Techne Summit 2018 Strikes the Tech World Again… Bigger & Stronger

6,000+ Attendees, 230 Startups, 130+ Speakers, 5 Competitions, 3 Pitch events and 80 investors from 25 different countries

Last week the Mediterranean city of Alexandria welcomed, for the fourth time, the yearly international investment & entrepreneurship event “Techne Summit 2018” (29-30th September 2018). This year the Summit was back with more than 6,000 attendees, 130 speakers, 80 investors, 230 startups and more than 66 partners all from 25 different countries, bringing together the key players in the tech industry at Bibliotheca Alexandrina

What had started in 2015 as a single event to help in the growth and development of startups by connecting them with the resources required to showcase their innovations, facilitate their products visibility and above all gain funding for their business, turned into a set of rapidly growing blockbuster events. The exchange of wisdom and expertise in parallel with sharing opportunities and experiences guaranteed that the two-day event was to ensure youth empowerment and build bridges between entrepreneurial ecosystems. 

“We always look at western developed markets for growth. I was recently in Egypt speaking at TechneSummit and there was some impossible energy in the house with over 5000 young people and Startups. There were investors from USA, UK, Middle East, Lebanon all looking at the potential of the market. I met some wonderful people who clearly see opportunity in North Africa. It is good to see things with a different lens at times.”, said Ritu Marya – Editor In Chief at Entrepreneur APAC and

SEVEN TRACKS

Techne Summit  2018 maintained structuring the event into different tracks to make it easy for attendees to follow what they’re most interested in. This year’s new tracks where HealthTech, and Real Estate Technology. Each track included expert talks and panel discussions where speakers, panelists and moderators excelled at shedding light on valuable perceptions and key industry trends. Other tracks included E-Commerce, FinTech, Marketing and Media Technology, Investment, and Startup Academy.

Cross-cutting all tracks, Microsoft Egypt was the sponsor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in several talks and panel discussions along with running a dedicated AI Workshop for startups by Menatallah Abdel Azeem 

The HealthTech track - sponsored by AXA, included topics and panels such as “The Application Of AI, AR and VR In Patient Treatment”, “The Future of HealthCare”, “Data Collection For Improving Patient Diagnosis (TeleHealth)” and a lot more.

Speakers in this track included Dr. Ahmed Morsy, Chairman of Nebras Technology, Dr. Ahmed Elgendi, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Choucri Asmar, Head of Partnerships and Strategic Projects at AXA, Walid Elsayed, CEO of Abouzeyada group.

“At the heart of our strategy is the conviction that we will never be able to be the winners of tomorrow alone. We can only do it with the ideas, innovation and energy of the start-ups and the young entrepreneurs like you” “as an example, one of the first successes we had when we came to Egypt was that we partnered with Uber. For those of you who came to this event in an Uber, you were insured by AXA, AXA was protecting your lives while you were in the car riding on the way”,said Khaled El Shaarany, Deputy CEO AXA Egypt in his opening speech of Techne Summit

The eCommerce track - sponsored by Otlob.com had speakers such as Samer Mansour, General Manager of Aramex Egypt, Nader Iskander CEO of EME, Emily Renny Product Manager, Accept Payment Solutions, Punit Thakker Sr. VP of global business development & strategy at PayTabs, Ahmed Wadi Founder & CEO at Moneyfellows, and so many others. Topics ranged from addressing consumer needs in emerging markets, up to how can artificial intelligence predict your next purchase.

Stages were packed in The Marketing and Media Technology Track (sponsored by The Planet) as prominent influencers and media gurus such as actor "Amr Wahba", TV host Salizon & Vignette " Ingy Abo Elseoud", "Ahmed ElGhandour" founder of "Da7ee7", "Mai Abaza" managing partner at Publicist Inc. And several others including Lauren Maillian CEO of LMB Group, Sherine Abdelmoneim Marketing Director and executive board member at Unilever, and Ramy Kandil General Manager, Hug Digital.

“As sales and marketing continue to transition further and further into the digital with the advent of ecommerce and the decline of brick and mortar sales outlets brands will continue to look towards the tech field for viable potential investments that can help them better augment their sales and marketing efforts”, said Tarek Nasr, Managing Director of The Planet.

The Fintech track, had very interesting talks including State of Fintech In The Region by Rita Makhloul. Fintech for FinanciaI Inclusion by Chris Czerwonka. In addition to panel discussions that included Early Stage FinTech Investments, moderated by Jessica Berlin with Andrew Sekandi, Tilman Süss, Punit Thakker as panelists. Disruptive Technologies and Financial Innovation that included companies from Beltone Financial, Fawry, EGID, and CIB.

The new Real Estate Track shed the light on the future of smart buildings, smart cities, 3D printed houses, and included speakers as Omar Radwan, Co-founder, Barek Technologies - Mohamed Dessouki, Strategic Innovation Projects Manager, IDIA Designs - Hussein Rifai, Chairman, Inertia - Laila Badawi Founder, Grids Architects - Agamemnon Otero Founding Director, Repowering London, Hossam Samy Co-Founder & Business Development Director Avidbeam.

The Startup Academy track took startups through a valuable journey of what they need to understand about setting up their businesses, raising funds, understanding markets and consumers, and several other topics that were very useful to the business side of any startup. 

The Investment track aimed to promote direct investment in MENA startups by bringing together international investors, angel investor groups, venture capitals (VCs), economic development organizations as well as business accelerators and incubators through capacity building expert talks and panel discussions. Participants gained valuable insights into investment strategies, hands-on growth tactics, and access to up-to-date economic trends and resources. The two-day investment program was supported by The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Egypt Ventures & Hivos Impact Investments also supported this vital track.

Local, regional and global investors participated and talked during the 2 day track including Ahmed Elalfi, Khaled Ismail, Neveen el Tahri, Tarek Assaad, Keith Wallace, Nicolas Rouhana, Loay El-Shawarby, and Dalia Ibrahim and so many others.

“Recommend this event, it is in a lovely setting and great attention is paid to help the entrepreneurs. Well done team! Ahmed El Alfi, Sawari Ventures

To further empower women; Techne, with the support of USAID’s project for Strengthening Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) put together women mentoring sessions and a panel discussion titled “Empowering Women by Empowered Women Entrepreneurs”

SEVEN STAGES

The Summit featured seven different parallel stages throughout the two-day event; three main stages included talks and panel discussions covering all the aforementioned tracks. A fourth & fifth stage for all startup workshops

A sixth stage was dedicated to office-hours run by IdeaSpace where all the startup mentoring took place, and finally a pitching stage where five different competitions took place. 

“Techne Summit 2018 was successful: full house at our lounge, unique networking opportunities, nice outreach and branding, and good, warm atmosphere.” said Monique Doppert of Hivos Impact Investments

TECHNE ARENA

A main attraction of Techne Summit are the competitions taking place addressing different pain-points. This year competitions took place on a center stage called “Techne Arena” where startups battled to get to the top!

TIEC held their annual competition where the two winners were Vetwork and Aquatika. The Fintech competition powered by Mint by EgBank announced their winners to be Noqood and Ordera. The HealthTec competition powered by AXA had a very strong battle on the arena and the final verdict was for Grow and Instadiet. 

Trip to Stockholm competition powered by the Swedish Embassy and Institute declared their winners to be Chefaa and Makanak Car Care. And finally GIZ and Techne competition, where the winners were Epic VR and Social Buildingz

As a breather between different battels on the Arena, musical breaks took place on stage, which were all powered by the event’s official Music partner Anghami. And to ease the heat and humidity the Red Bull wings team ensured all participants got their wings.

THREE PITCH EVENTS

Techne Summit 2018 included three pitch events;

AMIDEAST Egypt and Citi Foundation partnered hosted their pitch event for the Youth Entrepreneurship Program; a two-year partnership aimed at providing economic opportunities impacting 40 youth in Egypt, in September, 2016. The Youth Entrepreneurship Program, designed and implemented by AMIDEAST, is part of the Citi Foundation's Pathways to Progress global approach to prepare urban youth to thrive in today's economy.

Uber teamed up again with Techne Summit to bring entrepreneurs and investors to the Alexandrian Corniche in an #Uber7antoor. Because Alexandria's iconic Corniche road is the perfect setting for a lucrative carriage ride where entrepreneurs get to pitch their ideas to some of Egypt's biggest investors. Startups who had a 5-minute elevator pitch and a solid business idea and came to the 7antoor ride!

Alex Angels; Alexandria’s network of angel investors held their Q3 pitch event during Techne Summit. Four startups pitched in front of the angel investor members of the group and a wide selection of regional and global investors.

Beyond doubt, Techne Summit 2018 was a successful attempt to encourage investment by providing the opportunity to bring together Investors from all over the world, Economic development Organizations, and other parties working to facilitate business investments featuring Government Officials, and Business Executives.

Techne Summit 2018 was held under the auspices of Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and also The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, ITIDA, FEDCOC, DETGD. Other Techne Summit 2018 sponsors included StartEgypt by Flat6Labs, Innoventures, Fekretak Sherketak, Uber and The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH-on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development.

Official media partners were StartupScene, ArabNet, Magnitt, The next Silicon Valley, TEN TV, Alghad TV, Daily News Egypt, Menabytes, Startups Galaxy, Rowad ElAmaal, and Wamda.

Forbes Middle East was the official magazine partner and Entrepreneur APAC was the digital media partner for Techne Summit 2018

 For further information, please visit Techne Summit

(www.TechneSummit.com) or contact info@technesummit.com

Topics: Techne Summit