Applications Open for 2019 SingularityU MENA Global Impact Challenge

Deadline: 7 June 2019

Applicants are invited to apply for the 2019 SingularityU MENA Global Impact Challenge to foster innovations and startups that positively impact the lives of people living in the Middle East and North Africa with an ability to scale and impact a billion people worldwide in 10 years.

Global Impact Challenges (GICs) are annual competitions organized by geography and theme. These challenges are an open call to entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists, and engineers with the most innovative ideas for moonshot innovations and startups that can positively impact a billion people in 10 years.

The Bootcamp Objective

The bootcamp will equip the finalists with the latest knowledge within exponential technologies, and prepare them for the final pitch event where they will pitch in front of a panel of judges from Singularity University (SU). The finalists will work hand in hand with mentors from SU, former GSP graduates, and other subject experts.

The winner of this GIC will be selected at the final pitch event. They will secure a full scholarship to attend SU’s Global Startup Program (GSP).

Focus Areas

Health: MENA region countries spend on average only 8% of their budgets on healthcare.
Energy: As technology develops, electrical power demand grows while natural resources are decreasing.
Education: Currently the MENA has almost 22 million children out of school, leaving a big of unequal reach out of quality education.
Agriculture: By 2050 an estimated $35 billion USD will be spent in financial damages due to climate-related disasters.
Transportation: Investing in transportation will facilitate the relocation and import/export businesses, which is key to tackling major issues like poverty.
Fintech: Even though Egypt has the highest population number of MENA (95 million people), only 14% out of 52% of the total number of adults in the country, has a bank account.

The 12-Month GSP Journey

4 Weeks of Activate (in person)
- Expand into ideation at the billion scale.
- Dive deep into bleeding-edge exponential technologies.
- Discover the GGCs, concepts like abundance and 6Ds, and more, while pushing applicants mind to solve the greatest issues facing our planet.
- Substantially evolve communication and storytelling skills.
4 Weeks of Accelerate (in person)
- Create a clearly differentiated value proposition.
- Take applicants vision to prototype through customer validation.
- Build a valid business plan and product roadmap.
- Turn applicant’s solution from moonshot idea to minimum viable product (MVP).
- Develop applicant’s go-to-market planning, supported by mentorship and networking.
1 Year of Connect (virtually)
- Leverage SU digital courses, webinars, virtual meetups, and more.
- Work with best-in-class faculty, staff, and mentors.
- Connect with SU’s international Chapters and community.
- Join global meetups.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- The challenge is open to residents and citizens of the MENA region: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine, Yemen, Sudan, KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq.
- Applicants must be age 21 or older on the first day of the GSP.
- Applicants must be fluent in written and spoken English.
- Able to participate in the Bootcamp in El Gouna, Egypt on from July 19-24, 2019.
- Applicants venture is a fully formed entity in seed, idea-stage or scale-up stage and has at least 1-2 full-time co-founders.
- 50 Applicants will be invited for a virtual interview as finalists will be interviewed by a panel of judges between June 8-21, 2019. Applicants must be available to attend this interview in order to be considered as a finalist.
- Applicants must be able to participate in the entire Global Startup Program.
The Challenge will be really thrilled to find:
- SU mission alignment: Applicants have a startup in one of the global grand challenge (GGC) spaces.
- Team: Startup has at least two full-time co-founders.
- Experience: Applicants have expertise in exponential technology and/or a key GGC space.
- Time: Applicants venture is a fully formed entity, and is in the seed-stage or idea-stage.
- Traction: Applicants have demonstrated market traction (LOIs, purchase orders, validated trials, sales, etc.).
- Eagerness to learn: Looking for a substantial shift in mindset and skill set, and are eager to globalize startup and 10x their impact.
- Availability: Available to the GSP Activate (four weeks) phase, and the SU campus in Mountain View for the Accelerate (four weeks) phase.