The Summit was a long-awaited event for the startups selected during the local Seedstars World Competition in the region, as it’s the time when we announce the names of companies who will join the global Seedstars Summit 2020 in Switzerland and compete for 500,000 USD in equity investment.

Here is a list of all MENA startups to compete for the title of the Seedstars Global Winner in the global arena:

EButler, Qatar, an online platform that serves as a digital butler connecting people to the best service providers in the city.
Kenz, Palestine, a designer lingerie shop online that aims at becoming the premier destination for lingerie shopping in the Middle East.
Hayatech, Bahrain, a B2B, Software as a Service (SaaS) and connected hardware platform that aims to build an ecosystem around wellness.
Otaxi, Oman, a solution that integrates city transportation for users and driver-partners ina mobile platform, providing the easiest, straightforward, and snappy service satisfaction.
Hospitalia, Cairo, an integrated healthcare platform, which provides access to premium medical services any time and anywhere.
Quantum, Saudi Arabia, a data-driven targeted sampling platform, which aims to digitize the sampling industry and help make it more accurate.
Optiyol, Turkey, Optiyol helps freight and passenger transportation fleets with smarter route schedules that reduce costs and improve on-time performance

As part of a partnership between Qatar Business Incubation Center and Seedstars, Debito, a platform to manage credit in a traditional grocery, also joined the cohort of the winning startups and will head to the global Seedstars Summit in April. The startups selected as winners of ICT Accessibility prize Lazarillo and Talov will also compete for a 15,000 USD grant at the global event.

Prior to the main day of the Summit (December 10 and 11), an intensive Growth Bootcamp powered by the Seedstars Investment team aimed to teach the 20 startups how to integrate growth practices into their businesses took place. It was followed by the Investor Forum where participating startups had over 78 one-to-one meetings with top local and international mentors and investors.

On the Summit Day (December 12), the startups delivered one-minute pitches on the main stage in front of more than 150 hand-picked ecosystem builders, corporates, investors, startup enthusiasts representing some of the most prominent names of tech and entrepreneurship in MENA.

The Summit also featured speakers from global companies, business incubators and VC funds like Alisée deTonnac (CEO, Seedstars), Amal Dokhan (Director, Babson Global Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership), Adnane Addioui (President & Co-Founder of MCISE), Sophia El Bahja (Executive and Operations Director, Nobox Lab), Rami Helali (Co-Founder & CEO, KOTN), Saad Jittou (Co-Founder & CEO, Weego), Kenza Bounjou (Partner, Dentons), Tarik Fadli (CEO of Algo Consulting), and Neila Benzina (Founding Partner, Wimbee).

Among the companies and institutions that made the Seedstars Summit MENA 2019 possible are Mada, Qbic, Kowork, France 24, MENA TECH, Morocco World News and STARTUP MGZN.