Omar Sakr, founder and CEO of Nawah-Scientific pocketed $150,000 cash prize during the grand final event “Africa’s Business Heroes”, hosted by Jack Ma Foundation held Saturday in Accra, Ghana.
The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative is Jack Ma’s flagship entrepreneur programme in Africa led by the Jack Ma charitable Foundation.
Nawah Scientific is the first, private, multidisciplinary research centre in Egypt catering to natural and medical sciences. The Egyptian start-up revolutionises the scientific research ecosystem as scientists can carry out world-class research regardless of the equipment in their labs.
Among the 10 finalists was another Egyptian start-up, Mumm which received $65,000 for its online platform that connects talented home-based cooks with hungry professionals to give them access to wholesome fresh homemade food, straight from the chef’s kitchen.
The company was incubated in the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA)’s Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC). In two years only, the company was able to create +110 jobs and delivered +45K meals to 7K customers, according to the company’s profile on TIEC’s website.
Entrepreneurship and tech innovation in Egypt has been growing in popularity and has become a key component of economic growth in Egypt.
The information and computer technology (ICT) innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt is thriving like never before and has recently witnessed a remarkable growth and significant successes. In 2018, the UN selected Egypt to host the first African and Middle Eastern Technology Innovation Lab.
A recent independent report ranked Egypt’s start-up ecosystem as the first in the MENA region, with respect to investment growth rates and second in terms of investment size. Other recent reports highly ranked the Egyptian ecosystem Africa for the number of high-potential start-ups.
Many high-potential Egyptian start-ups work in deep technologies in advanced IC design, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. Egypt has a vibrant edge in electronics innovation particularly due to hosting an increasing number of design houses, employing over 5000 highly talented Egyptians. The country also hosts electronics manufactures, two of which are world-leaders and on the top-10 list.
The ICT sector in Egypt has been witnessing unprecedented growth and is currently one of the fastest growing fields and one of the largest contributors to the country’s GDP growth with 4%. The sector achieved a growth rate of 16% during the last fiscal year, with more than $3bn annual export revenues.
