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Accelerating Tech Innovation from Lebanon

Alice — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 07:16:25 +0000

Intensive Venture Building Programme wants to turn ambitious ideas into marketable products in just three months.

Lebanon is fast building a reputation as an entrepreneurial tech hub offering huge opportunities to investors. A report last year by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub (UKLTH) outlined the country’s ambition to become the tech gateway to the Middle East and laid out a blueprint to create 25,000 new ICT jobs and a US $7 billion boost to GDP by 2025. As part of this they have also launched a new intensive venture building programme called Nucleus.

“Lebanon’s young people are among the most educated and resourceful in the world. They fuel the great ideas that The Nucleus can turn into real products and services which will transform our world for the better. At the same time, a growing MENA market for high tech solutions across a range of sectors, a successful diaspora spread across the world, and a strong banking sector provides a potent mix to grow the jobs of the future,” says Nicholas Sehnaoui, Chairman of the UK Lebanon Tech Hub.

Dynamic teams turn ideas and concepts into marketable products in a record time
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Speaking at the launch event at the Beirut Digital District, Hugo Shorter, British Ambassador to Lebanon, said such initiatives played a crucial role in turbo charging the development of the knowledge economy: “With today’s launching of The Nucleus cycle, we witness once again how ambitious entrepreneurs build businesses and technologies, how dynamic teams turn ideas and concepts into marketable products in a record time.”

This ambitious accelerator aims to take start-ups from idea stage to having an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in just twelve short weeks. It might sound like a tall order, but 176 companies from Lebanon’s thriving technology scene applied to take part. From those, 20 went on to a week-long series of product development workshops where the applicants were further narrowed down to six finalists.

The Nucleus accelerator will take start-ups from idea to MVP in 12 weeks
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Those six startups will now benefit from an investment of US$20,000 in cash and US$30,000 in services in return to a stake of up to five percent equity in their business. The services include access to C-level executives and technology teams to help develop the product’s core technology, as well as a host of practical workshops on finance, legal structures, organisational culture, raising capital, pitching, marketing and sales. The entrepreneurs will also have access to office space, support with Legal and Auditing services for company registrations in addition to HR management as part of the services they will benefit from. Upon product completion, UKLTH will continue to support all the startups by helping them tap into their international networks, garnering partnerships and helping them to raise potential investment from investors.

In addition to all those resources, every company will be assigned a “Dragon’s Den” style board involving top industry experts, academics, media experts and potential buyers. Board Meetings will be held every month to make sure that companies are on track to deliver on their agreed roadmap.

This, according to UKLTH Director Nadim Zaazaa, is what takes Nucleus beyond traditional accelerator programmes: “We have in place a fully-fledged technology team to deep dive into the startup’s products, C-level executives to bolster their business planning, and industry experts to sit on their management boards and help guide them to market at breakneck speed,” he explains.

One of the finalist Founders is Rami Allame, CEO of LGALX – an online platform that leverages blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to provide users with legal answers. He says that joining the Nucleus was a unique opportunity to quickly develop their idea: “Many people have a good idea but the hard part is to turn it into a marketable product,” he says. “I look forward to working with the Executives and founders of successful startups that have overcome many of the hurdles that we’re about to face”.

With so many far-fetched ideas in the world of tech – who can forget the Yo app that managed to attract millions of dollars in investment in spite of being useless by its own founder’s admission – it is refreshing to see such initiatives fostering practical products that solve real market needs.

The six companies cover a broad range of potential markets and technologies, from an algorithm that monitors battery performance while providing predictive key metrics called Dox, to ImagineMe, a publishing company using Augmented Reality to create personalized children’s books. There is also an icon-based productivity app – Notifer – which generates timely reminders in such a way as to boost a user’s memory and power up their productivity, and Handiss, a marketplace for the construction industry centralizing freelance engineers and architects

The Central Bank of Lebanon is matching funding from the UK embassy of $3.2M to support the UKLTH’s activities in fostering entrepreneurship
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Stephanie D’Arc Taylor is COO of Jaleesa, represents another of the six selected start-ups. Her platform connects family with trusted childcare providers on a flexible basis, and she plans on leveraging the expertise on offer at Nucleus to roll out their product beyond Lebanon and make a positive global impact.

The Central Bank of Lebanon is matching funding from the UK embassy of $3.2M to support the UKLTH’s activities in fostering entrepreneurship and research & development in the country, and it plans on running two Nucleus cycles per year with up to 10 companies being accepted during each cycle. There will also be a service run in partnership with corporations looking to benefit from technology and digital transformation to grow their business.

Emma Sinclair MBE, the youngest person to have floated a company on the London Stock Exchange, believes that through such initiatives these companies had the potential to “become impactful businesses that will contribute to both the Lebanese and the wider global economy.”

Article originally published in the Huffington Post

Nucleus Accelerator Showcases Lebanese Tech https://t.co/zWTK7tciaV via @HuffPostBlog

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) June 29, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

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MIT Launches Accelerator for Virtual Reality Start-ups

Alice — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 10:03:22 +0000

If there was any doubt left that the VR Tech ecosystem is maturing nicely, look no further than the number of accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces and university courses that have cropped up like mushrooms over the past couple of years

The number of dedicated #VR accelerators cropping up shows how the ecosystem maturing
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Among these new VR-focused accelerators entering the race to harness the emerging enthusiasm and talent for building virtual worlds are Vive X (HTC Vive’s own program), Samsung NEXT, our own Upload Collective, and the SXSW Accelerator, but even the illustrious MIT has now thrown its hat into the ring.

MIT's accelerator offers $20,000 and mentoring to start-ups exploring technologies like VR
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You can find out more about their Play Labs initiative – which is offering mentorship and $20,000 to launch ideas around “Playful Technologies” such as AR/VR/MR – in this UploadVR article

MIT is partnering up with Bayview Labs and early stage VC firm the Seraph Group to launch a new accelerator dedicated to “Playful Technologies” such as VR and AR. The program starts in the summer and will offer mentorship, facilities and funding to selected start-ups looking to enter that space.

Applications are now open for this first Play Labs cohort, but only if you’re a MIT-affiliated start-up – meaning that at least one founder has to be an MIT alumni, student, or faculty member. Other than that, the criteria stipulated is pretty broad, with consideration being given to companies at any stage (pre-founding, pre-seed, seed, etc.) which come under the scope of what they define as “Playful Technologies”.

They will be considering start-ups looking to develop relevant technologies in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision and 3d Modeling
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So although the focus of the program is certainly on Virtual and Augmented Reality and their related applications, they will also be considering start-ups looking to develop relevant technologies in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Vision and 3d Modeling, with potential applications across Gaming, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Data Visualization, eSports and many others.

“MIT students thrive on innovation and creative exploration, and through Play Labs we will help them move their most imaginative ideas into the realm of the possible,” says Scot Osterweil, Managing Director for Ludus, the MIT Center for Games, Learning, and Playful Media.

Once applications close on Feb. 20th, a number of start-ups will be selected (somewhere between 5 and 10, although the exact number is “not set in stone” according to their website) to embark on an intensive 3-month stint based at MIT’s campus in Cambridge, MA. Each will receive an initial $20,000 in funding in return for 6 percent common equity, followed by a potential further $80,000 for qualifying graduates.

MIT students thrive on innovation and creative exploration, and through Play Labs we will help them move their most imaginative ideas into the realm of the possible
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The program will be led by Rizwan Virk, executive director at Bayview Labs. He will mentor the start-ups alongside other faculty and staff from the MIT Game Lab, which is hosting the program together with Ludus – the MIT Center for Games, Learning, and Playful Media which coordinates all the various research groups in the institution exploring games and play. It will also have input from the VR@MIT group, a student organization on campus dedicated to fostering VR/AR entrepreneurship at the institution.

Virk, who is an entrepreneur and angel investor, says he wishes this type of program had been available when he himself graduated from MIT and was looking to embark on his first start-up.

“That’s why I designed the program in this way, with support from both MIT staff and industry entrepreneurs and mentors,” he explains. “MIT has been the starting point for many successful start-ups over the years, and although recently a lot of focus on playful and gaming technologies – particularly VR/AR – has been on the West Coast, I believe that the ecosystem around MIT in Boston has great talent and start-up ideas in these areas.”

This is just the latest in a series of VR-focused accelerators and incubators that have been cropping up over the past year or so. These include Vive X (HTC Vive’s own program), Samsung NEXT, our own Upload Collective, and the SXSW Accelerator, which this year has a dedicated category for Augmented and Virtual Reality pitches. And considering the ever-growing interest that VR and related technologies is attracting, it’s probably safe to assume we’ll be seeing more of these in 2017.

This is just the latest in a series of VR-focused accelerators and incubators that have been cropping up over the past year or so
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MIT launches a VR accelerator for students and alumni. via @alicebonasio @MIT #VR #AR https://t.co/szYYmpwc1Q pic.twitter.com/Oc3AAlxvmM

— Upload (@UploadVR) January 25, 2017

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

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