Beirut, 19 October 2016 – ‘Fondation Diane’, Berytech and USJ announced the achievements of the 3 winning entrepreneurial projects, in the context of the Global Social Venture Competition, offering pioneer innovations for the support of the environment, after 6 months of incubation and support, in a press conference entitled: “Green Impact Awards” on Wednesday 19 October 2016, as part of “Business Opportunities in Lebanon 2016” conference at Movenpick Hotel.
The Global Social Venture Competition GSVC is an international competition, created to stimulate social entrepreneurship, provide international support and expertise to social and green entrepreneurs, contributing to the development of successful impactful businesses.
In that context, Diane Foundation, Saint-Joseph University and Berytech joined forces this year to provide support for a special entrepreneurship track: the green or eco-entrepreneurship fostering innovation in that sector in Lebanon.
“Fondation Diane was established a year ago in response to the ecological disaster, our objective is to prove that eco-sustainability and profitability are not incompatible.
In order to reach our goal, we had the pleasure to sponsor the GLOBAL SOCIAL VENTURE COMPETITION and give it a GREEN EDITION to prove that profitability, social and environment are well-matched” declares Diane Fadel, Founder of “Fondation Diane”.
Thanks to Diane Foundation’s support, the leading organization for civic awareness and eco-sustainable development, and the program strategic partner, exceptional support and funding opportunities were offered for 3 winning projects giving them opportunities to grow their ventures on the local and regional level including coaching, mentoring, incubation, visibility and support in accessing funds.
The 2016 edition of the GSVC announced its winners early in January. The winner of the first prize who represented Lebanon in the ESSEC EMEA regional final is NAR QuadroFighter – an autonomous network of drones for quick detection and alert of early stage wildfires. Second and third-prize winners, on the local level, were “RIEGO”: a solar powered, dynamic monitoring irrigation control that optimizes the water consumption, and “Carpolo”: a smart carpooling mobile application service.
Beyond the financial reward, the teams were hosted by Berytech and introduced to its incubation program. The program helped each startup develop its action plan with regular follow-ups and monitoring. The teams received individual coaching sessions addressing their business plan and marketing strategy. Being part of the incubation program at Berytech, the startups benefit from the access to national and international networks, venture capital funds, a database of coaches and mentors, an access to a whole cycle of trainings and of course will continue to receive support in the future beyond the timeframe of the program.
“We look forward to growing this program and joining efforts with our reputable partners to support young innovators and develop the green entrepreneurship scene in Lebanon” added Ramy Boujawdeh, Deputy GM of Berytech.
Today, NAR is at the final stage of finishing their drone-based solution that could detect oil leakages and alert authorities in real-time to reduce the economic as well as the environmental damages caused by toxic oil spills. “We moved into a different application because detecting oil leakages has received more interest than wild fire and the opportunity is bigger. It doesn’t mean we gave up on that one. We will not be quitting on any application, we are just prioritizing,” confirms Nicolas Zaatar, co-founder of NAR.
Carpolo have been recently invited to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley and selected to attend GES+, a day-long program in advance of the larger summit which focuses on unleashing the impact of 150 of the most dynamic global youth and women entrepreneurs. “It is an important worldwide summit for entrepreneurs and being invited to such an event is significant to Carpolo as it recognizes our startup as one of the top potential businesses that might catalyze change,” says Mohammad Nabaa, co-founder of Carpolo.
And most recently, Antoine Skayem founder of RIEGO has been shortlisted one of the top 3 finalists in the UNIDO competitions worldwide and will be attending the final event in Vienna end of November.
“We are happy to support the GSVC program in the context of our social entrepreneurship diploma at USJ, and foster this culture among young youngsters in Lebanon”, added Amal Damien, Instructor and Program Director at the ELFS, USJ.
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