Ten Middle East tech start-ups from Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq have qualified to for the final pitch competition of SPARK Ignite in Amsterdam.
With support from Google the incubation program started in April with 130 start-ups. The program is the first of its kind in the region, devoted to refugee and local entrepreneurs who are building ventures against the odds with resilience and grit. These start-ups are innovating across industries as diverse as CleanTech, EdTech, VR, and AgriTech.
The semi-finals, held online on the 1st-3rd of August 2022, included a high-profile panel of judges, Muneer Zuhdi, CTO of Nokia Enterprise China, India, and MEA; Nicholas Rouhana, Chairman and CEO of IM.FNDNG, Victoria Mehran, Venture Partner at Expert Dojo, Sofia Queiroz, VC at Mustard Seed Maze, Ahmed Eid, Portfolio Manager at 500 Global, and Diego Arias Garcia, Investment Associate at Plug and Play.
The chosen start-ups will pitch during SPARK’s Ignite conference on September 13th, for a $10,000 cash prize for first place, and $5,000 for second place.
Start-ups include, DonaLeb from Lebanon which is a fitness and wellness gamification application that helps businesses engage their teams and non-profits to fundraise. It is founded by Yasmine Darwich.
From Palestine is Nabeeh, a Web and Mobile App platform for users to get on-demand home and Healthcare quality services conveniently. The startup, led by brothers Fawaz and Saber Samara, raised their first investment round during the incubation program and began expansion to Saudi Arabia.
Following is Green Gold, Iraq which creates organic compost and potting soil for Farmers and local agriculture suppliers to fulfil the need for compost and reduce food waste pollution.
SunCode, from Lebanon as well, which is developing a convective solar drying machine allowing a safer, faster, and easier drying of food products than the conventional drying method used currently, with zero operational cost.
“The idea came up while working with farmers, as I noticed that the biggest problem they have is the overproduction – which leads to them selling produce at the cheapest prices,” said founder Haydar Mohamad Sleiman. “So we came up with this solution to produce dried vegetables, increase their income and save their crops,” he explained.
Blue Filter from Palestine, a chemical-free, environment-friendly system developed to purify underground water from nitrates and salts, presents a simple and cheap solution for sanitising water, decreasing the percent of Nitrate from 100 percent to two percent and chloride from 100 percent to 40 percent for farmers, through environmentally friendly methods.
Following is CONCAT, Lebanon the first women led Web Development Agency, Hala Trips, Palestine, an Arabic language platform for booking tours and hotels in over 1.7 million hotels globally, Dooda Solutions, Lebanon is a woman-led earthworm farm specialized in raising worms and producing premium grade vermicomposting, while Eyiada, Palestinea is a medical platform that connects patients with the most suitable healthcare providers according to their customized cases, allowing them to have online medical consultations with them and making quality healthcare more accessible and convenient.
Finally is Sook.ps, Palestine, a full E-commerce Platform that allows customers to find their desired products in a safe and entertaining way, while also enabling vendors to expand their markets and boost their sales.
The final pitching event will take place on September 13th during the IGNITE Conference, and will be streamed live on Startups without Borders’ Facebook page and Instagram
