About RiseUp Summit 2017:
RiseUp was founded in 2013 in Egypt and quickly became a grassroots movement that spread across the MENA region and beyond. It catalyzed ecosystems and connected regional startups with global resources, beginning with RiseUp Summit (an annual entrepreneurship event) and growing into a range of products and activities supporting startups, and developing ecosystems throughout the year, including RiseUp Connect, RiseUp Explore, and RiseUp Meetup.
1 December 2017 – Cairo, Egypt:
In its fifth edition, the summit’s theme is ‘Innovation to Improve Human Experience (HX),’ which focuses on utilizing innovative thinking alongside creativity, technology and capital to create outstanding HX, the RiseUp Summit, the leading event for MENA region entrepreneurs, kicked off yesterday with major news announcements by The Abraaj Group, Elves App, and Nahdet Misr, iconic speakers from the global ecosystem, and thousands of attendees gathered in Downtown Cairo in both The GrEEK Campus and the American University’s Main Tahrir Campus.
“We’re thrilled to see the Summit kick off with such incredible participation from all over the world. It’s a testament to the important role entrepreneurship plays in our region, which pushes us every year to create an experience filled with real opportunities for start-ups. There are opportunities for learning through workshops and listening to global expertise, for funding through meeting investors, for mentorship, networking, sourcing talent and a lot more,” said Dalia Kamar, RiseUp Summit Manager.
The first day of the summit witnessed some of the biggest announcements from the MENA entrepreneurship ecosystem through the Launchpad.
The Abraaj Group announced the launch of Bakery, a growth market early stage investment and ecosystem building platform. Bakery will provide entrepreneurs with an ability to build scalable solutions and gain access to its platform of global resources and local support, leading to a toolkit for operational excellence.
Elves, the first ‘Human Siri’ that connects people to real assistants, has announced the successful closing of its seed round at more than $2 million, now the largest seed in the region’s history.
Sarah Heck, a senior leader from global technology company, Stripe, and former White House advisor on entrepreneurship to the Obama Administration, officially opened up Stripe Atlas to founders in the RiseUp community. Stripe Atlas is an invite-only service, but as of today, entrepreneurs attending the RiseUp Summit can gain immediate access. Stripe Atlas is the easiest way for entrepreneurs–anywhere in the world–to establish an internet business.
This year’s summit partners include Algebra Ventures, a venture capital fund dedicated to growing the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and AUC Venture Lab, Egypt’s first ever university-based accelerator and incubator, in addition to A15, an entrepreneurial investment company with offices in 16 countries around the world, and E7gezly, the online booking platform. This is in addition to partners based in the MENA region, such as Wamda, Careem, Crowd Analyzer and MAGNiTT, in addition to global partners including the British Council, Uber and Udacity.
We can’t wait to see what new innovations are uncovered in the upcoming days!
For more talks, timings, and their location, the RiseUp Summit 2017 agenda can be found here
