The Regional Innovation Factory Advances 7 Mediterranean Research Innovations

The 7 winners will benefit from 4-month incubation support from Berytech and partners, as well as receive a grant of 10,000€ to be spent on technical and business support.

Researchers, innovators, engineers, and professors from 7 countries have joined the Regional Innovation Factory Program to develop their research or technological innovation in multiple sectors into a practical and commercially viable product or service.

Twenty-one teams from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia joined a 3-day entrepreneurship bootcamp, while 7 were selected by a jury to receive incubation support from Berytech.

The Regional Innovation Factory was built following a successful pilot in Lebanon accelerating applied research projects to market in partnership with ANIMA Investment Network and in collaboration with partners from THE NEXT SOCIETY Mediterranean network.

Meet the Winners

The seven teams who progressed to the next phase of incubation and support include:

Tanmu (Algeria) is growing bio leather out of industrial food waste in an innovative way, animal and plastic-free.

NanoEbers (Egypt) are developing hemostatic sponges that are designed and optimized to instantly stop severe dental bleeding. Cost-effective naturally occurring biocompatible materials were fabricated and optimized to absorb blood up to around 40x maintaining their mechanical integrity, with only half of the benchmark price.

Akyas (Jordan) is a turn-key solution that functions as a low-cost, low-resource, and easily deployable non-sewer sanitation system. The mission of AKYAS is to bring low-cost sanitation to the base of the pyramid population regionally and globally, especially those with a lack of access to safe sanitation such as displaced populations, high-dense slum households, or other water-scarce communities.

OCT Analysis (Lebanon) is the first image analysis and AI software that analyzes OCT corneal scans. It provides optometrists and ophthalmologists the ability to accurately assess patients and analyze their healing away from bias and human error. It also allows researchers to analyze hundreds or thousands of patients in minutes. OCT Analysis aims to improve patient follow-up and push forward the field of eye research.

FinKeys (Morocco) is a PFM mobile app that accompanies users in their financial journey, by helping them optimize their budget, building-up savings, undertaking projects, and also but not least, gaining skills in financial literacy and thus be more financially included.

CVISION (Palestine) is a portable hardware device that increases safety, reduces accidents, saves lives, and tackles bad drivers’ behavior. The dual-camera device monitors the drivers and the road, evaluates the driver’s behavior and instantly reports it. The technology is based on Artificial intelligence and image processing.

Mon Sapo (Tunisia) is innovating, designing, and selling organic cleaning products that extract the natural active agents of used cooking oil and wood ashes and use it as a raw material in a way that combines circular economy principles and sustainable development.

The Bootcamp Phase

The 21 teams attended an interactive bootcamp held virtually for 3 consecutive days. Business trainer Mohab Anis, CEO of Innovety led the participants through the fundamental elements to conceptualize their innovations and strengthen their business concept. They learned about key elements to commercialize their business concept in building a solid business model and redefining their value offering. They also learned about techniques to validate their business concept in the market by extracting market intelligence digitally and validating their offering.

The bootcamp also hosted testimonials from Rosabelle Chedid, COO at C-Green, Lina Zgheib, Seed Line manager at Robinson Agri and head of Business Development Department, and Sami Saad, Investment Associate at IM Capital.

The teams were guided in preparing their pitches to present their innovations in a capturing way in a final pitching session in front of a regional expert committee.

The program

The 7 winners selected, 1 per country, will continue with the program and benefit from 4-month incubation support from Berytech and partners as well as receive a grant of 10,000€ to be spent on technical and business support.

The seven teams will be presenting their technologies during a virtual matchmaking event, in front of an audience of partners, industry players, experts, and investors, from the Mediterranean region, getting valuable feedback and collaboration opportunities for their projects.

One team will be selected based on the incubation progress to receive a soft-landing voucher and grant at a partner’s institution to gain expertise and explore collaboration to implement the project in another country.

About Berytech & THE NEXT SOCIETY

Berytech is the exclusive project partner of The Next Society in Lebanon, working since 2017 on the initiative, which gathers a large network of over 300 business and innovation, research and investment organizations, 2500 international SMEs and entrepreneurs from 30 countries.

The Next Society is an open community of changemakers, entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, NGOs, public and private innovation, research, and economic development hubs from Europe and 7 Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. It aims at mobilizing, promoting, and reinforcing innovation ecosystems and economic development in the MENA region.

Launched by ANIMA Investment Network, The Next Society initiated a four-year action plan (2017-2020), co-funded by the European Union up to 90% for a global amount of EUR 7.8 million, which impacts 4 levels of the innovation ecosystem: improve policy frameworks, foster startup successes, promote and internationalize clusters, and accelerate technology transfer towards the enterprise.

“The Next Society is more than just a project; it is a movement building the next generation of innovators.”

Josette Noujaim

Josette Noujaim

Josette is a multi-passionate creative who has been supporting Berytech’s communication team since 2015. She uses her experience in digital communication to help shape the online presence of companies across different industries.

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