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Egypt’s IT Industry Development Agency “ITIDA”, has announced new seven winning startup companies in the 28^th round of “Start IT” competition.

Start IT is a quarterly nationwide business plan competition in Egypt and targets entrepreneurs at the idea stage with an ICT-related prototype / proof of concept, to help them turn their ideas into a thriving business.

The competition is organized by the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center “TIEC”; the agency’s affiliate body for developing the innovation community and fostering entrepreneurship in the ICT sector.

The winners will receive fully-funded services including having their projects incubated for one year. Start IT offers cash fund, business consultancy services, mentorship, software and hardware tools, and go-to-market support. In addition, entrepreneurs are offered a working space with high-speed internet, access to a prestigious network of entrepreneurs, and seasoned industry leaders.

The program is among a long list of initiatives and endeavors in Egypt to support the thriving startup and technology sectors and to help entrepreneurs overcome the challenges inherent in starting a company.

“There has been a boost in the tech startup ecosystem in Egypt in the last couple of years. As such, the entrepreneurship scene has shown resilience amid the global challenges introduced by COVID-19”, said Amr Mahfouz, CEO of ITIDA.

“The pandemic acted as a catalyst for accelerated digital transformation and tech-adoption in the MENA region, as in the case of Egypt.”, he added.

According to Magnitt’s venture investment report for the first half of 2020, Egyptian startups maintained the first position by getting the highest number of deals; 25% of all transactions in MENA region (nearly $140 million YTD).

The report also highlighted that Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the only 2 MENA countries to see an increase in their share of total funding, as Egypt was up 7% during the first half of 2020.

The 2020 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) by Startup Genome ranked Cairo among the top 10 global ecosystems for Affordable Talent in 2020.

The winning list includes Analog Designer’s Toolbox (ADT), an electronic design automation tool for engineers that addresses the shortcomings of previous and current market offerings and affects the way every analog IC designer works and every analog IC design course is taught.

DomDom is the first digital graphic design platform tailored for the MENA region. It offers an easy-to-use graphic design software, packed with huge stock of designs/photos for companies and professionals to easily create specialized graphic designs in a short time. 

Vibes, a mobile application that enhances the tourist experience through storytelling. Tourists scan or select what they see in tourist attractions or historical places and have its story narrated in their language.

Hafs Quran, a website that guides and educates people on how they can recite the Quran and learn Arabic. It is an online Quran and Arabic school which targets people in Europe and the US.

A-eye Tech, a computer vision solution for retail and banks to extract tons of analytics from CCTV cameras using AI Techniques and computer vision. 

Avocato, an app that helps citizens reach lawyers in different specialties and provides information about laws and legal procedures.

Shoppy App, a mobile application builder for e-commerce businesses that helps create applications in no time and without coding skills.