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Two Egyptian companies win start-up cash in business competition

CAIRO: Two Egyptian companies came in second and third place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Business Plan Competition on June 4, winning a combined $20,000.

The competition is held in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel (AJL) Company .

Lebanon's Little Engineer came in first place and was awarded $50,000 as start-up capital at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Biobusiness, an Egyptian company specializing in non-invasive health monitoring devices, was the first-runner up, winning $15,000.

It was followed by two other companies: EG-Bioinformatics based in Egypt, which provides software products and services for genomics data management and analysis; and Arabic Coach from Yemen, offering online Arabic classes. Both received $5,000 each.

Islam Badreldin, software lead engineer from BioBusiness, said, the competition is "Everything an entrepreneur can dream of; both the training and networking opportunities were highly important to us."

With this flush of cash, EG-Bioinformatics intends to grow their company organically. This means they will seek to hire proper management and commercial staff once their operation begins to prove its financial viability, before seeking outside investment, said Moustafa Ghanem, member of EG-Bioinformatics.

Badreldin, on the other hand, indicated that BioBusiness is seeking to speak to venture capitalists and use the cash winnings immediately to expand their company.

Ghanem commented that the competition was instrumental in teaching his team how to move from a conceptual stage for their product to having a prototype ready.

"Without this competition we would still be in the talking stage versus being ready to enter the market with a product and a business plan for selling it," he noted.

A third Egyptian team took part in the event -- IB -- Interneting Behavior, a company that provides an internet data mining tool that searches social networking sites to help businesses better understand customers' opinions of their products and services.

They believe that the market for their service is significant. According to the Founder and CEO Hazem Gebeily, the current market is in the order if $400 million worldwide, which he says is expected to attain $1 billion by 2014.

In the end, competition, which is now in its third year, attracted 1,852 applicants from 13 Arab countries who submitted their business ideas to a jury, which then selected nine team to compete for the start-up cash.

The business plans presented to the jury included sectors ranging from the energy, engineering, healthcare, internet-based solutions, software to telecommunications.

The criteria encompassed aspects such as clarity, credibility, the compelling nature of the idea, originality, depth of analysis and the overall solidity of the company's business plan.

A final criterion centered on whether the company sought to incorporate a social component: creating skills and helping the broader community, for example.

Along with the start-up cash, the competition also granted mentoring and materials for crafting their business plans as well as networking opportunities with important figures in their respective domains.

"We had the great opportunity to learn how to write and present our business plans, and most importantly, we were able to engage with venture capitalists and other key people from the region at networking events," Ghanem said.

Ghanem thinks that the competition embodies a significant psychological value, because even if his company had not won, they now have the tools and the confidence to be successful. "By engaging ourselves in this process, we have gained invaluable experience and expertise to help us succeed after the competition," he stated.

Samer Khanachet, chief operating officer of Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) KIPCO, and one of the three judges, explained that he was "blown away by the quality of the presentations and was impressed with the over 1,800 applicants to this years' competition."

"All nine teams have a serious chance of success regardless of whether they win or not, provided they can execute their the business plans," he added.

When presenting BioBusiness its award for its non-invasive monitoring device that could be used for diabetic patients, Khanachet announced that he was "proud that such a product has been created in our region."

Ghanem believes that, "competitions like these are crucial to the region for promoting entrepreneurship as well as technology, as the latter is often underexploited. As such, substantial potential for economic development is lost."

Khanachet echoed his sentiments, saying, "The Middle East region is waking up to the importance of helping entrepreneurs develop their ideas; this in turn is opening the eyes of the rest of the community in the region."

By Christopher Le Coq

© Daily News Egypt 2010