As part of ExxonMobil Egypt’s community investment focusing on youth development
Cairo: – ExxonMobil Egypt and Misr El Kheir Foundation (MEK) celebrated the graduation of four finalist teams in the Energy and Environment Social Challenge. The social challenge, held in cooperation with the business incubator “GESR”, affiliated to MEK and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, aims to transform viable and socially impactful ideas into tangible prototypes ready to be made available in the market, to create innovative solutions to social challenges across the environment and energy sectors.
The collaboration comes as part of ExxonMobil Egypt’s community investment, which focuses on youth, developing their innovation and entrepreneurship skills, specifically to address challenges related to energy and environment, in line with Egypt’s 2030 sustainable development vision.
The Social Challenge provides participating teams with an integrated ecosystem that ensures the transformation of entrepreneurial technology-based ideas into tangible prototypes that provide innovative products or solutions, by offering all forms of essential support whether technical, training and mentoring through the transfer of expertise and knowledge, as well as financial support to fund the projects.
Upon receiving various entrepreneurial ideas from the applicants, some ideas that met the criteria set for the program were selected. The applicants attended training sessions that covered technical and commercial aspects including; marketing, business model design, financing, and others. At the end of the sessions, the four best teams were selected to develop their ideas into prototypes and marketable products.
Expressing delight for the successful ending of the program’s first round, Eng. Youssef Hafez, Board Member, Public & Government Affairs Manager of ExxonMobil Egypt, said “We pride ourselves as we join forces with GESR Misr El Kheir program to celebrate the graduation of four finalist teams that provided effective solutions, in energy and environment sectors, based on entrepreneurial knowledge and innovation. As a result of this success, we look forward to extending our cooperation in this program to launch a new round of the competition in the coming period. This cooperation fulfills our vision in community investment, focusing on youth development by promoting innovation and building entrepreneurship skills and providing solutions to environment and energy challenges.”
On the other hand, Eng. Amal Mobadda, CEO – Fundraising Sector – Misr El Kheir Foundation, said “We are extremely proud of what we have achieved in the social challenge program (environment and energy) and filled with high hopes that the four winning prototypes will contribute to achieving the desired impact and solving the challenges facing society. We are also delighted to cooperate with ExxonMobil Egypt and look forward to furthering this cooperation in the coming period to achieve Misr El-Kheir Foundation’s strategy, which targets creating a generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and startups in building an economy based on knowledge and technology. Thus, a positive impact on solving societal problems, especially the problems of the neediest groups in Egypt, will be achieved.”
The four winning teams included: “ASU Wind” team, who developed the first locally-manufactured small-scale wind turbine at an affordable price that can light up a small farm. In addition, “Tilestic” team aims to produce low-cost, recyclable interlocking tiles from single-use plastic waste. “Valoria” innovatively used the waste of banana trees to extract fibers that are used in the manufacture of plastic products alternatives. “Eco-woven packaging” team strived to produce sustainable food bags/packages from corn that decomposes in a safe and sustainable way, turning into compost when buried in the soil.