CEI News

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business joins forces with Shorooq Partners to launch Egypt’s first venture capital case competition, the “Shorooq Partners Venture Capital Case Competition.

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business strongly focuses on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs using the social innovation approach.

CEI is particularly interested in supporting potential female entrepreneurs to help reduce the gender gap in the Egyptian entrepreneurship ecosystem. Our goal is to help rising women entrepreneurs build and catalyze networks of like-minded individuals and organizations that female business leaders need in order to realize their full potential.

The Business Plan Project, Pitchathon, is part of the Experiential Learning Entrepreneurship Program (ELEP) launched by the AUC School of Businesses Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and the Business Association (BA). This initiative targets students enrolled in Entrepreneurship and Innovation classes (ENTR 3102).

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business launched the Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) program.

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business hosted the USAID Scholar Students Annual Entrepreneurship Summit 2022 for the second time in a row. Customized as an engaging one-week (2-day sessions and 5-day reflection and assignments) virtual learning experience on Sept 16 and 23, 2022, U-SPARK aims to inspire and ignite new entrepreneurial learnings and attitudes among future leaders. The program is focused on student-centered learning by ensuring an interactive and project-based learning environment while raising awareness of sustainability challenges and providing state-of-the-art knowledge, training, and mentorship. The summit is designed to provide a safe and welcoming space for fruitful networking and highly encourages the identification and promotion of flourishing social and human capital within.
 

As a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business, and EYouth held a training to support Baheya women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Banque Misr to qualify and train women entrepreneurs and support them in establishing and scaling their small businesses. AUC President Ahmad Dallal and Banque Misr Chairman Mohamed El-Etreby signed the agreement in the presence of a distinguished group of representatives from Banque Misr, AUC, The Canadian Embassy in Egypt, United Nations Women in Egypt and the National Council for Women.

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the AUC School of Business, together with Etisalat Egypt and Alfa Medical Group, launched the third edition of the annual virtual business plan competition Hack22 this June. The competition aims at creating innovative technological solutions that inspire a more sustainable, accessible and resilient future for communities.

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, School of Business is thrilled to announce that its first milestone has been achieved; 1000+ women with different educational backgrounds from seven Egyptian governorates, who have ongoing businesses or with entrepreneurial ideas, successfully completed the training.

The American University in Cairo, School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), Etisalat Misr, and Alfa medical Group AMG are launching the third edition of the annual virtual business plan competition HACK22 for national, regional, and international undergraduate university students of all majors.

The competition aims to empower students with the needed knowledge, skills, and networks to create innovative technological solutions that inspire a more sustainable, accessible, and resilient future for their communities.

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation was honored to join H.E. Ambassador Louis Dumas, Ambassador of Canada to Egypt as well as Ms. Christine Arab UN Women Country Representative, during the Canadian Ambassador's visit to the governorates of Beheira and Alexandria to meet the women entrepreneurs, who were part of the WEE-ES project.

In Celebration of International Women's Day, the AUC School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation was honored to hold a roundtable discussion on March 16, 2022, which coincides with Egyptian Women's Day.

The guests included the project partners, project beneficiaries, and established female entrepreneurs who supported the program as guest speakers and academic advisors to the project.

The business plan project Pitchathon is part of the Experiential Learning Entrepreneurship Program (ELEP) launched by the AUC School of Businesses Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and the Business Association (BA). This initiative targets students who are enrolled in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation classes (ENTR 3102).

CEI will familiarize the ecosystem stakeholders with the importance of mentoring programs, as well as, cooperate and coordinate in the delivery of the MIT VMS program - using the MIT licensed material. The partnership will support CEI to continue to train mentors on the principles and methodology of the MIT VMS Model through its Leadership Team, and mentors to expand its mentorship network.

CEI successfully has trained more than 100 women entrepreneurs under the award of the UN Women program “Women Economic Empowerment Program – Entrepreneurship support”. The aim is to support women entrepreneurs to help reduce the gender gap in the Egyptian entrepreneurship ecosystem. Throughout 2 years, CEI will target 1000 female beneficiaries age 21 and above, who often lack specific skills that are relevant for starting their own businesses. The project will pay attention to targeting women from underprivileged and rural areas in 7 governorates.

The American University in Cairo has been awarded the coordination and the delivery of Heya Raeda Program in 2021 by the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TEIC). The objective of the program is to reach out to female entrepreneurs and allow them to start their own projects with a focus on developing the logical side of business development, rather than a detailed theoretical approach, operating over 15 rounds, with each round extending 5 days long aiming to support 300 early-stage female entrepreneurs operating in the Communication and Information Technology sector.

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), together with El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC) and AUC Business Association of AUC School of Business launched for the third year the ICC focusing on a startup case. Since we recognize the value of such competitions to introduce students to the multifaceted challenges that startups face especially in developing countries upon the COVID - 19 pandemic; we are introducing the third edition of the ICC in 2021.

The AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in partnership with Global Business School Network and Lancaster University, are bringing undergraduate students a unique opportunity to work closely with a Lancaster University’s Entrepreneur in Residence (#EIR), with extensive experience in the small-and-medium-sized businesses (#SMEs) world.

CEI was awarded the UN Women's program “Women Economic Empowerment Program – Entrepreneurship support”. Under the program, CEI aims to support women entrepreneurs to help reduce the gender gap in the Egyptian entrepreneurship ecosystem. Throughout two years, CEI will target 1000 female beneficiaries age 21 and above, who often lack specific skills that are relevant for starting their own businesses. The project will pay attention to targeting women from underprivileged and rural areas in seven governorates. 

An online workshop that helps participants enhance their interpersonal skills, learn to work under time pressure and open up their minds to come up with innovative business solutions to a problem statement that is introduced on the day through a case study. Prior to the introduction of the case study that states the problem statement, participants are given knowledge on entrepreneurial concepts to aid them in producing their business solutions. The workshop takes the form of an interactive discussion followed by a competitive challenge where participants are divided into teams and are guided by mentors from the companies/entrepreneurship fields. Winners are recognized and all participants get access to the Gather platform, INJAZ Alumni’s online network. 

The hackathon is a virtual sprint for teams to ideate, develop, and build solutions to given problems. HACK 19 is a three-day hackathon, targeting university students from the Middle East, that will focus on problems that are caused by the outbreak and the repercussions of the lockdown rather than looking for a medical cure to the virus.

The AUC Business Association (BA) in partnership with AUC School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), and El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC) are launching an online one-day case competition. The one-day online case competition is a great way and thought-provoking method for students to identify challenges facing a business and develop a strategy, to address these key concerns in order to help businesses attain their goals.

Chris Schroeder, the co-founder of Next Billion Ventures, entrepreneur advisor, and investor in interactive technologies and social communications, discussed his experiences during his entrepreneurial journey, including the shocking challenges and incomparable excitement of building something from nothing, and how he views the best entrepreneurs he meets today.

In partnership with the Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at AUC's School of Business, two of AUC’s Graduate School of Education alumni Heba Fadeel and Aisha Khairat, founded and launched the UK's Social Enterprise Academy (SEA) in Egypt.

SEA Egypt is the 13th hub globally and the first in the MENA region, to provide internationally certified and tailored programs in leadership, enterprise, social impact, and personal development and learning for diverse learners with a vision to empower future Egyptian leaders by developing their entrepreneurial mindset and enterprising skills.

From founding and exiting a multi-billion-dollar enterprise to becoming a seasoned global investor, attendees engaged in one-on-one conversations with Endeavor's global mentor Chris Rogers, partner at Lumia Capital, and learned all about the ins and outs of his scale-up journey, as well as his views on the state of the venture capital industry around the world.

An event for undergraduate students willing to inaugurate an on-campus startup club of Entrepreneurship Ambassadors who were to elect their Entrepreneurship Leader (E-Leader) within the event, who would become the club's president. The day featured Omar Shoukry, founder and CEO, NAWAH Scientific. The role of the club members would be to liaise between the undergraduates, alumni, and the business world, and become campus catalysts for benefits including channelizing aspiring entrepreneurs into campus company programs or enabling them to join startup internships through the Startup Club Jobs Placement Program.

The entrepreneurial skills developed through the club were aimed at equipping students with the prerequisites to start a venture or contribute effectively to any organization they join in their careers through networking with subject matter experts, angel investors, and organization CEOs. These included startups and alumni members who would help with business ideas, raising funds or mentoring for both student and alumni entrepreneurs. The newly launched startups, especially by Startup Club alumni members, frequently provided summer placements and projects for students.

Talk featuring internationally acclaimed speaker, best-selling author, faculty advisor at CalStateTeach, and co-founder of ReadBetterin67steps.com, Dranny Brassell. Brassell shared his journey as an entrepreneur, revealed the secrets of a successful leader, and discussed how motivation can bring back joy to the workplace.

The ICSB Academy is a weeklong experience held in parallel to the ICSB Congress 2019 that took place in Cairo, at which the AUC School of Business was also the official academic partner. This highly successful pre-conference program brought students from around the world together for an intensive experience that challenges stimulates and builds entrepreneurial skills. Based on the philosophy that organizations, including businesses, exist to meet the needs of communities and societies, the Academy emphasized the triple bottom line: profit, people, and the planet. 

Throughout the program, participants were encouraged to come up with their own business ideas and create a business plan that would help promote their ideas. To put them on the right track, students received sessions on various topics, including creativity and innovation, the importance of visions and missions, how to build your business model and know your unique value proposition, and the importance of customer-centricity, as well as technology. The theoretical sessions were put into practice through team exercises and presentations to ensure learning.

Integrate, Capitalize, and Compete were the three keywords for the ICC. Organized by the AUC School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC), and the Business Association (BA), the competition brought together nine teams of students from all over the world to compete in solving a challenging business case centered on obstacles facing high growth entrepreneurial ventures.

Six international teams and three local teams participated in the competition, amounting to 34 students accompanied by four mentors and fourteen judges. University student teams taking part included: The American University of Sharjah (AUS), UAE Bennet University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, University of Ajman, Sultan Qaboos University, York University, Alexandria University, Cairo University and The American University in Cairo.

The International Case Solving Competition aimed to blend a cross-cultural understanding of working with Egyptian students and entrepreneurs with a grasp of the Egyptian culture in a well-designed process and concurrently granting local Egyptian students an international experience from their homeland.

Social media talk featuring Salem Bassita, co-founder of Bassita and VeryNile, and Ashoka Fellow, McGill University and Mostafa Habib, project manager, Bassita, showcasing how one click can create a real change and that a share, like, comment, or even view, can evolve into a social impact.

The event represented the culmination of the first cohort of the AWEC program and the launch of the AWEC Alumnae Network. AWEC, created by the Center for Global Enterprise (CGE) and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation among others, is a one-of-a-kind, high-touch business, and management learning program. It centers around applied learning and collaborative experiences to guarantee immediate business impact and the creation of a pan-African network of entrepreneurs, experts, and allies.

The program empowered 200 female entrepreneurs from across Africa with the knowledge and network needed to establish and scale their businesses. 150 female entrepreneurs and 13 mentors from thirty-seven countries across Africa and representing thirty-two industries participated in the second AWEC Leadership Summit.

In collaboration with The AmCham Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee (EIC), Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), Endeavor Egypt, and Mindsalike, the one-day event celebrated the “Egyptian Dream” and promoted Egyptian entrepreneurship by providing attendees with the opportunity to experience the entrepreneurial journey first-hand. This was achieved by showcasing the stories of accomplished entrepreneurs and highlighting the tools behind their success.

Gathering 120+ attendees from 15+ countries, including world-class business and industry leaders, investors, and some of the most promising entrepreneurs around the world, the ISP concluded with the selection of 15 high-impact entrepreneurs leading 12 companies from 9 markets to join Endeavor's global network.

The Arab World Social Innovation Forum was the first global summit on social entrepreneurship held in the region since the Arab Spring. Over 700 attendees from the region and around the world, among them distinguished social entrepreneurs, leaders in the business and corporate sector, policymakers, and thought leaders, came together to ignite the local-to-global and cross-sector movement for social change.

A presentation on the findings of the research report by Strategy and Middle East Ideation Center with contributions from Endeavor offices across Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. The research included the impact of scale-ups on Egypt’s economic growth, the main challenges faced by scale-ups, and ways to support the scale-ups ecosystem.

The Local Selection Panel (LSP) is the phase in the Endeavor selection process at which Endeavor mentors interview candidates to decide whether or not they will proceed to the International Selection Panel (ISP), the final stage of selection.

Talk featuring Patrick McGinnis, one of Endeavor's New York-based global mentors, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, public speaker, and author of “The 10% Entrepreneur” book. McGinnis discussed his guide to become an entrepreneur without quitting your job, as well as provided advice to investors, entrepreneurs, and fast-growing businesses. In addition, he explained how he came up with the idea of coining the term FOMO (fear of missing out).

The panel discussion was held for an audience of 60 Harvard Business School MBA students and featured Sherif Kamel, Dean, AUC School of Business, Hisham El-Khazindar, AUC trustee, member of the School of Business Strategic Advisory board, and co-founder and managing director, Qalaa Holdings, Ahmed Zahran, CEO and co-founder, KarmSolar, Ayman Ismail, former director, Center for Entrepreneurship and director of the AUC Venture Lab, and Abdelhameed Sharara, founder and CEO, RiseUp. The lecture aimed at introducing Harvard students to the great number of innovative projects crystallizing in Cairo, many of which had roots at AUC, giving them a glimpse of the developments taking place on the skirts of the historical river.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is an annual assessment of the national level of entrepreneurial activity in multiple, diverse countries. GEM is now the largest ongoing study of entrepreneurial dynamics in the world.

During the year, 6 prominent international and high-growth entrepreneurs were hosted to share their experiences, journeys, and knowledge with students and entrepreneurs to enhance awareness on the entrepreneurial process from idea to launch and sustainability.

• November 2017 - The Female Entrepreneur Who Revolutionized the Egyptian Cleaning Industry, featuring Gehad Abdullah, founder of MERMAID

• November 2017 - Market Research and Changing Consumption Trends in the Egyptian Market, featuring Rasha Sultan, director, Qualitative Unit, Egypt and Levant, Nielsen

• November 2017 -The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Startup Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own, featuring Mostafa Kandil, founder and CEO, SWVL, the AUC Venture Lab startup that had just landed $500,000 from Careem

• October 2017 - Accelerating Startups in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Learning from MassRobotics, featuring Fady Saad, co-founder, and partnership director, MassRobotics

• September 2017 - The Role of Universities in Advancing the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem, featuring Ossama Hassanein, chairman, Rising Tide Fund

• September 2017 - Financial Inclusion, featuring Nadim Hussain, founder, Telenor Microfinance Bank (Tameer)

The Mobile App Launchpad Program (MAL), launched by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) and Google, celebrated the graduation of the last cohort (cohort E) of mobile application developers and honored three groups for their mobile innovation and entrepreneurship with cash prizes. The program was launched to help Egypt’s talent pool excel in mobile app innovation and entrepreneurship. MAL targeted fresh graduates and university students in order to advance their academic knowledge through practical experience to design and launch their own mobile applications.

The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition (ASC) is a yearly competition initiated by the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab since 2006. This annual competition is designed to empower entrepreneurs and foster an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Arab Region. ASC pits entrepreneurs in three different tracks: ideas, startups, and social entrepreneurship tracks.

The winning teams are awarded 120,000 USD in equity-free funds and benefit from a range of other activities, including top-tier training, mentorship, coaching, media exposure, and great networking opportunities. In 2017, the winners participated in the pre-boot camp training across Egypt, Jordan, and the UAE, in a competition that concluded with a four-day event, where the final winners were awarded over $160,000 in cash prizes.

Created by Sheraa, a launch pad for aspiring young entrepreneurs in the UAE, at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, along with the Center for Entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Business, Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and startAD from New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), the collaborators launched “Shabakah”, aimed to unleash the entrepreneurial power through joining leading universities of the region in a bid to combine forces with their entrepreneurship programs.

The consortium was the beginning of a long-term commitment to foster knowledge sharing and collaborative activities among the region’s entrepreneurship centers in order to support the dreams of entrepreneurs in exploring markets beyond their home territory. The network aimed to support aspiring and existing entrepreneurs to test new markets through an exchange of knowledge and expertise, lowering costs and risks involved in expanding their footprint.

The members also decided on key programs that will be jointly held by tapping into their expanding community and student base. One of the many activities include a ten-day educational tour to the United States.

The event featured guest speaker HRH Princess Basma Bint Saud, followed by a panel including Maya Morsi, president, National Council for Women, Jorg Schimmel, deputy country director officer in charge, UN Women Egypt, Ahmed El Alfi, founder and chairman, The GrEEK Campus, and Maha El-Shinnawy, director, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program. Both the fireside chat and the panel were moderated by Dina H. Sherif, former director of, Center for Entrepreneurship. The topic was chosen in acknowledgment that 2017 was the “The Year of the Woman” in Egypt and to celebrate women entrepreneurs and their capabilities.

 The fireside chat featured guest speaker Mudassir Sheikha, founder and managing director of Careem, Karim Hussein, CEO and co-founder, D-Kimia, and was moderated by Dina H. Sherif, former director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. The discussion explored why the sharing economy can no longer be ignored in the region and looked into how Careem became one of the fastest-growing businesses in the region, raising capital from one of the largest private equity firms in the world.  The panelists additionally covered the benefits and concerns revolving around the growing industry of transportation and how to bridge the gap between innovators, regulators, and governments to identify the key matrix of impact in regard to disruptive businesses.

Roundtable featuring Fadi Ghandour, chair, Wamda, Christopher Schroeder, venture investor and author, and Maher Hakim, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar. The roundtable included discussions around the members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, namely: startups, support entities, and the government, discussing their exact roles in the process of launching a startup, and the challenges that exist in the cycle of communication among the three, along with internal challenges in their operations.

AUC School of Business launched the Center for Entrepreneurship alongside leading members of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region, including investors, mentors, entrepreneurs, and AUC faculty and students. Formerly known as the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, which was established in 2010, the Center was established to support the growth and evolution of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt and the Arab region with a focus on promoting education and research. 

CEI’s new director, associate professor of practice and Willard Brown Endowed Chair of International Business Leadership, Dina Sherif, moderated the lively panel: “Entrepreneurship in Perspective: A Pathway for fast Growth” at the opening, which featured leading figures in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt: Ameer Sherif, co-founder, and CEO, Wuzzuf, Mohamed Osman, managing director, Sofico for Financial Investments, Sameh El Sadat, CEO, TBS and founder, Springboard Investment Management Ltd., and Shahira Diab, general manager, La Poire for Touristic Enterprises.

The AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab) at AUC School of Business announced the finalists of the V-Lab Challenge. The winning teams were to be incubated in the newly created AUC V-Lab, which was launched on the same day, becoming the first university-based incubator in Egypt.

The AUC V-Lab aims to enable start-ups to capitalize on AUC’s world-class facilities and knowledge base, connect innovative start-ups with AUC’s alumni network, and foster a thriving ecosystem of innovation, education, and business. The mission of the lab is to commercialize technologies and innovations developed by Egypt-based start-ups into commercially viable ventures, where the companies will contribute to economic growth and job creation.

The V-Lab Challenge winners included CoolScreen, ZIMORO, KLC, MUBSER, KASHEF and ZADIT, which were chosen on the basis of the novelty of their ideas, teams track record, cohesion, scalability, the potential for commercialization, as well as the team’s tenacity and commitment to success. The six teams represented the first incubation wave of the AUC V-Lab.

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (now CEI), in cooperation with Intel, announced the inaugural AUC Venture Lab Challenge (V-Lab Challenge), aiming to recruit high-potential, creative teams with innovative ideas and fast track the winning companies to the newly created business incubator at the heart of the AUC New Cairo campus – the AUC Venture Lab, and to the Intel Business Challenge Middle East and North Africa 2013 Finals in Abu Dhabi.

The semifinalists completed their prototype, received a full week training in the form of an “Entrepreneurship Development Program”, delivered by distinguished AUC faculty in addition to mentoring sessions by Nader Iskander CEO, EME International, Jilan Mohi El Dien, marketing advisor, Business Management Essentials™ Program, and Karim Hussien, angel investor and CEO of De-Kemia. Semifinalists competed for a pool of prizes and acquired the needed exposure to launch successful businesses. At the end of the competition, teams had an opportunity to pitch and present their products to potential investors and key industry experts.