Tag Archives: Banque du Liban

5000 Registrations!!

Tue 1 Dec Written by Banque du Liban Accelerate

Yes! 5,000 unique registrations! Five thousand! The original target was just 3,000 and with 10 days to go, and the Pikasso billboard campaign has yet to launch.

Spanning over 6,000m2, the region’s most anticipated startup conference, BDL Accelerate 2015, will be bringing together 100 influential speakers from over 30 countries and 100 exhibitors from 9 emerging startup ecosystems. The conference will also be hosting 2 startup conferences and 2 hackathons.

If you haven’t registered yet, go ahead and do so now before you miss the chance!

Leila Janah – Sama Group & Laxmi – San Francisco

Tue 1 Dec Written by Banque du Liban Accelerate

Leila Janah
Sama Group & Laxmi
Founder & CEO

Leila Janah is an award-winning social entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Sama Group, a family of impact enterprises dedicated to ending poverty and promoting social and economic justice. Laxmi is her latest venture under the Sama umbrella with the same mission: to Give Work.

Leila is passionate about creating a social impact and strongly believes that there is so much potential to fix a lot of the problems and issues the world faces through using techniques adapted from the private sectors. She founded Sama Group in 2008 which has grown three successful social ventures and helped cultivate a new industry, Impact Sourcing. Their focus is on poverty alleviation and access to health care, and they have successfully moved twenty-seven thousand people above the poverty line since they started by pioneering a new model called Impact Sourcing, which is using technology-based jobs to provide opportunity to people in very poor locations.

In 2014, Leila launched Laxmi, a luxury beauty brand that aims to enable their producers to earn at least three times the local average wages. Through this venture, as with all Sama Group enterprises, Leila aims to end global poverty by connecting the world’s poorest people to dignified work – impact sourcing.

Prior to Sama Group, Leila was a visiting scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice and Australian National University’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. She was a founding director of Incentives for Global Health, an initiative to increase R&D spending on diseases of the poor, and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.). She has also worked at the World Bank and as a travel writer for Let’s Go in Mozambique, Brazil, and Borneo. Leila is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a Director of CARE USA, a 2012 TechFellow, recipient of the inaugural Club de Madrid Young Leadership Award, and in 2014, was the youngest person to win a Heinz Award.

BDL Accelerate 2015 Foodies and Yummies

Mon 30 Nov Written by Banque du Liban Accelerate

The following BDL Accelerate 2015 Food & Coffee Sponsors will be providing our attendees with plenty of delicious food to keep them energized and their tummies happy.

FOOD SPONSORS

Socrate
Socrate’s rich heritage goes back as far as 1964, with the opening of its restaurant on Beirut’s Bliss Street. Close to the prestigious American University of Beirut, it soon became the favored venue of Ras Beirut’s sophisticated clientele. Today the restaurant offers a wide variety of specialties and is renowned for its daily dishes. Over the years, Socrates catering has earned significant experience in providing remarkable catering services. Socrate Catering’s accolades and recognitions by individuals, culinary experts and international organizations were the true inspiration and motive to excel year after year. Socrate Catering won the Grumpy Gourmet 2007 and 2008 Awards for Best Catering in Lebanon and Jordan.

Zaatar W Zeit
Zaatar W Zeit, the casual urban eatery, opened their first branch in 1999 offering a new and modern spin on Lebanon’s beloved manousheh. They made the staple of Lebanese cuisine a hero by upgrading it and modernizing it for a new generation. Today, Zaatar W Zeit has over 15 branches in Lebanon and can also be found in the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, KSA, and Qatar. Their menu has expanded to include a variety of breakfast, manakeesh, salads, platters, pizzas, specialty wraps, a light menu, and dessert.

Al Balad
Open since 1999 in Beirut, Al Balad restaurant introduced the concept of Lebanese dining in a casual atmosphere. This proved to be a success and soon enough, expansion began in Lebanon and the Middle East. Al Balad preserves Lebanese traditions in each of their exquisite recipes, which are based on the most innovative combinations of the finest ingredients. Al Balad has 2 branches in Lebanon and may be found in Kuwait, KSA, Qatar, and Egypt.

Frank Wurst
In 2009, Frank Wurst opened the first uniquely designed hotdog caravan that would quickly shape the industry of Lebanese food trucks. With the simple idea of making really good sandwiches, the little red truck in the heart of Byblos city started attracting food lovers in no time. In a matter of months, Frank Wurst became the leading hotdog vendor in Lebanon and has over 16 locations today.

KB Doner
When KB Doner opened in Lebanon in 2003, it introduced Doner kebab inside a laden broth. Using its unique spices, fresh baked laden bro, KB Doner offers quality gourmet done in 3 types of sauces – spicy, garlic, or herbal, available to eat at any time of day.

Wrap’n’Roll
Wrap’n’Roll food truck serve gourmet wraps with fresh local ingredients. Mostly, Wrap’n’Roll enjoy serving students and people with a sense of adventure and excitement when it comes to food. Thus, you can find their truck around universities, in hip areas around the country, and at happening events.

COFFEE SPONSOR

Dunkin’ Donuts Lebanon
Dunkin’ Donuts Lebanon opened its doors in 1998 and was the first to introduce donuts and filtered coffee in Lebanon. Today, with over 30 branches all over the country, Dunkin’ Donuts serves a wide variety of 35 donuts, hot and iced coffees, lattes and cappuccinos, hot chocolate, iced tea, Coolatta cold drinks and many more. In addition, Dunkin’ Donuts Lebanon serves delicious baked goods, croissant sandwiches, diet snacks, pre-packed sandwiches and salads.

Meet the Lebanese VCs

Mon 30 Nov Written by Banque du Liban Accelerate

As we’ve witnessed the rise in Lebanon’s startup ecosystem, we have witnessed the Lebanese venture capital market grow at an unprecedented pace in 2015. Attributed to Banque du Liban’s initiative Circular 331 , which provides incentives to commercial banks to make equity investments in startups or venture capital funds, we have seen the VC scene flourish with several new players.

Below is a brief overview of the main VCs in Lebanon:

Berytech
Berytech is the oldest firm in Lebanon to provide support to startups.Ever since its inception, Berytech has been driven by the will to create positive impactful initiatives.

Berytech was established in 2001 as an initiative from Saint Joseph University to provide an environment that startups and SMEs can be created and developed in through incubation, counseling, networking, funding, and company hosting. It has since grown through the years to become an ecosystem of 3 incubators, 3 finds, 1 accelerator, and coworking support spaces.

Since its inception, Berytech has created over 90 startups, invested in over $6M in 15 ventures, and supported over 3000 entrepreneurs. Since BDL Circular 331, Berytech launched the Berytech Fund II, a $50 million Beirut based venture capital fund to invest in SMEs with high growth potential. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Berytech also announced in April 2015 the official launch of “Insure & Match Capital” (IM Capital), a new $15M Investment Fund under MENA Investment Initiative.

Speakers at BDL Accelerate 2015: Maroun N. Chammas, Chairman and CEO of Berytech, Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Executive Director, Paul Chucrallah, Managing Director of Berytech fund2.

Leap Ventures
Leap Ventures was founded in 2014 as a venture capital firm specializing in investments in startups. The firm is based in Beirut and is also located in Dubai. It invests in the MENA region with a focus in Lebanon. It considers investments between $3 million and $7 million and up to $12 million through partnerships with other firms. Leap Ventures closed off its first round at $71 million and is expected a second closing that would most likely increase the fund size to $80 million.

Leap Venture has 4 founding partners with over 70 years of combined experience in founding and exiting companies. The partners are Henri Asseily, Hala Fadel, Herve Cuvilliez, and Noor Sweid, each with a wealth of experience as investors and entrepreneurs. The 4 have founded and scaled 8 companies leading to over $ 2 billion in exits, and have invested in a total of 47 startups to date.

Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)
Founded in 2010, MEVP is the region’s leading independent venture capital firm with over 25 investments since inception. Conducting business across three offices in Beirut, Dubai, and Silicon Valley, MEVP’s assets under management have reached in excess of $100 million.

MEVP manages 4 funds:

– MEVF I: Launched in 2010, Fund size $10M, sector: ICT companies with a focus on consumer services in MENA region, ticket size: $200k to $1M.

– BBEF: Launched in 2013, Fund size $ 7.3M, sector: ICT companies with a focus on retail and F&B, ticket size range from $200K to $1M.

– IMPACT: Launched in 2014, Fund size $70M, sector ICT companies and creative industries in Lebanon, ticket size range $1M to $5M.

– MEVF II: Launch in 2015, Fund size: $15M first out of $30M, focus on ICT companies in MENA, ticket size range: $300k to $3M

MEVP has 3 managing partners; Walid Hanna, who has led more than 30 investments and has been active in venture capital and in new venture development for over 15 years; Walid Mansour, also has more than 15 years of experience in venture capital, strategy and corporate finance; and Ihsan Jawad, based in Dubai, an internet entrepreneur who had founded Zawya.com and co-founded HoneyBee Tech Ventures.

The Power of Hackathons

Fri 27 Nov Written by Banque du Liban Accelerate

The rail industry in the UK organized Hack the Rails – a 48-hour hackathon that took place last weekend. Over 100 developers and designers from around the world traveled by train from London to York over the span of 2 days while tapping away on their laptops in an attempt to solve overcrowdings, delays, and improve WiFi on the rail network. The best ideas from the hackathon will be presented to ministers and rail executives next month and the winning plan will be awarded a £25,000 investment fund to help get their idea off the ground. The hackathon aims to change the customer experience problem the rail network has been facing.

Similarly, BDL Accelerate 2015 is hosting two hackathons, Web & Mobile Hackathon and Wearables Hackathon, that will be tackling challenges that the public is faced with on a daily basis in Lebanon. The participants of the Web & Mobile Hackathon will be provided with a brief that will consist of a specific theme and the contestants will have to collaboratively brainstorm and work extensively to find a web or mobile solution to a specific issue that is shared with them at the start of the hackathon. This hackathon is organized by MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab & WDS with cash prizes of $6,000.

As for the Wearables Hackathon, it’s powered Innovo, a DNY Group company that will be providing electronic components, a whole bunch of sensors, a wearable sleeve, 3D printing capabilities, and more to the participants grouped in teams, who will dream up and hack together wearables to enhance lifestyle or sports in 36 to 48 hours. In addition to the $6,000 cash prize, the participants will also have the opportunity to pursue their project at Innovo’s lab after the hackathon is over.

Hackathons are considered as a great way to start solving real life problems, as a training session, or as a way to prepare participants and educate them on the process of solving issues. Think of a hackathon as the start of a long journey rather than 36-48 hour hackathons as a solution. Anyone from any background or age can participate in the hackathons hosted by BDL Accelerate 2015. In the spirit of finding the next generation of entrepreneurs, the BDL Accelerate 2015 team has been visiting all major universities in Lebanon to inspire youth to join the startup movement and participate in the hackathons. NRJ Radio, Aghani, and Nostalgie have been tagging along to spread the word further and farther. High school students are also encouraged to attend, with a couple of schools already scheduling class trips for their senior students.

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