Flat6Labs and ESLSCA University in Egypt have launched a student-focused incubation program

Flat6Labs, a Cairo-based accelerator and investor, has partnered with ESLSCA University to launch a new innovation and entrepreneurship incubation program that will enable undergraduate students to develop viable and sustainable businesses upon graduation.

Flat6Labs, founded in 2011 and headquartered in Cairo, is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm with multiple offices throughout the MENA region. Every year, the company invests in more than 100 innovative and technology-driven startups and manages a number of seed funds with a combined AUM of more than US$85 million.

The agreement with ESLSCA, which has 13 city-based campuses throughout Egypt, was signed in October of last year, and the program began for the current semester’s business students. The program is designed to provide business undergraduates with capacity building opportunities as well as primary knowledge and tools to help them develop competitive products and businesses.

“In addition to improving entrepreneurship education, this reinvented university acceleration program will be a significant resource not only to the ESLSCA institution, but also to the community at large in terms of innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and regional technological and economic development,” said Ramez El Serafy, CEO of Flat6Labs.

Over an eight-month period, the incubation program is divided into two phases. In the first phase, 100 selected students will be divided into 25 to 30 startup teams and given general entrepreneurship awareness and the fundamentals of design thinking all the way through marketing and customer discovery, as well as a variety of services and perks such as expert-led training and coaching sessions, workshops, and market expert mentorship.

Following that, the startup teams will be divided into two main tracks. TopX will consist of ten startups that will receive intensive entrepreneurial training in order to accelerate their growth over the next three months, while the Frontier track will allow the remaining 15 to 20 startup teams to further develop their entrepreneurial learning sets and skills.

The programme will culminate with a showcase event, where startups will pitch their ideas and startups to a panel consisting of ESLSCA and Flat6Labs personnel.