Egyptian startup incubator Innoventures has announced the launch of a EGP30 million (US$1.62 million) fund, as well as plans to open two innovation spaces in Alexandria and Suez.
The announcement of the fund came at the demo day of the third cycle of Innoventures’ Startup Reactor accelerator programme, which saw three winning startups given a total of US$10,000 in prize money.
Two new partners were introduced as joining Innoventures, to assist with the administration of the fund. Further details of the fund will be released over the coming months.
“Amr Sadek comes from an investment banking background, and Munaf Emam will bring his experience in mentorship and training to our team in the next phase. They are really the ideal people to join our team now that we are launching this fund,” Hesham Wahby, chief executive officer (CEO) of Innoventures.
Innoventures also announced plans to open two new innovation spaces around the country, in addition to the existing Cairo space; the Ideaspace in Heliopolis.
One will be launched in Borg El Arab, in Alexandria, in partnership with the Egyptian Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), and international call centre provider Etisal.
The other new space will open at Suez University, through a partnership with the institution.
“They will be ideal environments for startups to work in, but they will also be open to the public,” said Wahby.
“Anyone who is working on a new project, or has a prototype he wants to experiment with can find the space to do that there.”
