Noha Gad

The agricultural technology (agritech) market in Saudi Arabia is experiencing significant growth as the Kingdom invests heavily in modernizing the agricultural sector through cutting-edge technologies, in alignment with Vision 2030 goals of diversifying the national economy and ensuring food security. 

The agritech startup ecosystem in Saudi Arabia is rapidly evolving, backed by government support, private investments, and innovative entrepreneurs. Additionally, the focus on sustainable and efficient agricultural practices aligns with global trends, positioning the Kingdom as a potential leader in agritech developments in the Middle East and beyond.

In this regard, Sharikat Mubasher had an interview with John Keppler, Executive Chairman of Iyris, one of the leading agritech startups in Saudi Arabia specializing in advancing commercial farming for low to mid-tech farmers in hot climates globally.

First, can you share more details about Iyris' solutions to advance commercial farming in warmer climates? 

Iyris is a pioneering Saudi-founded Agritech company. We specialize in solutions which enable sustainable commercial farming in hot climates. 

Our founders designed solutions to make it easier for farmers to grow fresh crops in difficult environments. Derya Baran, Mark Tester, and Ryan Lefers each had an academic and commercial focus on mitigating the impact of climate change to help feed the world’s growing population sustainably.

In our lead product, SecondSky, we created a range of greenhouse coverings that minimize the stress and impact of near-infrared heat radiation on plants while allowing the spectrum of light that plants need for photosynthesis. This is revolutionary in the agriculture industry. It delivers more resilient, productive, and profitable crops in regions where climate change and excessive heat make it difficult to grow fresh produce sustainably.

SecondSky’s polycarbonate, polyethylene, nets, and soon-to-be-launched shade screens are deployed to customers growing fresh produce in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and North Africa. 

While the nanomaterials we invented to make these benefits possible are proprietary and complex, our business model is designed to deliver this innovation as simple as possible by making it a drop-in solution to existing manufacturing and distribution channels.  That way, our customers can buy their roofs, nets, and screens using SecondSky as a one-for-one replacement for traditional plastic greenhouse roofing. 

Utilized by growers on five continents and in 11 countries, SecondSky alone delivers a reduction in energy use by over 40% and water consumption of 30% at customer installations and we have seen crop yield increases and growing season extensions by as much as 35%.

Additionally, Iyris has developed plant genetics via a novel hybridization process that has the potential to breed resiliency to salinity, head, and drought processes across a broad range of crops, ensuring stress-resistant, dependable food production. The technology is already demonstrating exciting results with some of the world’s largest tomato growers in large-scale open-field trials.

How could Iyris’ climate-smart solutions enhance agricultural sustainability in Saudi Arabia?

Iyris’ climate-smart solutions play a pivotal role in enhancing agricultural sustainability in Saudi Arabia and beyond. Invented at KAUST in Saudi Arabia, our technologies have been trialed and tested to withstand the Saudi Arabian climate. The academic and scientific resources at KAUST and funding and incubation provided by the university and its seed and venture funding capabilities have been a critical part of our journey in developing products in Saudi, by Saudi, and for Saudi, and then exporting to the world. 

It works well in the region because it was developed for the challenges of the region, which given the implications of climate change are having a negative impact globally.   

Iyris’ SecondSky technology blocks heat radiation effectively, making it ideal for addressing the challenges of the extreme Arabian Gulf conditions and helping to increase food security in a country where 85% of its food is imported. In targeting low to mid-tech farmers, who represent more than 70% of growers worldwide, we provide an immediately deployable solution that impacts growers from the moment it is installed. 

In the Saudi Arabian context, that means that farms that were unproductive can be brought back into the supply chain very quickly. For each kilo of produce that is grown locally, that is a kilo less that needs to be imported, or transported across the Kingdom. Every farmer who can grow both in a financially and ecologically sustainable way protects the future of their local communities and has the potential to reduce urban drift. 

We have already executed pilot projects within the Kingdom where these benefits are starting to be seen and it’s a program that we think can be widely expanded.

Pure Harvest Smart Farms concluded a deal to acquire Iyris’ facility in the Kingdom. In your opinion, how could this step help Iyris to broaden its presence in Saudi Arabia?

The sale of our facility in Saudi Arabia to Pure Harvest Smart Farms reflected our strategic transition into a pure-play technology company. Known for its commitment to sustainable and climate-smart farming, Pure Harvest was an ideal partner to take on this facility.

The integration of our SecondSky heat-blocking technology at the facility aligns with Pure Harvest's dedication to sustainable agriculture and solidifies our technology as a valuable asset in Saudi Arabia's agricultural landscape. 

This sale solidifies existing partnerships (e.g. Alajaweed Farm), presents opportunities for collaboration, and fosters the growth of innovative agricultural solutions in the region. The move has advanced sustainable agriculture and addressed climate-related challenges in Saudi Arabia, strengthening our presence in the Kingdom.

What about your recent $16 million Series A funding round? 

In May 2024, we raised a $16 million Series A round. We are proud of this vote of confidence from the investment community, which comprised existing and new investors.

The fundraising was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund (“EIF”), a San Francisco-based climate and sustainability fund supporting high-growth companies that drive a positive environmental impact, with further support from Global Ventures, Kanoo Ventures, Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF) and Bonaventure Capital. 

The proceeds will help support increased sales coverage and delivery of Iyris’ strong international sales pipeline for our SecondSky greenhouse covers and nets. It will also fund the continued development of our innovative heat-blocking products and resilient plant genetics, which both have huge potential to improve yields further. 

We are grateful for the investors who have recognized that Iyris technology solutions deliver tangible benefits to the farming community and understand its wider potential. Our investors understand there is a clear and focused strategy for delivering scalable AgriClimate technologies into our addressable market. 

What are Iyris’ plans to expand beyond the Saudi market, notably in Egypt and East Africa? And how do you see the future of sustainable farming and agriculture in Africa?

We are actively expanding our footprint in North and East Africa, delivering adaptable and effective solutions to commercial farming. In March 2024, we signed a strategic MoU with Magrabi Agriculture, Egypt’s leading fresh produce provider, enabling Iyris’ cutting-edge technology to be deployed across Magrabi’s farming facilities and international operations.

This is one of several examples of successful partnerships and endorsement by key stakeholders in the region, as we continue to work closely to transform agriculture globally. 

In your opinion, how do Iyris’ solutions contribute to tackling climate change?

With the global population estimated to grow to 10 billion by 2050, food security and farming in a sustainable manner (both environmentally and fiscally) is a worldwide challenge. By providing sustainable and efficient solutions that reduce water and energy consumption in farming practices by up to 90%, we contribute significantly to the collective effort to tackle climate change and promote a sustainable future.

We are proud to be helping feed the world in a climate-friendly manner.

Ghada Ismail 

Saudi Arabia, the once closed conservative society, has witnessed a dramatic shift that changed the landscape of female entrepreneurship in the Kingdom forever. This change aligns with a broader vision, Vision 2030, a socioeconomic set of reforms introduced in January 2016 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman which has been the key driver of this drastic transformation in the first place.

Vision 2030 came with a focus on empowering Saudi women, encouraging their contribution to the economy and participation in social development and female entrepreneurship has been increasingly recognized in the kingdom since then.

With Saudi women now significantly taking part in society and the workforce, businesses are presented with rising opportunities targeting Saudi women in their hiring process as they are becoming an integral part of the country’s economic development, as well as its consumer market.

Vision 2030 introduced Saudi women to new levels of leadership and economic empowerment. In Saudi Arabia, female entrepreneurs took the lead and now seized a significant tranche of the entrepreneurial scene, establishing and managing more small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The number of female entrepreneurs has surged by more than 35% over the last decade, capped at almost two-fifths of entrepreneurs in the country in 2017.

Saudi Government empowering its daughters

In this regard, the Saudi Government saved no effort to take every possible measurement to encourage and prepare female leaders to break the barriers and storm the world of businesses. The Kingdom has introduced new legislation to facilitate the establishment of business startups and financing for women-owned businesses with an only aim: Eliminate the once had been boundaries and establish a more supportive environment for women entrepreneurs.

In the same context, Banks and financial institutions have relaxed collateral requirements and introduced creditworthiness evaluation schemes that are more inclusive of women entrepreneurs for further financial support.

Moreover, the Kingdom saw governmental entities and public organizations investing in entrepreneurship and skills development programs for women providing education, training, mentoring, and networking opportunities, equipping female entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in business, in addition to establishing entrepreneurship hubs and launching initiatives to promote entrepreneurship among young women.

On its official website, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development included a list of initiatives that obviously reflect the great attention from the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on women’s file to ensure an increase in women’s participation in the labor market.

The list displayed a variety of measurements mainly taken to ease up a woman’s journey to contribute to her local economy. Taking its part in Vision 2030, the Saudi Ministry of Finance issued a report namely “Women Empowerment Initiative within the Saudi Annual Budget” which tackles almost every decree, procedure, and policy taken by each ministry, and official entity within all sectors since the launch of the Vision 2030, in terms of budgeting and financing.

As a result of this huge momentum taking place in the Saudi kingdom, reports and stats dedicated to monitoring the female entrepreneurial scene became pretty much overwhelming! The Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) published a report namely “Saudi Women’s Report 2022” mainly aimed to display statistics on the female entrepreneurship situation showcasing the leading indicators involving women’s participation in the Saudi Economy.

The report focuses on providing figures relating to Saudi women aged 15 and above in different fields, such as education, health, sports, and technology, as well as other statistics, relying on official sources. The sources extract data from surveys carried out by GASTAT and data from the administrative register available to other official bodies.

The report showed that the unemployment rate among Saudi women declined, especially in the fourth quarter of 2022, to 15.4% compared to 2021, 2020, and 2019.

Coming in parallel with the significant decline in women's unemployment, the expansion of their economic participation, and the surged growth of their employment in various areas, the ratio of employed women to the population rose to 30.4% from the fourth quarter of 2021, where the rate was previously 27.6%. Women's participation in the labor market was capped at 36%, up slightly from 35.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

On the other hand, the number of freelance certificates obtained by females in 2021 reached 961,189 compared to 105,518 registered in 2020 and 7,997 registered in 2019, which is the lowest.

The report also showed that the stock market had witnessed a significant soar in female investment rates recently, as the number of Saudi women investors in the stock market in 2021 reached 1,516,995, a higher number than that recorded in the previous two years of 2019 and 2020.

Women empowering women

What the Saudi Kingdom witnessed afterward was really phenomenal! Women broke the glass ceiling and started empowering themselves and each other. With the rapid rise of business incubators and accelerators due to the natural demand and need for them in the market, emerged an accelerator that defines itself as: “Saudi Arabia's First Tech-Inclusion & Female Focused Accelerator, Offering Different Business Services For Your Startup to Blossom!”

Founded by a woman and dedicated to all ‘enterpreneurelles’, Blossom was launched in April 2018 fueled by Emon Shakor’s desire to help young Saudi female founders like herself to rise and shine. The accelerator has since said to mentor more than 300 startup companies from around 38 different cities in five countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the USA.

Worth mentioning, Shakoor is a Saudi neuroscience researcher, a technology entrepreneur, and startup catalyst who earned herself a degree in cognitive sciences from the University of California, San Diego, and then worked at Parexel, a US clinical research and biopharmaceutical company, where she led hundreds of Pfizer clinical drug trials across North America. Shakoor has also become one of the Global Shapers Community in Jeddah Hub, a delegate of the 30 Under 30 group at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as well as a TEDx speaker on topics ranging from neuroscience and innovation to youth and women's empowerment, equity and inclusion.

Kholoud Hussein 

Crafting a solid business plan is essential for any entrepreneur looking to start or grow their business. It serves as a roadmap that outlines your goals, strategies, and how you plan to achieve them. Here are the best 4 methods to prepare a business plan:

1. Research and Analysis: Before diving into writing your business plan, conduct thorough research on your industry, target market, competitors, and financial projections. Analyze the data you gather to make informed decisions about your business strategy.
2. Clear and Concise Executive Summary: Your executive summary is the first section of your business plan and should provide a clear overview of your business concept, market opportunity, competitive advantage, and financial projections. Keep it concise yet compelling to grab the reader's attention.
3. SMART Goals and Strategies: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your business. Outline the strategies you will implement to reach these goals, including marketing, sales, operations, and financial plans.
4. Regular Review and Revision: A business plan is a living document that should be reviewed and revised regularly to reflect changes in your business environment. Set aside time every quarter to assess your progress, update your financial forecasts, and adjust your strategies as needed.

For startups, a well-prepared business plan can be a game-changer. It not only helps attract investors and secure funding but also provides a roadmap for navigating the uncertain waters of entrepreneurship. Startups can leverage their business plan to communicate their vision, mission, and unique value proposition to potential partners, customers, and team members.

Additionally, a solid business plan allows startups to identify potential challenges, risks, and opportunities early on, enabling them to pivot quickly and make informed decisions as they work towards building a sustainable and successful business. By incorporating these elements into their business plan, startups can set themselves up for long-term growth and success in the competitive business landscape.

By following these methods, you can create a comprehensive and effective business plan that will guide your business toward success. Remember, a well-crafted business plan not only helps you secure funding but also serves as a valuable tool for decision-making and strategic planning.

Mohamed Gamal

Negotiation skills are the cornerstone for building robust relations with prospects and concluding a lucrative deal in the business realm. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a seasoned businessman, mastering the art of negotiation provides satisfying outcomes for all parties.

Here are some tips to master negotiation skills and get win-win deals:

1. Prepare well. Before starting any negotiation, you must understand the prospect very well by exploring its products, services, and specific needs, identifying its competitors in the market, and determining its strengths and weaknesses.
2. Build trust and rapport. Build positive relations with the prospects by listening carefully to their needs and the challenges facing them, showing deep interest in finding effective solutions for all parties. Be clear about your requirements and expectations.
3. Focus on mutual interests. Pinpoint where your needs and your prospect’s needs converge then find solutions that suit your mutual needs. Make prospects feel they are involved in finding solutions.
4. Close the deal professionally. Once you reach a satisfying deal, provide a written offer detailing the terms of the agreement. Make sure to review the offer with the prospect before signing it and affirm your commitment to fulfilling your duties on time.

Best techniques to close a deal successfully

1. Unique offer close. Create a special offer exclusive to prospects to incentivize and convince them to accept the offer before it is way too late. Hence, prospects will make prompt decisions to close the deal.
2. Constructive and encouraging interaction. Encourage prospects to close the deal by listening carefully to their needs and problems to provide suitable solutions.
3. Understand prospects’ needs. Focus on fulfilling prospects’ needs effectively by providing tailored solutions. The more you ask propping questions, the more you get additional information and pinpoint problems.
4. Soft Closes. The soft close lets you show the benefit of your product to prospects, highlighting its unique features and how it can positively impact their business or personal life.
5. Get ready for a successful close. Prepare all resources that may convince prospects of your product, i.e., studies and customer recommendations, in addition to reviewing and analyzing used strategies and showcasing future improvements.

Closing win-win deals is a process that requires expertise and trust as well as using the right expressions, adding value, and building prospects’ confidence. Thus, is it pivotal to show your prospects that you are a professional who can conclude a win-win deal with them.

Translation: Noha Gad

Mohamed Gamal 

In a fast-paced changing world, it is inevitable for young people to constantly work on their interpersonal and professional skills in a way that they can cope and keep up with the rapidly evolving labor market. Notably, there is still a significant gap between the skills possessed by graduates and the market needs leading to most of them having barely decent job opportunities hindering them back from building up their aspiring professional careers. 

Omar El Barbary, Founder and CEO of OBM Education seemed to find an effective solution to this dilemma, coming up with a wide array of programs and services serving this quest in the Egyptian and the Saudi Markets.

In the following interview, El Barbary tells the story of his company, OBM Education, and what it has to offer to students of services and events, as well as the objectives he aims to realize within the coming time.

When was OBM Education founded?

I co-founded the company in Egypt with my partner Ezz El Din Farag, co-founder and operational executive director, back in 2020 as the first all-inclusive startup to support and mentor the process of preparing high school students for university onboarding in the Middle East and North Africa region.

What is the main idea that OBM Education is all about?

First of all, we observed the huge gap between what our students learn at schools and what the job market actually needs in a candidate. It’s safe to say that basic skills are not enough anymore for a job seeker to stand out given the huge demand and fierce competition in the labor market.

Can you take me through the programs/ services your company offers to create relevance between students and the labor market?

Of course, OBM Education has introduced the “Taleb” application, MENA’s first integrated tool mainly designed to provide mentorship to students in their journey to build up a fruitful career. Our platform also offers many programs including the “BUILD YOUR FUTURE SUMMIT” a tool particularly prepared to cater to high school students and alumnus in the MENA region to navigate them through choosing the perfect majors, and thus, apply to their desired universities.

Moreover, there is the “EDUCATION STAKEHOLDERS FORUM” which can be defined as the first B2B educational platform in Egypt. This tool creates a connection between the concerned entities such as The Government, investors, universities, schools, service providers...etc., to give a hand in solving the rising challenges by exploring brand new ideas and solutions for improving educational sectors of the MENA Region.

What do you aim for with expansion into Saudi Arabia?

We considered this expansion for the kind of similarity the Egyptian and the Saudi market bear together, for instance, sharing Arabic as a mother tongue. We are striving to extend our operations into Saudi Arabia during the coming period as well as assist in qualifying as many Saudi students as possible for the job market.

Moving to funding rounds, what have you managed to achieve so far?

We managed to close rounds of funds with “EdVentures” and Saudi Vms fund that we are willing to pump into our expansion endeavors, the “Taleb” app launching, and more programs ahead.

As a startup founder, what kind of challenges do you have to handle right now?

We share the most common challenges of many startups in the market, on top of which is the increased Tax amounts, in addition to the constant surge in financial expenditures and staff wages.

What does OBM Education aspire to accomplish in the near future?

We really wish for the “Taleb” App to reach a million students this year after already being downloaded by nearly 250,000 users previously. We are also planning to hold the biggest summit for pre-university students in Riyadh and advance more expansions in the Arab Region.

Translation: Ghada Ismail

Noha Gad

Starting and managing a business is a multifarious endeavor that requires a clear vision, hard work, and expertise in various areas. Handling the financial intricacies of a business can be overwhelming and complex, this is where the expertise of an accountant becomes indispensable.

The role of professional accountants goes beyond tax filing; they analyze your finances, create a forecast for the coming year to ensure your business is healthy and prosperous, and help you navigate financial challenges, ensure compliance, and foster growth.

Why do you need an accountant for your business?

Poor financial management can have severe and far-reaching effects on a business, making a direct negative impact on the sustainability and growth of your business. Owners of businesses, notably the small-sized ones, must hire a professional accountant to help them:

1. Improve cash flow. Effective cash management includes how a company manages its operations or business activities, financial investments, and financing activities to maintain positive cash flow. Inadequate financial management can lead to cash flow issues, making it difficult to cover day-to-day expenses, pay employees, and settle debts. A good accountant will help owners have credit control and cash management policies in place so that they have all the possible funds and information available.
2. Reduce workload. Hiring a professional accountant will empower owners to manage operations by recommending process improvements, helping them take over financial and tax obligations, and introducing them to tools that can save them time and money.
3. Get valuable business advice. Accountants own the right skills, expertise, and tools to serve as business advisers. Leveraging their wide expertise, professional accountants can provide an unbiased sounding board for your ideas, warn you of potential risks, and alert you to great opportunities. Their network can also add value to your decisions by helping you connect with key connections that can help you implement complicated strategies and solve complex problems.
4. Manage growth sustainability. The expertise of a good accountant will be valuable when you seek funding and create incentivizing pay packages for employees. Additionally, accountants can help you react quickly and effectively to surprising growth and turn it into an advantage.
5. Comply with regulations and keep pace with emerging technologies. A competitive accountant helps you visualize major issues the business faces due to economic uncertainties, trend changes, and new regulations. They help you use effective financial forecasts, smart solutions, growth management tools, and predictive performance reporting to tackle these challenges.
6. Measure business performance. Performance measurement plays a crucial role in the growth and success of your business. Setting objectives and measuring them against results can be key to determining if a business will succeed or fail. Accountants can develop performance evaluations to get your business to understand its actual performance against the objectives it set for itself, using these evaluations to achieve long-term growth and sustainability.

Finally, accountants’ expertise in financial management, tax compliance, and strategic planning provides a solid foundation for making informed decisions and fostering growth.

Entrusting your financial affairs to a professional accountant offers you the chance to focus on expanding your business while ensuring that your financial health remains robust and resilient.

Shaimaa Ibrahim 

Securing necessary fund resources is pivotal for establishing a startup. This requires entrepreneurs to have a wide and deep knowledge of key factors to lure investors to invest in their startups.

Successful entrepreneurs must be able to define their projects' strengths and weaknesses and determine what differentiates them from others. All of this makes your startup more attractive to potential investors.

Obtaining the necessary funding is one of the key challenges facing entrepreneurs to start their projects or expand their businesses; they must comply with some stringent requirements to get loans from a bank or a financial institution. Hence, entrepreneurs search for investors to invest in their projects, and to do so, they must know how to attract investors to their startups.

Here are ten steps to attract investors to your startup:

1. Come up with innovative and unique ideas for your project. This does not mean innovating a brand-new product or service; however, you have to differentiate your offerings from other competitors. 
2. Provide necessary data that show your strengths to investors, i.e., gross profit margin, revenue growth, and plans to attract customers.  
3. Having a strong business plan helps investors believe in your development plans and their effectiveness. 
4. Market your product or service to investors actively and showcase its importance.
5. Use data and numbers to persuade investors about the potentiality of your product or service.
6. Prove that investing in your startup is a golden opportunity with high-growth potential.
7. Discuss with the investor the reason why you need funding and how you will use it.
8. Prove that your startup has a vigorous leadership team that includes smart leaders and strategists with strong financial acumen.
9. Draw up a robust and comprehensive marketing plan that introduces your product or service to targeted customers and explains how to get them.
10. Give deep insights about your startup’s growth as investors prefer investing in scalable and future-focused startups.

Translation: Noha Gad 

Shaimaa Ibrahim 

Entrepreneurs always set their sights on attracting more investors to support their emerging projects; thus, creating a precise, detailed, and extensive capitalization table (cap table) is a fundamental step for any startup.

A cap table is a document, like a spreadsheet or a table, that shows the equity capitalization of a company and details who has ownership in it. It is most commonly used for startups and early-stage businesses, providing investors with an intricate breakdown of a company’s shareholders’ equity. 

What is a cap table?

A cap table provides an analysis of a company's percentages of ownership, equity dilution, and value of equity in each round of investment by founders, investors, and other owners. It also keeps track of stock ownership as well as convertible securities, warrants and options, and stock compensation grants, providing a fully diluted picture of equity ownership.

Cap tables provide potential investors with all the information they need to make wise decisions about the emerging project.

Conducting a cap table for early-stage startups is usually easy and simple, but it gets more complicated whenever the company grows, expands its business, and participates in other investments.

Cap tables are pivotal for startups and investors as they:

• Identify startup investors.
• Help investors determine the invested amount. 
• Provide necessary information to make the right decisions related to managing the company efficiently, issuing more shares, and more.
• Track changes in the company’s evaluation and ownership.
•  Play a crucial role in raising funds, issuing new shares, and granting stock options to employees or consultants.
• Determine the rights and responsibilities of shareholders.
• Help in planning and implementing future funding rounds and facilitate mergers, acquisitions, and exits.
• Evaluate investment returns for each shareholder.
• Help startups and investors adhere to legal and tax regulations.
• Contribute to conducting financial audits seamlessly.

How to maintain a precise cap table?

As an entrepreneur, you must have a precise and updated cap table to track your ownership and evaluate your company. Updating the cap table gets harder especially when your startup grows and participates in more funding rounds. Here are some tips to maintain a precise and updated cap table: 

• Use a reliable software tool to automate calculations, make reports, and ensure adherence to legal and tax regulations.
• Update the cap table regularly whenever you redistribute your company’s shares either through a new funding round, stock split, or exercising stock options.
• Review your cap table regularly to make sure it shows the current state of your company and its shareholders.
• Check the data and assumptions that you use to create and update the cap table.
• Always communicate with and provide stakeholders with regular reports.

Translation: Noha Gad

Noha Gad

In today’s dynamic business landscape, entrepreneurs dig for resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities not only to transform their innovative ideas into successful enterprises but also to catalyze their startups. This is where business incubators and accelerators come into play, helping fledgling businesses navigate early challenges and accelerate their growth.

Business incubators and accelerators play a crucial role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as they provide essential support to startups and early-stage companies. They both target reducing the risk of failure for new businesses by creating a structured environment where entrepreneurs can learn from industry experts, collaborate with peers, and access crucial resources.

What is the role of business incubators?

Business incubators provide ad-hoc help with legal and business services to help entrepreneurs refine their ideas and turn a concept into something with product-market fit.

Incubators usually offer resources such as office space, mentorship, and access to funding in the initial stages of a startup, empowering entrepreneurs to build their companies from the ground up.

Incubators also help startups solve technical and design issues when building the product, learn how to run lean, and build a successful team. They typically have a limited duration for each incubated company, usually one to three years.

In general, business incubators serve as a supportive environment that includes business counseling, mentoring, training, access to networks, shared workspace, and administrative services.

Incubators do not provide capital for startups; however, they do not require equity or put as much pressure on success as accelerators. 

What is the role of business accelerators?

Unlike business incubators, accelerators work with companies that have already started their activities and seek rapid growth, focusing mainly on the development of high-potential startups and emerging companies. 

Accelerators provide a full suite of services and benefits to participating startups, including training programs, mentorship, investment, and networking opportunities over a limited duration, usually three to six months, to help them achieve significant milestones in a short period. Accelerators also provide startups with essential connections to accelerate their development.

At the end of the accelerator program, startups are expected to achieve significant growth, validate their business model, and be prepared to hunt funding or tap into the market more solidly.

Finally, business incubators and accelerators play a pivotal role in cultivating a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem, driving job creation, technological advancement, and overall economic development.

Mohamed Gamal

A powerful branding can level up the game for new business owners seeking to carve their names in a market with the fiercest competitors. Growing a strong brand, however, is not just a piece of cake, it takes a long journey and huge efforts, but it definitely pays off at last. Now we will take you through the what, why, and how of the whole thing.

What is a brand?

Making a brand is not about finding a catchy logo or a rhyming slogan, it is a whole identity that should embody and reflect the persona, message, and values of a business, a medium of communication between the business and its audience creating the whole customer experience for their clients.

why is it important?

• Your branding simply makes you distinctive from others in an open market full of new, sometimes similar products and service providers. A powerful brand turns heads to your business, and draws people’s attention that you exist.
• A powerful brand shall be a great fundamental for building a relationship of trust and loyalty between a business and its client making it his personal preference and a go-to option.
• An iconic brand definitely attracts top-notch investors and round funds for those who are constantly on the hunt for companies with great potential.

How to grow your own brand?

• Set pillars: your message, your pack of values, why should clients pick you up in particular?
• Implement a consistent visual identity: choose your color, slogan, font, and logo wisely and stand out.
• Your own story matters: who are you and what is your story? people are always curious to be fed those details about their favorite brands.
• Gather up all communication tools consistently: make sure that your brand identity has something to do with all your present communication tools, your website, social media outlets, marketing materials…etc.,
• Good communication makes a successful business: it’s very important to listen to your audience and consider all their remarks for efficient improvement.
• Take care of your customers’ experience: you want to provide them with the best possible experience whenever they stop by.
• Be patient:  it is quite a long journey to build up a recognizable brand, with no immediate results, only good work in the long run.

Translation: Ghada Ismail 

Noha Gad 

Having a mentor in this fast-paced and ever-evolving world of business can be a game-changer. A good business mentor can help entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes early on, solve troublesome problems, offer valuable connections, and secure funding, in addition to providing advice while helping them realize their full potential. 

What is business mentoring?

Business mentoring is a relationship between an entrepreneur and another individual with more entrepreneurial experience who acts as a support network to combat challenges faced by the mentee on their entrepreneurial journey.

The role of a business mentor

A business mentor assists and offers direction to mentees, helping them run and grow their businesses and encouraging them to acquire the skills they need to be successful.

They usually offer guidance for small business owners and entrepreneurs with tips and tricks they've gathered through their experience.

Business mentors can also teach mentees anything from budgeting tactics to daily operations, whether they’re in the early stages or building a nonprofit.

These mentors are eager to pass on their learnings and develop a trusted professional relationship with another entrepreneur. Hence, we can describe business mentoring as a win-win relationship; mentors can learn new perspectives and tactics from their mentees while exchanging their own knowledge and experience.

Types of Business Mentors

There are several forms of business mentors, each offering unique perspectives and expertise tailored to different stages and aspects of a business journey. Here are some types of business mentors:

• Startup mentors: They focus on early-stage businesses and offer guidance on launching and scaling new ventures. They help with business planning, fundraising, market entry strategies, and building a sustainable business model.
• Peer mentors: They are colleagues or fellow entrepreneurs at a similar career stage who provide support, accountability, and a sounding board for ideas, often leading to collaborative problem-solving.
• Executive mentors: they are typically seasoned executives or retired leaders. Executive mentors assist with high-level strategic decision-making, leadership development, and organizational management.
• Financial mentors: they specialize in financial management, including budgeting, financial planning, investment strategies, and navigating financial crises.

How to find a business mentor?

Finding the right mentor is crucial for your professional growth and business success. Thus, you have to determine what areas you need help with and clarify your goals to find a mentor with the right expertise. You can find your perfect business mentor through different ways:

1. Friends, family and colleagues.
2. Networking events.
3. Joining professional organizations.
4. Utilizing online platforms, notably LinkedIn.
5. Engaging in community programs.
6. Seeking out alumni networks.
7. Approach potential mentors directly.

Kholoud Hussein 

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking refers to the use of open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow third-party financial service providers to access financial institutions' customer data with the customer's permission. This enables customers to securely share their financial data with other companies and use a wider range of financial products and services than they would be able to access through a single financial institution. 

This means that customers can share their financial information with other service providers, such as budgeting apps, investment services, or lenders. The potential benefits of open banking are significant, and improving customer experience is one of the most promising ones.

Open Banking UX (user experience) is important because it can help to increase competition in the financial industry, which can lead to better, innovative and more friendly financial products and services for consumers. 

Additionally, Open Banking UX can make it easier for consumers to manage their money and compare different financial products and services, which can help them to make more informed financial decisions. Also, Open Banking can help to increase the security of financial transactions by allowing customers to grant and revoke access to their data on a per-application basis. This can help to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive financial information.

Open Banking's main goal is to ensure maximum transparency and security, encouraging competition in the financial industry. As a result, the quality of financial services will improve, and fees will decrease. Consumers’ financial data will be released from the bank's monopoly and will finally become the property of the customers who will have open access to it at will.

Open Banking Highways Bring Financial Freedom to Customers: 

A more connected and accessible financial ecosystem will allow customers to travel smoothly and safely to their financial goals while enjoying a wide range of services and options along the way:

1. Faster and more convenient journeys 
2. More choices and flexibility 
3. Better safety and security 
4. Personalized route 
5. Easy lane switching
6. Road transparency and control 
7. Highway infrastructure growth