Six startups from KSA have qualified for the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC). The Saudi National Finals took place with 14 startups competing and pitching their ideas via an online event.
Meet the winners
1st place
- Talon Dust Control: a startup that provides dust control and soil stablization solutions to customers in the GCC and MENA regions.
2nd place
- Edama Organic Solutions: champions sustainable solutions with its circular economy business model. Edama recycles organic waste into innovative agricultural products tailored to meet the challenges of food and water security in arid regions.
3rd place
- BrightSign: an AI-based smart glove that allows sign language users to communicate directly with others without the assistance of an interpreter.
4th place
- Upskillable: an AI-based Smart Recruitment Software using Cognitive, Personality, and Skill-based assessments.
5th place
- The event involved all of the finalists pitching for three minutes each, before answering questions from the judges. The event was one of many finals taking place around the world. Hub71 recently announced the winners of Team UAE. The winners of each will continue on to the Global Finals taking place at the Misk Global Forum annual gathering (18-20 October).
Misk Foundation CEO, Dr Badr AlBadr commented, “Due to challenges brought by COVID-19, we had to find creative ways to overcome challenges. We’ve pushed harder to deliver digitally an even better experience than last year – thanks to the virtual format, we have around 75% more people engaged and connected.
“We believe that in order to empower youth, we need to give them the tools and show them the path, and one of the future paths for young leaders is entrepreneurship… even if you don’t win today, it doesn’t matter as you might be the most successful entrepreneur. Keep going and don’t give up.”
The winning startups received a prize of $50K each, alongside progressing to the finals. Over 15,000 KSA-based startups applied, and all of them benefited from free online services provided through the Entrepreneurship World Cup platform. The finals also featured live panels where expert entrepreneurship experts discussed the theme of the event – Overcoming Challenges and how new businesses can overcome hurdles to achieve success.
Abdulrahman Al Suhaymi, Misk’s lead for the Entrepreneurship World Cup said, “We were very happy and inspired by pitches whose founders presented with ambition, fearlessness, and passion.”
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/entrepreneurship-world-cup-2020-ewc-ksa-week-dr-nasser/
