A joined effort between Startups Without Borders and Spark resulted in supporting 10 local entrepreneurs to pitch for a huge fund at Amsterdam’s Ignite.
The Move incubation program just concluded its semi-finals in collaboration with Google. The program that started last April, is devoted to supporting the refugee community and their small businesses against all odds.
The startups, coming from Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon are venturing into diverse fields like CleanTech, EdTech, VR, and AgriTech. Congrats to the resilient 10 semi-finalists, we’ll keep you updated with more news soon!
From Agri-tech disruptors to EdTech pioneers, these are the four startups taking off to the Netherlands:
- DonaLeb, Lebanon
Founded by Yasmine Darwich, DonaLeb is the fitness and wellness app that helps businesses engage their teams and nonprofits to fundraise. We create gamified virtual challenges to connect companies with CSR while they promote health and wellness in their teams. The startup has recently also won a booth at Italy’s Web Marketing Festival, as part of the Startups Without Borders Delegation.“DonaLeb’s experience with Startups Without Borders has been more beneficial to us than words could express, providing us with opportunities we could have only dreamed of. Reaching the final stage is only our first step though; here’s to collecting more and more,” says Yasmine.
- Nabeeh, Palestine
Nabeeh is a Web and Mobile App platform for users to get on-demand home and Healthcare quality services conveniently. The startup, led by brothers Fawaz and Saber Samara, raised their first investment round during the incubation program and began expansion to Saudi Arabia.
- Green Gold, Iraq
Green Gold creates organic compost and potting soil for Farmers and local agriculture suppliers to fulfill the need for compost and reduce food waste pollution.
“I am proud to be part of the program; it had a very positive impact on the project’s vision in various aspects, as the goals developed and helped me discover new channels in the local and international market,” says founder Marwah Read Taha.
“As the only qualified founder from Iraq, I believe this competition will help the expansion of the project to increase productivity and environmental awareness in Iraq, thus creating more job opportunities for women and encouraging young people to engage in green entrepreneurship,” she concludes.
- SunCode, Lebanon
Suncode is developing a convective solar drying machine allowing a safer, faster, and easier drying of food products than the conventional drying method used currently, with zero operational cost.
“The idea came up while working with farmers, as I noticed that the biggest problem they have is the overproduction – which leads to them selling produce at the cheapest prices,” says founder Haydar Mohamad Sleiman. “So we came up with this solution to produce dried vegetables, increase their income and save their crops,” he explains.
- Blue Filter, Palestine
Blue Filter is a chemical-free, environment-friendly system developed to purify underground water from nitrates and salts. Blue Filter presents a simple and cheap solution for sanitizing water, decreasing the percent of Nitrate from 100% to 2 % and chloride from 100% to 40 % for farmers, through environmentally friendly methods.
- CONCAT, Lebanon
CONCAT is the first women-led Web Development Agency which aims to create top quality websites whilst providing long term, sustainable employment for talented, marginalized communities.
“The program has been a great opportunity for the CONCAT team, especially when it comes to developing our business model in the sessions. We’ve really enjoyed connecting with all of the other amazing startups who are all so aligned with our mission of creating sustainable employment for marginalized people, says founder Laura Jardine Paterson.
- Hala Trips, Palestine
Hala Trips is an Arabic language platform for booking tours and hotels in over 1.7M Hotels around the world. “We are very happy to have won amongst a large number of participants and the very strong competitors in this special program; we are now excited to win in Amsterdam,” said founder Razan Abutawaheena, who is based in Gaza.
- Dooda Solutions, Lebanon
Founded by Nada Ghanem, Dooda Solutions is a woman-led earthworm farm specialized in raising worms and producing premium grade vermicompost.
- Eyiada, Palestine
Eyiada is a medical platform that connects patients with the most suitable healthcare providers according to their customized cases, allowing them to have online medical consultations with them and making quality healthcare more accessible and convenient.
“I’m very excited to present our startup internationally in Amsterdam and take it to the next level. It was one of my hardest pitching competitions. For me, being a Palestinian under Israeli occupation, this opportunity is a small attempt to break down our borders of restricted mobility and lack of opportunities. We’re working to bring down our own walls and set forth in a new era of innovation and entrepreneurship,” says founder Momen Abusaada.
- ps, Palestine
Full E-commerce Platform that allows customers to find their desired products in a safe and entertaining way, while also enabling vendors to expand their markets and boost their sales.
The final pitching event will take place on September 13th during the IGNITE Conference, and will be streamed live on Startups Without Borders’ Facebook page and Instagram
About Startups Without Borders:
Startups Without Borders builds world-class events, training programs and media products where diversity takes center stage, connecting migrant and refugee entrepreneurs to opportunities and resources to build their businesses. Launched in 2018 in Cairo, with hubs across European and Middle Eastern countries, the platform has garnered a community of 10,000+ entrepreneurs and trained over 3,000 entrepreneurs in the MENA and Europe.
About SPARK:
SPARK provides access to higher education and supports entrepreneurship development in fragile states so that young, ambitious people can lead their societies into stability and prosperity. SPARK provides a variety of full-service business and entrepreneurship programmes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We believe that sustainable, economic growth is essential for the alleviation of poverty. By offering private-sector development services to young people in conflict-affected regions, we believe that the potential for further conflict is significantly reduced.
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