Africa shines at Endeavor International Selection Panel

Startup accelerator giant, Endeavor has selected 37 entrepreneurs to form part of their extensive group of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs represent 20 companies across 13 countries.

They will now form part of the 1403 entrepreneurs who collectively represent 875 companies across 25 markets around the globe.

During the selection process held in Palo Alto, panellists from around the world got to interview the participating entrepreneurs about their businesses. This gave the panellists a chance to evaluate them, choosing the entrepreneurs with the most potential for high-impact growth. One of the key deciding factors was the commitment to advancing their respective ecosystems.

Once the Endeavor Entrepreneurs were selected, they were granted access to customised services, introduced to local and international mentors and met with volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms to help them address key aspects lacking in their businesses.

Three startups from two African nations were inducted into the Endeavor Entrepreneurs programme

“It was great to bring the network and entrepreneurs together in one of the country’s great innovation centres for the last International Selection Panel of 2016,” said Endeavor co-founder and CEO, Linda Rottenberg in a press release to Ventureburn.

“It’s especially exciting to see our newest offices in the US, Italy, and Japan, continue to grow as we prepare to expand further in 2017,” she continued.

Representatives from two African countries were chosen to be a part of the Endeavor Entrepreneurs programme, coming from South Africa and Egypt. The following startups represented their nations on a global scale:

•  SolarizEgypt – Is an Egyptian energy startup founded by Yaseen Abdel-Ghaffar. SolarizEgypt designs, installs and commissions grid-connected photovoltaic solar power plants to supplement power supply to residential as well as companies. They also offer financing solutions to help their clients cover the upfront costs of electricity from their national grid.
• Family Corporation – An Egyptian company founded by Waguih Iskander & Emad Iskander, Family Corporation offers complete human and goods transportation solutions to various corporate clients, such as Chevron, Pfizer, PepsiCo, Shell and Heineken. They’ve also cut outside maintenance costs by establishing their own in-house service centres and auto-body repair shops.
• ArcAqua – An SA-based startup founded by Paul O’Linn and Crispin Russell. Their company has created a technology which allows the application of ozone to food surfaces, effectively killing 99.99% of germs. This lengthens the shelf life of produce. ArcAqua with its focus on the citrus and avocado industry has already captured 20% of the SA market share after just one harvest season. The company already has its sites set on the US with solid leads into their respective market.

Featured image: Lars Plougmann via Flickr