In an effort to support Cairo’s developing startup ecosystem, 500 Global, one of the most active venture capital firms in the world, is collaborating with Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) to bring a number of initiatives to the city. Cairo will be the site of 500 Global’s first-ever office on the African continent.
Thanks to its staff of knowledgeable programme managers, investors, and mentors, 500 Global will roll out three distinct programmes over the course of three years that will assist close to 200 businesses and about 60 accelerator managers.. They include:
1- A bootcamp for seed-stage companies
2- A “Scale-Up” program with investments anticipated for participating Pre-Series A companies
3- A bootcamp for accelerator managers
Amal Enan has been hired by 500 Global as a Partner in Cairo to manage deal-related operations as part of its expanded strategy. Enan has spent the last eight years funding and assisting the scaling of Egyptian companies. She has worked for organisations such as Global Ventures, the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund, the Egyptian Ministry of Finance, EFG Hermes, and the IFC. She also held positions at the American University in Cairo.
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After Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, Egypt boasts Africa’s fourth-largest startup ecosystem. In 2021, its startups attracted close to $500 million in venture capital funding, more than twice as much as they did in 2020. In order to foster a local innovation community, the 500 Global-ITIDA partnership aims to train aspiring accelerator managers and equip promising startups with Egyptian roots with the resources they need to succeed.
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MaxAB, Homzmart, and Breadfast are just a few of the more than 60 Egyptian startups in which 500 Global has invested over the course of a decade in Egypt.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh