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Cairo – Times of Egypt
Egyptian start-up delivery service ‘1Trolley’ was named by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) a winner of ‘The Start-up Innovation Challenge’ on Thursday.
The EBRD initiated the ‘The Start-up Innovation Challenge’, as its first online competition for high potential start-up ventures. The challenge focuses on start-up companies which have innovated their business models in response of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants in the competition included 226 start-up companies from 30 countries where the EBRD invests. 1Trolley is the sole winner of the challenge in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The company offers an on-demand service through its mobile app, where the company purchases, picks up, and delivers convenience goods from neighbourhood stores.
Winners of the competition shared among themselves US$500,000 of mixed cash reimbursements and advisory vouchers. The challenge is part of EBRD’s Star Venture Programme framework, which includes business diagnostics, tailored one-on-one technical advisory support, mentoring and access to international investors.
The top five winners included Egypt’s 1Trolley, Otismo from Turkey (an education platform for children with special needs), Fazla Gida from Turkey (a surplus management platform, which helps to mark products expiry), Plant an App from Romania (a low-code development platform that accelerates delivery of software systems by a factor of up to 40 times) and EMBIO Diagnostics Ltd from Cyprus (a multi-use handheld chemical analyser, that can accurately detect harmful chemicals in food within few minutes).
The EBRD has been promoting and supporting start-up in its countries of operations for over 25 years. The bank offers support through a number of advisory and investment vehicles including the Star Venture Programme, the Early-Stage Innovation Facility and the Venture Capital Investment Programme.
The Start-up Innovation Challenge was supported by donor funds provided by the Republic of Korea, and in Egypt by the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund, (Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Taiwan Business- EBRD Technical Fund and the United States).
