创业风暴席卷中东

    雄心勃勃的初创企业为了赢得认可和资金参加创业大赛，捉对展开厮杀，这样的情形并不鲜见。但今年，两个全球最大的创业大赛项目却都在中东地区，为当地创业者举办专场比赛，让许多人感到惊奇。而且，这两个项目的赞助商麻省理工学院（MIT）和谷歌（Google）在全球科技领域都赫赫有名。如今中东地区依然动荡不堪，充满了不确定性，所以，投资者可能会问：“为什么是现在？”

    谷歌埃及及北非地区经理、Ebda2（阿拉伯语意为“开始”）创始人韦尔•法克哈拉尼称：“实际上，现在时机已经成熟。今天，世界上有许多动荡的地区都显示出非凡的创新能力。”Ebda2是谷歌首个针对埃及创业者的区域性比赛。他分析了埃及的基本人口资料：有1,700万在校生，在科技行业任职的埃及人超过230万人，互联网活跃用户超过3,500万人，手机用户则超过9,000万人。他说：“我们相信，下一波发展浪潮必将出现在这里。”

    这也证实了哈拉•法德尔在中东地区看到的势头。哈拉•法德尔是巴黎与贝鲁特的一名全球投资人，同时也是MIT泛阿拉伯地区创业论坛（MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan-Arab Region）的创始人。今年的MIT创业计划大赛（ MIT Business Plan Competition）在中东地区已经是第五个年头，大赛的合作伙伴是来自沙特阿拉伯的阿卜杜勒•拉提夫•阿尔•贾米尔社区行动计划（Abdul Latif al Jameel Community Initiative），该计划旨在提高企业社会责任感。整个中东地区的创业者均可参加大赛。哈拉•法德尔称：“2006年，大赛首次举办的时候，我们预计整个中东地区会有200人报名，结果最终报名人数却超过了1，,500人。今年参加比赛的共有4,500多个由三人或三人以上团队，这意味着创业者的人数超过13,000人。”此外，她还表示，今年，约一半团队中都有女性成员。“知道吗，我们甚至收到100多份来自叙利亚的报名申请。”

    MIT的计划包括解决当地和区域需求，以及为希望与全球一流科技初创企业一较高下的创业者们提供帮助。获得第一名和50,000美元奖金的是Butterfleye公司。该公司发明了一款智能泳镜，可以监控游泳者的心率，跟踪其健康状况。

    获得第二名10，000美元奖金的是Qabila 媒体制作公司（Qabila Media Productions）。在埃及动乱期间，该公司的众包视频服务得到广泛传播。第三名得主Silgenix公司同样来自埃及。它发明了一款集成电路设计，专门用于提高移动电子设备的电池使用寿命。其他入围的创业项目包括区域社交网络、电子商务平台、在线教育课程，以及提高互联网连接速度与可靠性的新功能等。从沙特阿拉伯到巴勒斯坦，参赛者遍布中东地区的各个角落。

    总计超过4,200名创业者参加了谷歌在埃及举办的Ebda2大赛，经过为期九个月的数轮培训、指导和评判，最终有20组选手入围决赛。为了提高活动知名度，Ebda2和谷歌员工租了一辆巴士，围绕整个埃及进行了巡回路演，以召集参赛者、提供培训。他们访问了二十座城市的二十所大学，其中既有开罗和亚历山大港这样的大型中心城市，也有像坦塔、法尤姆、塞得港这样的小城市。他们接触了1,500多名创业者，收集的创业理念从消费性网络到医疗保健，五花八门，创意百出。

    There's nothing new about ambitious start-ups duking it out for the recognition and money that comes with winning a prestigious start-up competition. What might be surprising is that two of the largest such competitions this year were hosted in the Middle East solely for Middle East entrepreneurs. And their sponsors, MIT and Google, are among the most vaulted names in global technology.

    In a region dominated by instability and uncertainty, any investor might ask, "Why now?"

    "In fact the time is ripe now," notes Wael Fakharany, Google's Regional Manager for Egypt and North Africa, and founder of Ebda2 (Arabic for "Beginning"), Google's first regional competition focused on Egypt entrepreneurs. "There are many unsettled places in the world showing remarkable innovation today." He points to the basic demographics of Egypt: More than 17 million enrolled students, over 2.3 million Egyptians working in the technology sector, over 35 million people actively using the Internet and over 90 million mobile users. "We believe that one of the next waves of impact and growth will emerge from this part of the world," he says.

    This confirms the momentum that Hala Fadel, a Paris and Beirut-based global investor and founder of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan-Arab Region, has seen in there recently. This year's MIT Business Plan Competition, done in partnership with the Saudi corporate social responsibility effort Abdul Latif al Jameel Community Initiative and covering all of the Middle East, is her fifth. "During 2006, our first year, we expected 200 applications from around the Middle East, but received over 1,500," she says. "This year over 4,500 teams of three people or more competed – that means over 13,000 potential entrepreneurs." She added that nearly half of the teams this year included women. "We even received over 100 applications – get this – from Syria!"

    MIT pitches ranged from addressing local and regional needs to aspirants looking to compete with world-class global technology start-ups. First place, along with a $50,000 prize, went to Butterfleye, which has created a smart goggle for swimmers that monitors their heart rate and tracks their fitness.

    Winner of the $10,000 second-place prize, Qabila Media Productions, took off when its crowd-sources video services went viral during the Egyptian uprising. Third place Silgenix, also from Egypt, created an integrated circuit design company specializing in increasing the battery lifetime of portable electronic devices. Other finalists created regional social networks, eCommerce platforms, online education courses, capabilities to increase internet connection speeds and reliability among others. Competitors came from every corner of the region, from Saudi Arabia to Palestine.

    More than 4,200 entrepreneurs competed in Google's Egypt-focused Ebda2, culled down to twenty finalists over nine months of multiple rounds of training, mentoring and judging. To create awareness, Ebda2 and Google staff chartered a bus and travelled throughout the country on a road show to gather participants and to offer training. Visiting twelve universities in twelve cities as widely diverse as the large urban centers of Cairo and Alexandria to the smaller cities such as Tanta, Fayoum, Port Said, they met more than 1,500 entrepreneurs with ideas in areas ranging from consumer internet to health care.