RiseUp Summit, the region’s leading event bringing MENA region entrepreneurs together at the heart of downtown Cairo, has concluded its second day of conversations on how innovation can drive and improve Human Experience (HX) for today’s businesses.

“The energy today is palpable, and we’re delighted to bring together the region’s entrepreneurs for this incredible experience. Each year, we aspire to offer a one-stop-shop of opportunities, activities and benefits for our attendees, and this year we’re seeing a crowd more engaged than ever before,”

said Dalia Kamar, RiseUp Summit Manager.

Today’s highlights included talks by Hend Sabry, Chairwoman of Tayarah, who spoke about her company’s role and goals within the context of the digital media revolution.

“Our role as regional media players will be paving the infrastructure, fostering local talent and providing financial models for content funding. Tayarah wants to be a witness and a key player in this digital media revolution, by providing mobile, local, relevant content from and to the Arab digital generation,”

Sabry noted.

Shehab Marzban, Chairman of Egypt Ventures and Senior Advisor for Economic Affairs to the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, spoke about the role of the government saying

“it is to mainly support movements like RiseUp. The government is a catalyst for the market, and it should also be driven by the private sector., The government should create an enabling environment to support start-ups to grow, protect their rights and help them get established in Egypt.”

Nic Robertson, General Manager of UberEATS Middle East and Africa shared how technology is breaking the stereotype of food delivery and changing the face of food retail with the RiseUp Summit audience in his keynote speech. (More about UberEATS click here).

“Our technology has transformed the way our cities look and move, and is now transforming the way people eat and how restaurants do business in more than 80 cities across Europe, Middle East, and Africa. We’re excited about the prospects of Uber Eats in Egypt and the opportunities that it will bring to the food delivery market here.”

The day also featured more Launchpad news from Seedstars and Udacity, as well as MAGNiTT’s game-changing research results about the MENA ecosystem.

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Seedstars, the largest network of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors in emerging markets, announced it will be opening a space in Cairo in January.

Clarissa Shen, COO of Udacity, revealed the company’s launch in the Middle East and its partnership with the American University in Cairo (AUC) for the launch of Udacity Connect @ AUC Campus. Udacity, which collaborates with companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook, offers educational programs specialized in fields such as machine learning and robotics. The new program in collaboration with AUC will focus initially on data science and mobile development by combining online curriculums with physical classrooms for a ‘turbocharged’ experience.

“Udacity is honored to work with the American University in Cairo, the leading academic institution in Egypt. Together, we will help students to learn the skills that are in demand in the tech industry as we bring the most future-ready technology courses from Silicon Valley tech giants to the region,”

Shen stated.

Philip Bahoshy, CEO and founder of MAGNiTT, shared the results of the company’s latest research, the MENA #FundingEvolution Report, which was done after the platform reached the 5,000 companies. The research revealed that the top 200 funded startups in the region have collectively raised more than $2.1 billion in funding.

“The MENA Funding Evolution report was an opportunity to look back at how funding in the ecosystem has evolved over the years. To be able to share such insights at RiseUp Summit has been amazing. It has created interesting dialogues between startup founders, investors, corporates and anybody who is interested in the ecosystem. It really highlights the beauty of the collaboration between RiseUp and MAGNiTT by creating richer conversations between attendees based on facts and figures,”

Bahoshy said in his comment.

 The report revealed that six of the 200 chosen startups have already exited, such as Souq.com and Fawry, and research also showed that 55 percent of the top funded startups were founded within the last five years. Further insights have been deduced from the data, including the rise of FinTech in MENA countries, with a total of $191 million in investments across the region; showcasing increasing trends and MENA’s contribution to the global FinTech market.

The Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC), the first private institute of higher education in Saudi Arabia to focus on Entrepreneurial Education, announced MBA programs are open to both male and female students. MBSC was established through an international partnership between Emaar The Economic City, Babson Global (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Babson College, USA), Lockheed Martin under the umbrella of the Economic Offset Program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the MISK foundation. Registration for the academic year 2018 is now open.

Levari LLC also announced the opening of The Legal Clinic at The GrEEK Campus where start-ups and entrepreneurs will have daily access to lawyers whom they can make an appointment with and receive free legal advice. They will also have access to a wealth of materials such as MOUs, employment contracts and NDAs free of charge. They will be able to walk into the office and have a full legal meeting in private on any corporate issue for free. The Legal Clinic will also be accessible via a chat app by where anyone can ask legal questions and get answers from qualified lawyers

The Summit continues tomorrow with prominent talks at the Creative Track from Naguib Sawiris, Marwan Younis and Abu.

For more information about the summit’s talks and features, the RiseUp Summit 2017 agenda can be found here.