Meet the startups from first cycle of Egypt’s EdVentures

EdVentures, venture capital arm of Egypt’s leading publishing group that was launched last year to invest in education startups has started the first cycle of its acceleration program with five startups. The firm has made investments in each one of them but hasn’t disclosed the size. We’ve confirmed however that all investments are five-figures US dollar (at least).

The startups will now go through the six-month cycle of EdVentures’ acceleration program during which they will receive mentorship, training, access to Nahdet Misr’s network of vendors and partners.

These are the five startups that have made it to the program.

OTO

Co-founded by Ahmed El Fadaly, Ahmed Badr & Tarek Nour, OTO is a digital learning platform that offers different one-to-one programs to help people learn languages including English & German and skills like graphic designing. All the programs are offered through OTO’s web-based platform and mobile apps that make it easy for people to learn languages and skills. The startup currently has more than fifty instructors and uses a modern American curriculum for some of their courses. OTO according to the information available on their website has served more than 2,000 customers in ten countries until now.

Yo7ka Anna (Yohka Anna)

Yo7ka Anna (or Yohka Anna) is a children bookstore that apart from selling a curated selection of books also organizes regular storytelling workshops for children where they are offered an interactive learning experience through different activities. Founded by Hanan Al Taher, a political science alumnus of The American University in Cairo, Yo7ka Anna selects its books through a filtration process to ensure that the kids are offered a fun and interactive learning experience. Yo7ka Anna aims to enhance imagination and creativity among children through their books. The books are currently sold offline only.

Greenish

Founded by Shady Abdalla and Medhat Benzoher, Greenish is a social startup that educates people about the environment using performative and visual arts. The startup conducts different types of workshops to deliver their messages; including storytelling workshops, recycling arts, home planting, mandalas, and stones art, drama and theatre workshops. Greenish focuses on environment conservation through developing education curricula tailored for children and youth.

Entreprenelle

Entreprenelle, founded by Rania Ayman in 2015, is a mission-driven enterprise that aims to bridge the gender gap economically by educating, training and linking women to relevant resources. Since founding, Entreprenelle has brought together more than 10,000 women in five Egyptian governorates at 80 workshops and other events that they have organized. Entreprenelle’s flagship event, SHE CAN, brings different women entrepreneurs from Egypt to talk about entrepreneurship, education, media and technology. The next SHE CAN is a two-day event; taking place in Cairo next month (2-3 March).

Books Bike

Founded by Mohamed Abo El Soud, Books Bike as its name suggests is a mobile bookstore that sells (and delivers) books on wheels. The idea behind Books Bike is to encourage people to read by removing psychological and distance barriers between and them bookstores. Books Bike currently operates two such bicycles in Cairo and has plans to expand to more cities across the country this year.

All these startups now have the backing of Egypt’s leading publishing group which will help each one of them through customized programs according to the requirements and maturity level of the startups.