The Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB), American University of Beirut (AUB) held its 11th edition Demo Day, in a public pitch and award ceremony celebrating its second decade of Darwazah Startup Accelerate (DSA).
Starting its new decade with eight superb teams of idea stage startups was a major achievement considering the recent crisis in Lebanon. Even more impressive was the visible high quality of the cohort of finalists, with three teams—DonaLeb, UWYTA, and Zaker—having produced revenues in five digits—an exceptionally strong showing for any pre-seed startup.
This excellence did not go unnoticed. As per recommendations of mentors and jury, all teams received a prize this year. While the Grand Prize winners, Zaker and UWYTA, received $10,000 each, as for the Runner-up winners, AquaRevive and Linker, they received $2,000 each instead of the regular $1,000 prize. Elavie, Ya Balesh, DonaLeb, and Journey received $1,000 as a testimony to their hard work.
The DSA is an intensive bootcamp of training, mentorship, and support for startup teams. The bootcamp is also a filtering process, in five stages, whereby out of more than 60 submitted applications, only eight teams reach the finish line. The final Demo Day was attended by AUB students, industry and ecosystem leaders, as well as academics.
AUB Trustee Said Darwazah, chairman of Hikma Pharmaceuticals and former minister of health in Jordan, commented, “It is always a pleasure to be part of this awards ceremony. Every time I attend this event, I leave with hope for a better region.” Darwazah spoke about the success of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, which was founded by his father Samih Darwazah, “Hikma Group scaled dramatically since its inception. It has become global and now operates in various offices across the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. It employs around 10,000 employees now and possesses a sales figure of 3.3 billion U.S. Dollars.”
Dr. Elie Akl, AUB vice provost for research, who heads the newly established Office of Research at AUB, spoke at the event and introduced the Office of Research as a center for discovery, innovation, creativity, and knowledge production. He emphasized the fact that it is there to support innovative ideas that are as locally impactful as globally relevant saying, “We at AUB and OSB take very seriously working with our stakeholders to empower entrepreneurial minds, showcase innovative ideas, and celebrate groundbreaking business ventures.”
Dr. Bijan Azad, director of the Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (The Darwazah Center) highlighted DSA as the center’s key activity, and introduced the AUB-SPARK Scaling-up of Startups Program (SSS Program), a grant project implemented in partnership between AUB, through the Darwazah Center at OSB, and SPARK, a leading Netherlands-based youth-oriented economic development international non-governmental organization, funded by the European Union. Dr. Azad emphasized SSS Program’s mission to help late-stage startups and mature firms avoid the “valley of death”, whereby only 4% of companies reach of $1 million and 0.4% are able to reach $10 million revenues.
The 10 firms that completed the SSS Program were also presented with their certificates by Trustee Darwazah and Dr. Azad: Bokja, Eddress, Hajjar Foods (GoBaladi), Kids Airline Pediatric Clinic, L’Asrtisan du Liban, Moodfit, Sarah’s Bag, Taqa Snacks, Wakilni and Yayy. This project, through customized workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions, supported late-stage startups in scaling up their businesses to achieve 2x growth in revenue, profit, and employment in the next 5 years. The program was a capacity building program, or a mini-MBA, designed for top management teams of these companies and implemented over 18 months 2023 –2024.
About the Darwazah Center
The establishment of the Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at AUB’s OSB was made possible in 2011 through a generous gift by the Darwazah family, founders of the largest MENA-based pharmaceutical company with global reach – HIKMA Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Jordan and listed in London Stock Exchange. The Darwazah Center’s mission is to transform entrepreneurial thinking and practices within the MENA region and help organizations become innovative.
About AUB
Founded in 1866, the American University of Beirut bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. A teaching-centered research university, AUB has more than 750 full-time faculty members and a student body of over 8000 students. AUB currently offers more than 140 programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. It provides medical education and training to students from throughout the region at its Medical Center that includes a full-service 365-bed hospital.
Stay up to date on AUB news and events.
aub.edu.lb |Facebook |X