Flat6Labs Cairo Announces First Close Of Its EGP100 Million FundEarly-stage startups in Egypt, the time is ripe to get your pitch decks ready, and present your venture to Flat6Labs Cairo.

Early-stage startups in Egypt, the time is ripe to get your pitch decks ready, and present your venture toFlat6Labs Cairo.The accelerator program has announced the first close of its EGP100 million Cairo fund called Flat6Labs Accelerator Company, which, according to Flat6Labs, will help them "directly support over 100 Egyptian early stage-startups over the upcoming five years" with seed funding of up to EGP1 million per startup, training, mentorship and a host of other services. This in turn will help create "more than 1,000 high-impact jobs" in the Egyptian market, says Flat6Labs.

The close of this round is supported by commitments from Egypt Ventures- a company of the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation (MIIC) managed by NI Capital, and the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund (EAEF) with each party pooling in EGP10 million each. With this financial injection, Egypt Ventures and EAEF join theInternational Finance Corporation [that invested EGP 50 million in November 2016]in the list of strategic institutional backers supporting Flat6Labs' mission to help grow Egypt's entrepreneurship community.

"The fund will provide seed funding of EGP 500,000 upon joining the accelerator (250,000 in cash, and 250,000 non-cash investment), and up to EGP 1 million per startup in follow-up investment, allowing Egyptian startups to reach their customer base and scale their operations locally and regionally," says Willie Elamien, Managing Director, Flat6Labs Cairo. While MIIC says it aims to support entrepreneurs develop their skills by providing a conducive environment for growing their business, EAEF, on its part, has said that it identified a shortage of seed capital inEgypt,and decided to align with Flat6Labs to help address the gap.

As an early-stage startup accelerator, Flat6labs supports startups at "idea, concept or prototype or early-revenue generation stages" and Elamien says "they are sector agnostic, [but] are particularly interested in [supporting] education, healthcare,fintech, digital content, consumer internet and ICT startups." Flat6Labs Cairo's ninth accelerator cycle is scheduled to start later this summer, and according to the organization, the cycle has already witnessed an "unprecedented" number of applications- with over 500 Egypt-based companies competing for a space in the program and to receive seed funding.

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