Signing of a partnership agreement between El Sewedy Education and the Italian E4Impact Foundation to promote collaboration in the area of entrepreneurship
Cairo, March 8th, 2020
Mr. Ihab Salama, Chief Executive officer for El Sewedy Education, and Professor Mario Molteni, Chief Executive Officer for E4Impact Foundation, signed a partnership agreement aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in Egypt. The signing was witnessed by Engineer Ahmed El Sewedy, Founder and Chairman of El Sewedy Education, and H.E. Giampaolo Cantini, the Italian Ambassador to Egypt and Ms. Ola El Kobrosy, Vice Executive Director of Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones
Prof. Molteni highlighted the Foundation’s work in developing the capacity of entrepreneurs to support the growth of their operations and connect them to qualified coaches and mentors. Furthermore, also through the use of internet-enabled solutions, E4Impact Foundation, headquartered in Milan, provides training and capacity development to startups in 13 African countries, with over 1000 entrepreneurs trained so far.
Prof. Molteni stated, “To E4Impact, this agreement assumes special relevance: it means operating with a remarkable partner in one of the leading countries of the continent, particularly important for Italy and its enterprises, in order to give life to a unique project. We trust in a fruitful partnership with outstanding perspectives.”
H.E. Giampaolo Cantini indicated his strong interest in the partnership and belief in the chances it will provide Egyptian youth and entrepreneurs to successfully establish their own businesses, by providing training, capacity development and the possibility to raise capital through networking with potential funds, in addition to generally upgrading the local entrepreneurship ecosystem.
During the signing ceremony, Engineer Ahmed El Sewedy commented that the initiative follows El Sewedy Education’s broader strategy to promote entrepreneurship and apply the latest technologies and best practices targeting activities impacting the main economic pillars of the country. He also indicated that an additional goal of this partnership is to contribute to the economy by creating job opportunities.
Mr. Salama added that the partnership stands to improve bilateral relations between the Egyptian and Italian startup communities which represent a valuable cornerstone to both economies, indicating that the partnership with E4Impact is meant to improve the chances of success for new businesses by providing a hub from which acceleration, training, and best practices is disseminated to Egyptian SMEs.
The main goal of the partnership is to establish an entrepreneurship center to provide various services to startups, including incubation, training and general capacity development. The entire suite of offerings is meant to address current gaps in the market and provide an international-level training to help qualify and guide Egyptian entrepreneurs to face the many challenges they are expected to come across during their startup journey. Also through the dissemination of entrepreneurship training, the center will target the development of local capacity at various companies in different stages of development.
The next phase of the center will also provide access for newly-established startups to find investment opportunities among interested investors, grants and other funds to scale their businesses beyond incubation and face the challenges that come with growth and success.
One of the first outputs of this partnership is a series of events under the brand: “Young Talents – Entrepreneurship Day” and organized by El Sewedy Education, the Embassy of Italy in Cairo, E4Impact and Fekretak Sherketak, in partnership with AlexBank and the online magazine E7kky. The launch event will be on 22nd April 2020 and it will provide mentoring, networking opportunities, workshops and talks delivered by key figures in the market to entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. Furthermore, entrepreneurs attending the event will get a chance to present their ideas and get selected to the first incubation cycle by El Sewedy Education and E4Impact in Egypt, due to start in a few months.
