Egypt: 15 Tech Startups Eligible for 500 Global, ITIDA Scale-up Program

The 500 Global in Egypt Scale Up Programme, which helps founders grow their companies, has chosen 15 Egyptian tech startups for its inaugural class.

The initiative is a seven-week program run by 500 Global, one of the most active venture capital firms in the world, in collaboration with the Egyptian Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). It is targeted at pre-Series A and Series A entrepreneurs in Egypt.

The program prepares founders for future success by providing them with individualized mentoring and growth strategies. On October 1, the initiative began at the ITIDA-run Creativa Giza Hub, better known as The Factory. On November 16, the Scale Up Showcase will serve as its climax.

The chosen startups include Dresscode, a fast fashion company that helps customers find reasonably priced, high-quality clothing, Birdnest, which develops and manages tech-enabled rental properties, Blnk, an AI-enabled digital consumer finance platform that is driving financial inclusion in Egypt, Convertedin, an e-commerce marketing operating system, and FriendyCar, a P2P car-sharing provider.

Participating companies include NowPay, a fintech startup developing a financial wellness platform for employees, Khazenly, an omni-channel technology platform for on-demand logistics and fulfilment, MQR, which provides widely accessible, high-quality gathering spaces with hospitality-led service, Nowlun, an online freight forwarding platform, and ILLA, a logistics holding group that provides door-to-door solutions for FMCG companies.

The remaining members of the cohort are O7 Therapy, which is MENA’s largest all-in-one mental health platform and is revolutionizing wellness and mental health; Orcas, which provides individualized live learning experiences for K–12 Students; Rology, an AI-assisted teleradiology platform; Suplyd, which is creating a digital supply chain infrastructure for restaurants; and Sylndr, Egypt’s top used-car marketplace.

“We discovered Egyptian startups demonstrating that Egypt remains a vibrant technology market in the Middle East and Africa, despite a challenging global and local socioeconomic environment. This was made clear throughout the extremely competitive Scale Up program application process, when we met exceptional individuals who were still creating strong, healthy businesses with a ton of potential.

We want to give the chosen leaders a supportive environment so they can develop and expand their influence sustainably. The program brings seasoned mentors, investors, and exports to Cairo in order to provide the founders with the knowledge and assistance they need to continue on their growth trajectory, according to Amal Enan, Partner at 500 Global.

“With this program, we want to further develop the talent in the area so that local companies may grow more rapidly, expand locally, and market their distinctive ideas and technology to consumers and businesses around the world. We appreciate ITIDA’s continuous support of the growth of the startup environment in Egypt.