Over the past four years, the startup scene has been exploding in Egypt, as many young, talented and often tech-savvy Egyptians have been increasingly turning to entrepreneurship to build their futures. In July 2014, Cairo was named one of the world's best startup hubs by Virgin's Entrepreneur blog.
The blog said that Egypt's youth, growing Internet penetration, massive e-commerce potential, and strategic geographic location, continue to make it "an attractive investment environment."
Breaking into the entrepreneurship scene and succeeding however, certainly comes with its many challenges, which makes these 10 young successful startups even more inspirational.
1. Instabug
The bug reporting app Instabug has become widely recognized as the most successful Egyptian startup. It is designed for mobile app developers to help them communicate with their users and build better apps.
It also allows regular users or beta testers to submit feedback or report bugs about apps through simply shaking the device. The innovative idea took the startup from Cairo to Silicon Valley, the app now has more than 25 million users worldwide.
2. Eventtus
The mobile app Eventtus is a planning and networking platform designed for event organizers and event goers, it helps organizers manage and promote their events and it helps event attendees to find events in their area, discover and share new events.
3. Wuzzuf
The website Wuzzuf is a leading online job recruitment platform in Egypt that provides job matching intelligence. It is currently serving more than 5,000 employers in Egypt including major multinational companies and startups, as well as 250,000 jobseekers per month. The company is now in the process of expanding to Middle Eastern and global markets.
4. Bkam?
Bkam? is a leading price comparison website and mobile app in Egypt the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, it helps consumers browse thousands of products and stores online to find the best price. The company was one of the earliest to take advantage of Egypt's booming e-commerce business.
5. Slickr
Slickr is a social network for fashion that also integrates e-commerce, allowing users to get the Facebook experience while shopping online, discovering products and sharing them with their friends. The smart network also allows brands to have commission-free stores and build a customer following.
6. Bey2ollak
Bey2ollak is the leading mobile app for traffic in Egypt, it allows users to communicate and exchange constantly updated information about what is happening on the roads. The award-winning app currently has around 1 million registered users and Vodafone-Egypt as a partner.
7. Engezni
Engezni is a social network that aimed to revolutionize the food scene in Egypt. The simple idea allows users find the best restaurants around, order online and the share their experiences, in addition to allowing restaurants to manage their online orders and engage with their customers without an intermediary.
8. Pushbots
The notifications mobile app Pushbots is designed to help app managers engage with their users, it allows them to send notifications with the “Tweet-To-Notify” service.
It allows a manager to tweet a notification and add a specific hashtag indicating that the tweet is to be delivered as a push notification to the app's users.The brilliant idea has made the app the leading user-communication app for companies in Egypt.
9. Edfa3ly
Edfa3ly is an international online shopping service that offers users in the Middle East and Africa a platform to buy products from the United States and other Western countries through a variety of payment methods.
The idea is that "Edfa3ly" handles all issues of the sale such as payment transactions, taxes, shipping and delivery in order to allow the shoppers to get the products they don't have locally without the hassle.
10. Asknative
Asknative is an iPhone app that acts as an exclusive social network for travelers where they can ask about local recommendations and activities, met new people and share their experiences around the world. It also allows the natives to promote their country's tourism and culture.
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