Ed-tech startup Elham Inspire has been named winner of the Libyan leg of the Seedstars World competition, earning the chance to pitch for US$1 million in equity investment at the global final next year.
Seedstars is back on the road following the culmination of the last edition of the competition in April, which was won by Ghanaian startup AgroCenta. African events have already been held in Egypt, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Ghana and Rwanda.
Its Libyan event took place on Monday in Tripoli, with seven startups invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel. Elham Inspire, which provides an educational environment that enhances the character of teens and raises their competency using technology-based education, was named overall the winner.
The startup will now head to the global final in Switzerland in April of next year where it will have the chance to pitch for up to US$1 million in equity investment and other prizes.
“We entered the Seedstars not expecting to win, but expecting to raise funds, and now being part of the Seedstars global family has opened many doors for us to do so,” said Mallek Ajaj, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Elham Inspire.
She Codes, which aims to empower women and children with coding and computational thinking, came second, while Yummy, which brings female-run home-based businesses to the formal economy, was third.
“I was overwhelmed with the huge amount of support coming from both the public and private sector for entrepreneurs in Libya. The talent is there, the resources are there, what is left is structured programmes in order to take these entrepreneurs to the next level and that’s why at Seedstars we’re committed to establishing long term programmes for Libyan entrepreneurs in order to have a sustained impact on the local ecosystem,” said Omar Barakat, regional associate for MENA at Seedstars.
