The leading technology investor, A15 announced today a strategic partnership with Dell EMC, the global information infrastructure vendor, with a mission of supporting Egypt’s tech startups.
According to the Egypt National Report for 2015/16, published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), access to finance has been consistently identified as the major challenge facing Egyptian entrepreneurs.
Egypt’s score in entrepreneurship finance is 3.5 – ranking 49th– compared to a global average of 4.2. This restricts the ability of startups to acquire essential resources – especially access to talent and high-end advisory & mentorship as well as premium technology.
The partnership between A15 and Dell EMC provides A15 portfolio companies with much needed technology, mentorship, talent recruitment support as well as access to the world class pivotal tracker software among other things through its freshly minted SUDO program.
The partnership aims to support technology and technology-enabled startups by providing tools and technical expertise from Dell EMC to A15 startups. This collaboration will add an enormous amount of value to A15 portfolio companies by exposing their young teams to the experience and wealth of knowledge of Dell EMC teams. Moreover, it will give them access to the much needed infrastructure and enable their teams to further develop their knowledge and skills.
In a country that still suffers from slow growth and high unemployment rates, Egyptian youth found their calling in creating products and starting new companies; inspired by similar startup scenes globally.
Magued Mahmoud, Dell EMC Vice President and General Manager of the Center of Excellence in Cairo said “We believe that entrepreneurship will help boost the country’s economy, and it’s our duty to help entrepreneurs by sharing our knowledge and our leading edge technologies with them, and giving them as much support as we can.”
“Joining forces with A15 fits our core values; like us, they are an organization that believes in entrepreneurs and the power of entrepreneurship and the importance of innovation to growth; together we can help offer startups and entrepreneurs more than just funding.” Added Ahmed Osama, Innovation Program Manager at Dell EMC.
“A15’s goal is to provide startups with more than just financial support. We aim to empower them with the knowledge and resources they need to thrive and grow both regionally and globally. A15 is currently building its venture development program that is meant to support startups across three key pillars: Hands-on advisory support across key business functions such as accounting and legal, a bootcamp that institutionalizes knowledge sharing and business development between large portfolio companies and startups within A15’s portfolio and a strong network of strategic partners.” said Fadi Antaki, A15’s CEO.
“And we see Dell EMC as a key strategic partner that can help us deliver on that goal, we are aligned on both mission and vision. These are critical components in what we believe is an important partnership that can add value not just to A15 portfolio companies, but to the entrepreneurship ecosystem at large” Added Antaki.
