Beirut, January 14, 2016 – Speed@BDD organized its first Demo Day, on Wednesday January 13, 2016, at the American University of Beirut (AUB), in the presence of investors, officials, and media representatives. Six startups pitched their businesses and showcased their products after completing the 3-month acceleration program at Speed@BDD.
During Speed@BDD’s first acceleration cycle, each startup received $30,000 in investment to develop its idea in addition to free hosting, product and business development, accounting, legal services, and mentorship from key experts in various industries.
“The Lebanese startup ecosystem is rapidly maturing. In the past three months, we had the privilege of working with some of the best entrepreneurs and we are thrilled to experience Lebanon’s transformation into a regional hub for global innovation,” commented Sami Abou Saab, CEO of Speed@BDD, during the welcome note. “The teams were fully dedicated to their startups and to our acceleration program. They received day-to-day coaching and support allowing them to develop their ideas into the products that you are seeing today. Their experience proved to be a success given that many entrepreneurs are reluctant to make such a leap in Lebanon. Our 50+ mentors were extremely helpful and engaged in sharing their know-how with our startups, and closely collaborated with us to nurture technological entrepreneurship in the region,” added Abou Saab.
Maroun Chammas, Speed@BDD’s Chairman and cofounder highlighted, “Our vision was to create an engine to accelerate and develop a high quality pipeline of technology startups that would deliver the next big innovation to the world. After six months from launching the program and with the outstanding execution of the Speed@BDD team, we delivered on our promise and are proud to share with you today the first batch of startups. This is only the start and we are looking forward to building on it.”
During the Demo Day event, six startups pitched their businesses in front of a crowd of 250 investors and key players in the startup ecosystem:
- Blitz is a mobile application that provides a social platform and community for gamers, offering them the ability to create, contribute to, and compete in crowd-funded challenges.
- Carpolo is a carpooling mobile application for communities who seek a reliable and inexpensive commute. It also provides real-time, location-based, and achievement-driven ride matching.
- Modeo is a new modular do-it-yourself furniture solution based on a mobile application enabling everyone to customize, visualize, and order interlocking modular parts that are very easy to assemble.
- NEXT AUTOMATED ROBOTS (NAR) has a long-term vision of integrating drones in various industries. Their mission is to deliver a cost-effective, fully-autonomous, and drone-based solution for fast wildfire detection and alert.
- Rafiqi is a mobile application that allows users to discover activities around them, suggest their own, and match with new people with similar interests. Their aim is to help users do what they love most, with the right people.
- RationalPixels provides a software technology that allows the automatic product placement in already shot videos. The solution seamlessly embeds unblockable and unskippable targeted advertising in a fast, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
- At Speed@BDD, we tailored our acceleration program using global standards to make sure that our startups reach their full potential and deliver great value for future investors. Moving forward, we will continue supporting the graduating teams and we will be recruiting the next batch of equally motivated entrepreneurs, maintaining Speed@BDD’s responsibility to promote economic growth and talent retention in Lebanon,” Abou Saab concluded.As soon as the startups finished their pitches, Abou Saab left the attendees with a final announcement: NAR and RationalPixels were selected to join the “LebNet Ignite powered by Blackbox Connect” acceleration and mentorship program, for a unique Silicon Valley immersion experience.
Speed@BDD has already started accepting applications on a rolling basis for its second batch, which is due to start in April 2016. The acceleration program welcomes startups at the Idea or Minimum Viable Product stages, willing to commit to the 3-month acceleration in Lebanon. The application deadline is February 22, 2016 and the full details can be found on Speed@BDD’s website: www.speedlebanon.com.