United Nations African Technology Innovation Lab (UNTIL) was opened in Egypt in November 2018. It is hosted by the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC). The Lab will facilitate training on technology innovations to develop solutions that address global challenges. Thematic areas that it will focus on include: Education for special-needs students; Health: disease control, epidemic prevention, and therapeutic tourism; Industry: circular economy through value-chain development and waste management, Agriculture: animal production, poultry farming, aquaculture, water rationalization, and soil fertility. It is envisaged that all solutions will be open source using open data.
Al Maqarr was established in 2012 and focuses on co-working space. It now has three locations (Greek Campus and Heliopolis, Cairo and G Space - ElGouna, Hurghada).
AUC Venture Labs (V-Lab) was established by the American University of Cairo in 2013, as the first university-based incubator in Egypt. It incubates early-stage and growth-stage startups providing training sessions, mentors, student internships and engagement with the AUC School of Business. In 2014, AUC V-Lab has been selected among the top five most promising university incubators in Africa by Sweden-based UBI-Index. Currently 5+ startups are supported by AUC venture lab.
Flat6Labs is a regional startup accelerator program that provides seed funding, strategic mentorship, a creative workspace, entrepreneurship-focused business training, and access to investors. Flat6 labs has now 4 locations, 80+ mentors, 180+ entrepreneurs, 75 companies benefited from the acceleration program with 400+ jobs created.
1864 is Egypt's first dedicated fintech accelerator. Run by Flat6labs in partnership with Barclays Bank Egypt, it offers funding of up to 150,000 Egyptian pounds (US$16,800) in exchange for a minority stake of 10-15 percent. It offers office space and free legal advice.
GESR is a technology-based, social business incubator focused on Water, Energy, Food, Health and Education. It provides both an Incubation and Acceleration programme. Funded by the Misr El-Kheir Foundation, the Incubation programme includes a one year incubation period and funding up to 500,000 LE for registered social enterprise with a functional prototype, a vision of the target market, and a solid business plan. The Acceleration programme includes a six month incubation period and funding up to 200,000 LE to support social entrepreneurs to develop their prototype further. The lab includes a mechanical workshop and embedded systems lab. Innovators are provided with co-working space, technical support, hand tools and electronic kits.
Fab lab Egypt is a not-for-profit, co-working space and digital fabrication Lab, and member of MIT Fab Lab Global Network. Established in 2012, it offers paid access to co-working space, machines and tools for digital fabrication and prototyping, hands-on MIT accredited curriculum-based training, workshops and events.
Sustaincubator is an incubator focusing on innovative sustainable development in the areas of water, food, renewable energy and IT-enabled solutions supporting sustainable causes.
INJAZ Egypt provides incubation and acceleration services for about 29 companies. Established in 2003, INJAZ Egypt works to promote the skills of employability and entrepreneurship among Egypt's unemployed youth in partnership with businesses and educational institutions across the country.
302 Labs is a co-working space which supports networking and community activities including hackathons and workshops.
