WMF and Startups Without Borders laid down an outstanding opportunity for tech-forward startups seeking to expand their network and reach the right audience: a two-day event in Cairo, brimming with top international speakers and leading industry players, designed to explore together the main theme, "Go Borderless - investments and connections between Europe and the MENA region”. Here is a recap of what happened on February 10-11 in New Cairo.

As for every event part of the WMF International Roadshow, the final goal was to further promote cooperation, spread digital innovative culture, boost tech-driven entrepreneurship, and strengthen connections within a worldwide innovation ecosystem. The International Roadshow started in 2021 as a traveling project, a series of satellite events that aim at creating an international network where idea-sharing meets cooperation to find cutting-edge solutions to collective global issues.

The event featured over 170 speakers & tech powerhouses, with panels, talks, and workshops about how to foster a borderless world for entrepreneurs and businesses. On February 11th, WMF’s Head of Innovation Giuseppe Oppedisano joined other international speakers in a panel discussion exploring borderless investments, called "Middle East & Europe ecosystem: What is similar, what is different?"

The WMF Innovation team selected 15 startups to be part of the Startup Competition on the agenda, among over 176 applications received. WMF also brought a delegation of five startups from its own network to Cairo, where an expo area was set up inside the event, offering great visibility opportunities alongside many networking moments with local entrepreneurs, investors, and VC representatives. The jurors of the competition were international industry experts and representatives from VCs and investors funds, such as Tarek El-Kadi, Founder and Chairman of Med Angels, Mohammed AlMunifi, Associate at Faith Capital Holding, Giuseppe Oppedisano, Head of Innovation of WMF - We Make Future, Hossam Shafick, Senior Associate at Silicon Badia, and Rana Ezz, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital specialist at MSMEDA.

Out of the 15 startups selected, six startups were awarded, including two Italian startups and one from Egypt.