All posts by Banque du Liban Accelerate

Lebanon as a Gateway into the Middle East

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middle eastLebanon is a country that is renowned for its excellent educational institutions, for its creative and design sector, its financial institutions, as well as its engineering sector. It’s a country filled with highly talented individuals who are entrepreneurial by nature.

In recent years, we’ve seen a rise in many dedicated organizations that have been working hard to promote and nurture innovative business leading the startup ecosystem to develop.

Lebanon is not only geographically ideally located as a gateway to the Arab world, Africa, and Europe but it also has very strong links to countries such as France, London and a few GCC countries. This benefits Lebanon since it is able to provide startup companies with global access to capital and investors.

The crucial support of BDL Circular 331, a policy that requires banks to invest up to 3% of their deposits into Lebanon’s startup ecosystem, resulted in a US $500 million fund to be invested into startups over the next 5 years. The Lebanese startup ecosystem has been thriving and has great potential to become the startup world’s gateway into the Middle East as well as the launch pad for Arab tech companies.

*Source: The National

 

The Bright Future of Lebanon’s Startup Ecosystem – with faster Internet.

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On the second day of BDL Accelerate 2014, the halls were buzzing and the audience was cheering. During the panel, Lebanon’s Ecosystem, the controversial topic of the current slow Internet connection in Lebanon popped up and the discussion got heated. It was apparent that members of the panel and the audience were all frustrated by the snail-paced Internet connection available in the country.

As Mike Butcher points out in this article, “The current average Internet speed in Lebanon is 3.11 Mbps, far lower than the Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates, which enjoys an average 27.9 Mbps.” He also adds that simply doubling the bandwidth would improve Lebanon’s GDP by 0.6 percent. Then why has this not been done? Politics. Due to political reasons and gains, OGERO has been obstructing the development of Lebanon’s Internet Economy. All policies similar to this one hinder the development of the country’s economy, including the startup ecosystem.

In his article, Butcher goes on to highlight many of the positive aspects of the Lebanese Startup Ecosystem that he witnessed during BDL Accelerate 2014 including new support initiatives, the promising investment scene, clusters, Human talent, successful entrepreneurs, upcoming startups, and accelerators and startup events.

Butcher concluded that Lebanon’s startup ecosystem has potential to develop and that hopefully the country’s politicians will realize the requirement of decent internet access.

 

Be a Part of BDL Accelerate 2015!

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be a part of

BDL Accelerate 2015 is right around the corner! If you want to get in on the action and be a part of it, now is the time to apply!

Here are the multiple ways you can be a part of BDL Accelerate 2015:

Be a speaker at BDL Accelerate 2015
Our aim is to bring the most relevant, interesting, inspiring, and educational stories to the conference. We’re looking for aspiring leaders whose experiences will impact others. You will have the opportunity to share your experience, insight, failures, successes, and the challenges you faced in order to support and benefit the startup ecosystem.

The 3,000 attendees are entrepreneurs, including 100 startups from around the globe, and 100 VCs, angels, and investors with over US $250 million to deploy. We are seeking talks aimed at all segments of our audience.

If you have a startup experience to share, we encourage you to apply now.

Give a Workshop at BDL Accelerate 2015
During the 2-day international startup conference, 2 spaces will be dedicated solely to hosting a series of third-party workshops. We are looking for experienced people who can provide hands-on workshops relevant to the startup ecosystem that would benefit our 3,000 attendees. Our audience includes entrepreneurs, including 100 startups from around the globe, and 100 VCs, angels, and investors. Topics may range from idea generation, to business funding & development, to marketing and branding, and more.

If you are interested in hosting a workshop, apply here.

Exhibit at BDL Accelerate 2015
Get your product or service noticed by 3,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals from over 30 countries around the world.

Attendees of BDL Accelerate 2015 will see 100 startup exhibitors including international support institutions.

The exhibit pavilions are a key part of our attendees’ BDL Accelerate experience. You will get to display your product or services to enthusiasts, discuss with them, and network with investors and seasoned entrepreneurs. Attendees are encouraged to visit the pavilions throughout the 2-day event. The pavilions are strategically placed in areas that would increase traffic directly to your booth.

For additional information and to apply, click here.

Understanding Startup Ecosystems

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understand ecosystemEntrepreneurs require the proper startup ecosystem to nurture and thrive. The recent growth of the Lebanese startup ecosystem is incredibly exciting and has been extremely evident in 2015, as is distinct in the collaborations amongst entrepreneurs, support organizations, and investors.

A startup ecosystem is formed by several components interacting as a system to create and sustain startup companies. A successful startup ecosystem is highly developed in all areas of the components. For ecosystems to become a self-sustaining source of innovation, lead to economic growth, and create jobs, it needs to have the following 6 pillars:

  1. Human Capital
    These are the individuals starting, joining, and guiding startup companies. It’s vital to have access to a good quantity of high-quality workers with exceptional skills and competencies. These qualities include but are not restricted to the level of education, the number of graduates, the fields of specialization, and the level of professional expertise. If entrepreneurs are considering global expansion, then English communication is an important skill they would need to have, since it is the global language for international business.
  1. Knowledge Resources
    Having knowledge resources dedicated to a startup ecosystem is a fundamental success factor. It is essential to increase the knowledge generated and distributed within the ecosystem. Universities, innovation labs, and mentoring and network programs all push startup ecosystems to thrive.
  1. Capital
    A fundamental pillar of a successful startup ecosystem is its accessibility to funding opportunities. Funding sources may vary from venture capital firms, loans, angel investors, grants, and accelerator programs to the 3 F’s (friends, family and fools). Choosing the wrong funding source may be detrimental to a startup’s growth therefore founders must be very diligent when raising capital for their company. When evaluating this pillar we don’t only examine the amount of available funding as lump sum but we also examine how it is spread over the different startup growth stages. A successful ecosystem is one where a promising startup at any stage of growth can raise intelligent money.
  1. Governance
    Governmental regulations and policies can make or break a startup ecosystem. Having laws and regulations that support businesses being created, as well as the investors that fund them, move ecosystems in massive strides.
  2. Infrastructure
    Startups require access to affordable office space/ co-working spaces, high-speed internet, mobile, and utilities amongst other requirements. The lack of infrastructure may be detrimental to forming a successful startup ecosystem. Incubators and accelerators tend to provide some, if not all of these needs to prospective startups. Moreover, the city’s actual infrastructure, such as transportation and good standards of living, is a crucial factors to striving startups.
  1. Markets and networks
    Finally, markets and networks refer to the local market size and its dynamism, in addition to having access to other considerable-sized markets. The market needs to be large enough to sustain the startup’s business and if it’s not growing enough, it could turn away investors and entrepreneurs.

Taking into consideration all the 6 pillars, Lebanon may not have a highly developed startup ecosystem; however, there really is no startup ecosystem in the world that is perfect. We have observed several positive signs indicating that the Lebanese startup ecosystem is headed in the right direction.

The Rise in Lebanon’s Startup Ecosystem in 2015

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Recognizing the importance of remodeling the country’s economy into a knowledge-based one, Banque du Liban’s (BDL) aims to provide funding and support for startups. BDL’s monumental initiative, BDL Circular 331, has played a substantial role in instigating Lebanon’s start up ecosystem, which has been thriving since BDL Accelerate 2014. The momentum has been evident across all stages of the start up ecosystem with the rise of more start up companies, dedicated investors, accelerators, enablers, and more.

During 2015, due to BDL’s initiative, BDL Circular 331, we have witnessed the rise of 3 new VC firms: Leap Ventures, Y Ventures, and Saned Ventures who aim to nurture early stage startups. Also attributed to BDL Circular 331, 6 new funds were established and larger funds than the previous years have been created. For instance, Berytech and MEVP have each created a $50 million venture capital fund, whilst Leap Ventures introduced a $71 million venture capital fund, in addition to other funds that have been springing.

At BDL Accelerate 2014, former UK Ambassador, Tom Fletcher, announced the launch of a new accelerator, UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, which has since been operating. Flat6Labs announce that they will be establishing a startup accelerator in Lebanon aiming to accelerate 100 budding startup companies within the next 5 years. Speed, also a startup accelerator, has started accepting applications for its first round.

We also observed the emergence of co-working spaces, innovation labs, and entrepreneurship programs providing the infrastructure for creative new ideas to flourish and develop into successful new businesses: AltCity’s Startup Bootcamp will accelerate 100 start ups per year; Le Wagon, a 9-week coding bootcamp; Fab lab, a digital fabrication laboratory that also offers workshops and research support.

Additionally, 2 institutions have been founded to create links with other startup ecosystems: UK-Lebanon Tech Hub and Startup Megaphone. UKLTH creates bridges between the local startups and the ecosystem in London. Startup Megaphone organizes international events and activities in key cities to showcase startups, investors and support institutions from Lebanon.

The Start Up event series was launched with a boom in The Plaza in New York City earlier this year; it was followed by another event in Singapore during the F1 Grand Prix. Both events brought together Lebanese entrepreneurs and investors from around the world with high profile start up ecosystem stakeholders. The interactions resulted in knowledge exchange, relationship building and partnership formation.

There have been two success stories recently that prove that it is possible to found your startup, scale it and eventually exit in Lebanon. Japan’s Cookpad acquired local startup, Shahiya, who had originally accepted a $500,000 funding from MEVP, for a reported $13.5 million. The other exit was to a French company, when Webedia acquired the digital media company, Diwanee.

Rasheed El Tayeb, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton added, “I believe that the next Alibaba or Google will come from the Middle East. Consumption of digital content per capita is among the highest in the world in parts of the MENA region. As our youngsters move from being tech savvy consumers to becoming producers, tech companies will increasingly emerge from this region.”

As seen in other emerging ecosystems, successful startups tend to give rise to multiple additional successful startups reinforcing the growth of the ecosystem. The Lebanese startup ecosystem has only started emerging and its future looks bright especially with the increase in amount of funding from $50 million to $200 million within one year.