All posts by Banque du Liban Accelerate

Stephane Gantchev – LAUNCHub – Bulgaria

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stefan-ganchev

Stephane Gantchev
Partner, LAUNCHub
Sofia, Bulgaria

After 15 years in the IT and Telecom sector, Stephane Gantchev has shifted towards venture capitalism by becoming Partner of LAUNCHub. It is a seed fund that supports promising entrepreneurs and digital startups from Southern to Eastern Europe, and has invested over 3.5 million Euro in 47 startups from 9 countries since 2012.

Investments made by the company can go up to 200,000 Euro and are injected in innovative businesses across the tech sector.  The startups that LAUNCHub invests in need to have a final product, a good understanding of their market, and some initial traction. LAUNCHub also provides the businesses with services besides investment, such as mentoring and coaching, as well as access to a network of experts, tech vendors and investors.

LAUNCHub has added 120 founders to their portfolio and attracted over 4 million Euros of co-investment funding for the businesses.  As a result, when a startup joins them, they gain knowledge and skills from experts, the ability to grow their business through sound advice and build on successful investments. LAUNCHub provides young companies with the momentum they need to grow and flourish into successful businesses.

From working in the technology industry to enabling its future game-changers, Stephane Gantchev has positioned himself as true visionary and reference in his field. He has taken his involvement even further by recently giving his first angel investment to FlippTV, an app that lets users stream videos from their phones to their TV.

News Update

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Leaon's investment Landscape

In the past couple of years, the startup scene in Lebanon has enjoyed a flagrant acceleration. With large funds appearing more often in the startup ecosystem, it’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the news. We’ve rounded up some of the latest major updates for you:

Major Updates:

Y Venture Partners is an early stage investment and advisory firm that mainly works with tech entrepreneurs. They invest at seed level and follow up on capital through multiple investments rounds up to $100k. They support their portfolio clients with time and effort by being very hands-on and provide mentorship. They have already invested in two companies, SerVme (restaurant reservations and analytics platform), and OnLivery (mobile app for food delivery).

Saned Partners is a sector-agnostic regional VC fund of $5 million that will double soon, offering a ticket size of $100k to $300k. Approximately 30% of their investments are intended for Lebanese companies and they often co-invest with Wamda Ventures. They have already funded Kharabeesh, a Jordanian company that produces Arabic animations, music videos and talk shows; and Instabeat, a Lebanon-based company that produces a swimming device that monitors heart rate among other

Major News:

MEVP announced its 331-compliant IMPACT fund in a signing ceremony on Saturday, co-sponsored by BLOM Invest Bank and MedSecurities Investment. MEVP has $56 million total commitments and its ticket size ranges from $500K to $5M. They have already invested $12.5M in 5 companies: Mobinets, Fuel Powered, Fadel Partners, Klangoo, and BookWitty.

Berytech got BDL clearance for their $30 million, 331-compliant fund on August 7th but the closing process is still ongoing and Berytech Fund II still has not be incorporated. The fund is expected to be fully operational in Q1 2015.  Their ticket size is $500k to $3M and focus on ICT, digital content, movies, music, fashion, jewelry, accessories, and renewable energy.
Leap Ventures, set up by Hala Fadel and Henri Asseily got BDL clearance for their $50 million, 331-compliant fund on Friday. The ticket size is expected to go from $3M to $7M.

The Lebanese Parliament has passed the iSME law on October 1st after a 3-year delay, clearing the acceptance of a $30 million loan by the World Bank to encourage investments in innovative ideas and early-stage companies. The fund is to be administered by Kafalat. However, since there is currently no President in Lebanon, the law required 24 Ministers to sign the law before it may be published in the Official Gazette and only 22 Ministers have signed it thus far.

Wamda Ventures is approaching the closing of its $75 million regional fund, investing mainly in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the GCC.

Tech accelerator Speed Lebanon launched on September 15 and will accept its first batch of companies in early 2015. Seed cash injection will be $50k, and the accelerator will be hosted in Beirut Digital District. The Board of Directors is comprised of Fadi Bizri, Maroun Chammas, Walid Hanna, Abdallah Jabbour. The CEO is an Irish serial tech entrepreneur who has gone through 2 accelerator programs in Ireland and the US.

With a quickly-growing regional startup ecosystem, banks and VCs are quickly gathering the funds to get behind these rising start. There is much to look forward to, and if you have you own startup, now is your chance to get proper funding.

Paul Papadimitriou – Intelligencr – UK

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Paul-Papadimitriou-Intelligencr

Paul Papadimitriou
Founder, Intelligencr
London, UK

Intelligencr founder Paul Papadimitriou is a management consultant, a digital futurist and a true citizen of the world. He started off quite young, in 1996, by developing websites to pay for his studies. In 2000, Paul’s career took off when he joined the company that created the first public WAP portal, prior to joining the Geneva Business Federation.  In 2008, Paul moved to Japan where he launched Driving Left, a digital business development company, and started co-organizing several communities.  In 2009, he moved to Europe but kept commuting between there and Japan to attend to his duties.

Paul is an expert in the emerging digital movement and how it transforms businesses and societies. He travels the world researching trends, witnessing new identities and behaviors as they appear. He analyzes how different cultures shape innovation and how technological advancement impacts societies.  The accumulated intelligence is delivered to his clients to guide them through the opportunities and challenges of innovation, and to better understand the gap between online and offline behaviors. As an innovation scout, Paul always keeps an eye out for startups that redefine innovation and add value to the digital world, and advises them on how to understand the ever-changing ecosystem.

With a busy schedule like Paul’s, it is hard to understand how he also finds the time to produce and host a weekly video series on digital innovation, The Digital Loop, and  travel 4 continents as a keynote speaker.

As citizen of the world, digital futurist, lobbyist, management consultant, and keynote speaker, the multitalented Paul Papadimitriou is always ahead of the game. He truly impacts the technology and startup world by providing companies with insight on the future of their industry.

Alexander Asseily – Jawbone – UK

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Alexander-Assaily-Jawbone

Alexander M. Asseily
Chairman/Co-founder, Jawbone & State
London, UK

Alexander Asseily is the founder and Executive Chairman of London-based startup, State. State is an opinion network for the world: a kind of global town square, where people can connect to each other through what they think, rather than who they know.
Prior to State Alexander was the founding CEO of Jawbone, the largest venture capital-backed consumer electronics company in the world, where he currently maintains the role of Chairman. Jawbone is the industry leader in mobile lifestyle products including the award winning ICON wireless headsets, JAMBOX speakers, and UP wellness solutions.
Alexander also serves as Chairman and Co-founder of Chiaro, a London-based personal wellness technology start-up, whose first product Elvie will be unveiled in November 2014.
Alexander grew-up in Beirut and London before receiving his BSc & MSc in Engineering Design at Stanford University. Alexander advises a number of startup technology companies and charitable organizations in the US and Europe.

Aliph is the first letter in the Arabic and Hebrew alphabet, and Jawbone was called when Alexander and Hosain founded the company back in 1999.  They were developing a conversational artificial intelligence software that resembles Apple’s Siri, along with noise-canceling software for the U.S. Military.  A couple of years later, they won a contract to research ways for combat soldiers to communicate with each other in difficult and hostile conditions. Both Alexander and Hosain recognized the consumer potential in what they were doing and thus developed a mobile phone headset with military-grade, noise-eliminating properties: the NoiseAssassin® technology.  The sleek and stylish headset took them 5 years to develop and was revealed in 2007 as Jawbone.

The process was a difficult and challenging one for Jawbone.  First, the founders met with several funders and were constantly rejected. Then the first headset released did not sell well, but did receive several industrial design awards. The rejections made them stronger and the brutal feedback they received helped them refine their products. Besides headsets, the company (currently valued at over $3.3 billion), released Jambox by Jawbone, compact wireless Bluetooth speakers, and a lifestyle health tracking system: UP by Jawbone.

Since the company was founded, it went through numerous near-death experiences but to the founders’ focus, dedication, perseverance, passion, and vision kept it alive. Jawbone has truly revolutionized the experience of communications, one of the most highly valued private consumer electronics companies in the world. Asseily is now fully dedicated to State, a global opinion network, and the simplest way for people everywhere to connect their opinions with the world.

Ramzi Rizk – EyeEm – Germany

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Ramzi Rizk - EyeEm - Germany

Ramzi Rizk
Co-Founder & CTO of EyeEm 
Berlin, Germany

Ramzi Rizk is a Lebanese-born entrepreneur, and a founder and CTO of EyeEm; the Berlin-based photography community and marketplace. EyeEm’s distinct blend of talented photographers sharing beautiful and authentic photos, and unique photo indexing and search technologies have made it one of the fastest growing photography platforms in the world. Before starting EyeEm, Ramzi was a PhD candidate with years of research and lectures on the social, economical and technological aspects of privacy in Social Media. He is a passionate software architect, photographer and pianist. Together with his team at EyeEm, he organizes PhotoHackDay, a global hackathon focusing on Photography. Ramzi loves product, scalable architecture, cross-platform design and development.

One night, while Florian Meissner and Lorenz Aschoff were hanging out at Ramzi’s apartment, Florian shared an idea he had earlier that year. His camera was stolen in New York and he had to use a friend’s iPhone to take pictures. Florian discovered – and was impressed by- the growing scene of mobile photographers. That’s when the founders saw the need for a photography platform that would be built by and for a new generation of photographers; fast, smart, and mobile first.

In February 2011, Ramzi, Florian, Lorenz and their friend Gen Sadakane started building a platform that enables mobile photographers to connect and do more than simply share images: they founded EyeEm. The app allows photographers to truly be creative with an array of filters, frames, and a totally new way of browsing photos by themes. EyeEm is also working on some cutting-edge technology that will change how people index and search for photos.

Their latest product, EyeEm Market, is changing the world of stock photography as we know it and is taking mobile photography further than ever. It is a platform for users to sell their pictures to third parties. In other words, for the first time ever, smartphone photos will enjoy full copyright and can be monetized by amateurs and professionals alike.

Today, it has over 10 million users in over 130 countries and is constantly growing.

EyeEm has truly embraced the age of apps and understood their users. The team works relentlessly to come up with new ideas and features to empower the mobile community. Ramzi has truly made his mark in the tech world and will hopefully continue breaking boundaries between traditional markets and modern content.

 

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou – Found.ation – Greece

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Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou - Found.ation - Greece

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou
CEO & Co-Founder, Found.ation
Greece 

For a 26 year-old, Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou has been one extremely busy bee.  This web and tech entrepreneur is known as the Founder and Curator of TEDxAthens, Co-Founder of Nest Media, and Co-Founder of Found.ation, a company dedicated to helping startups grow.

More precisely, Found.ation is a co-working space that offers a lot more than your average office facilities and services.  Its aim is to accommodate entrepreneurs in an enhanced environment and encourage tech entrepreneurship in Greece through proper training, networking opportunities, legal consultancy, and opening doors to investors.

Through Found.ation’s educational platform, young startup owners develop their skills in essential workshops related to the worlds of tech and business marketing.

The space provides an opportunity for young tech entrepreneurs to network and collaborate with professionals in various fields. Together, they exchange ideas, opinions, receive and provide help, and develop partnerships.

The company has been notably involved with projects such as “Women and girls go digital”, an initiative launched in April 2014 which aims at diversifying the tech ecosystem by getting more and more women to embrace digital jobs.

Found.ation is working hard to give young entrepreneurs an affordable solution that allows them to convert their ideas into actions. This reflects Dimitris’ way of working and his dedication to the growth and enhancement of the startup community at large.

Jean Nehme – Touch Surgery – UK

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Jean Nehme - Touch Surgery - UK

Jean Nehme
CEO & Co-Founder, Touch Surgery
United Kingdom

Jean Nehme is a Plastic Surgeon and the Co-Founder of Touch Surgery, a game-changing mobile surgical simulator. When he and Andre Chow were still residents at the Imperial College London, they realized that they lacked additional experience outside of the operating room.

Surgical simulators already existed but were not within reach, as they were expensive and stored away from the residents. This is how the two friends came up with the idea for Touch Surgery, an app that has been downloaded by over 180,000 users so far.

This simulator is as close to real life as it gets: Filled with accurate surgical content, it shows users what could happen during actual operations. Because it prepares students to all kinds of scenarios, Touch Surgery has considerably improved the way they are taught, and the quality of their surgery. The app gathers the latest surgical procedures from the best institutions, and allows medical students to feel more confident before entering the operating room.

Surprisingly, Touch Surgery is also being downloaded by patients who want to understand a procedure before they go under the knife, marking a true revolution in the surgical world for all parties involved.

With Touch Surgery, Jean Nehme has played a vital role in transforming the medical world as we know it through a digital innovation that enhances doctors’ surgical skills, prepares trainees for the operating room, and educates patients. Touch Surgery has exceptional promise for changing the future of surgeries.

Jambu Palaniappan – Uber – Middle East & Africa

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Jambu Palaniappan – Uber – Middle East & Africa

General Manager at Uber 
Middle East & Africa

Jambu Palaniappan oversees a team of launchers who spearhead the Uber EMEA expansion and are responsible for bringing Uber to over 30 new cities in the past year.  Every city Uber adds to its network operates like an autonomous startup with minor oversight from the San Francisco head office. It’s Jambu’s role to expand the network in the Middle East & Africa and to ensure the business sustains in those cities.

The launchers Jambu oversees are described as a SEAL team as they operationalize a new Uber city within eight weeks, sometimes less. They are ‘dropped’ into a city to get business running by being logistically savvy, getting a grasp of the city’s transportation ecosystem and using marketing creativity to encourage user adoption and market penetration.  Once the service is up and running, the launchers are responsible for recruiting a team of local talented staff to run the business locally and sustain long term growth.

Uber seamlessly connects riders to drivers through their apps providing on-demand car requests. Globally, the company has undergone rapid organic expansion, bringing the service to over 200 cities in 45 countries since 2009. It launched in the Region in September 2013 and currently operates in 6 Middle Eastern cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, and Beirut. Uber shows no signs of slowing down its expansion as it has also announced that it shall be increasing its total headcount from 550 to 1000 this year.

Mike Butcher – TechCrunch – UK

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Mike Butcher Editor at Large, TechCrunch, UK

Editor at Large, TechCrunch
CEO, TechHub
United Kingdom

Best known as TechCrunch’s “Editor-at-large”, Mike Butcher is nothing short of a legend in the tech and startup world. From ranking as one of the Top 50 influential Britons in technology, to appearing three times in Wired UK’s Top 100 (2011, 2012, 2014), Butcher’s list of achievements could be published as a book on its own.  He still writes extensively about startups, venture capital, technology trends and emerging markets, but  he is now more active than ever thanks to his latest company: TechHub.

It is a global dynamic enterprise that creates spaces around the world for tech entrepreneurs to increase their chances of success. Using a unique approach, TechHub gathers these newcomers in high-end offices and provides them with “the resources of a global company, the energy and shared knowledge of a tech conference and the buzz of a social networking event rolled into one!” With already six hubs from London to India, the company’s open network puts startups  in touch with entrepreneurs, angels, and mentors from all over the world.

TechHub takes its concept even further by granting members free tickets to its events, where they get to learn from some of the most successful founders, meet and pitch investors, find interns… Mike’s company even leverages its own social media network, blog and newsletter to promote its partner startups .

With TechHub, Mike proves once again his dedication to emerging companies and his will to lend a helping hand. Butcher has often been personally involved with similar endeavors in the past 18 years. Aside from launching or re-launching numerous media web sites, he has founded and/or served on various boards such as the steering committee of Coadec, the Coalition for a Digital Economy, and the Smart London Board.

Michael Lints – Golden Gate Ventures – Singapore

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Michael Lints - Golden Gate Ventures - Singapore

Venture Capitalist
Golden Gate Ventures
Singapore

With over 11 years of experience under his belt, Michael Lints has definitely earned his title of specialist in IT startups and venture management.  As a Harvard Business School graduate, he started off as consultant and project manager for one of the largest insurance establishments in The Netherlands, but soon moved to Golden Gate Ventures [VC investor] to focus on investing in startups. Since then, Michael has expanded his network to include star startups, industry leaders, and investments from Southeast Asia to Silicon Valley.

Golden Gate Ventures’ major field of investment is internet and mobile startups in a variety of industries, including e-commerce, payments, mobile applications, and SaaS platforms.

 As Lints himself puts it, “the market for Series A investments in South East Asia is young but shows high growth.” This is why Golden Gate Ventures  focuses on funding startups in this area. The company’s philosophy is to bring investment, experience, and network from Silicon Valley to South East Asia, using Singapore as its hub.

 Golden Gate Ventures has invested in online supermarket RedMart.com, payment platform Coda Payments, and Nitrous.io among others. As Venture Partner, Michael is in charge of securing and managing deals.

 Today, Michael spends his time traveling around the world promoting Southeast Asia as an emerging hub for innovation and technology. He regularly delivers keynotes and lectures in prestigious conferences such as the Tech Summit 2014.

In his free time, Michael nurtures his passion for running which he says “stands symbol for many things in life”.