Tag Archives: Seedstars

Ki, Seedstars Beirut Regional Winner

Written by

Ki, Seedstars Beirut Regional Winner

Ki, the winning startup will be flown to Geneva, Switzerland, to participate in a 3 day bootcamp and the Seedstars Final Event representing Lebanon as they compete for “Seedstars World Best Startup.” The winner will secure a $500,000 investment while pitching in front of a wide panel of European investors, in addition to receiving $20,000 worth of hosting services from Softlay and $60,000 work of global prize partners.

Ki, the only password manager that interacts with you, is basically an app that logs you in to your accounts and keeps you safe from hackers. For example, you get to work and you get to a close proximity to your laptop, Ki will access all your accounts for you. If you step away from your laptop, Ki will send you a notification asking you if you want to stay logged in or not. Moreover, it will change your password for you on a scheduled basis and takes the hassle out of two-factor authentications. The passwords are saved on your phone which simply logs in via location.

Seedstars World is an exclusive worldwide startup competition that has been taking place in over 30 cities in 2014 and Beirut was one of them. The aim of the competition is to find the best startup in emerging and fast-growing startup scenes such as Lebanon. The pitching event was exclusively sponsored by Banque du Liban and hosted by Lebanon’s first international startup conference, Banque du Liban Accelerate 2014. Banque du Liban has been supporting startups in Lebanon during the past couple of years, which in return has provided startups with a boost and made Beirut a strategic hub for them.

25 startups were selected to participate in the Lighting Round Pitch on the main stage on Thursday in addition to having a startup exhibition stand throughout the 2-day conference. The top 8 were selected to enter the Finalist Round on Friday during which they had 6 minutes to pitch. Ki was selected by the jury after a very tough round as “Seedstars Beirut Regional Winner.”

 

 

 

BDL Accelerate Conference Schedule Overview

Written by

Agenda Overview

Lebanon’s first international startup conference, Banque du Liban Accelerate 2014 kicks off tomorrow! We have put together an awesome schedule for the upcoming 2 days. The agenda features 7 keynotes, 2 firesides, 5 interventions and 8 panels.

BDL Accelerate 2014 will showcase 53 influential high profile speakers, 33 of which are flying in from over 20 countries from Singapore to San Francisco. The speakers will share their Blueprints for Success in the keynotes and panels. They will share their insights into developing and expanding startups, emerging trends, disruptive innovation, accelerators, investment strategies, opportunities and challenges faced in the different ecosystems, and more.

In parallel to that, there will be 8 workshops that feature small group sessions with some of the key speakers, throughout the 2 days. The workshops will cover many specialized and focused topics educating entrepreneurs every aspect of the start up industry from concept to fundraising to branding to expanding and more.

Speaking at the Opening Ceremony will be Governor of Banque du Liban Riad Salameh, UK Ambassador Tom Fletcher, Francois Bassil, and Mohammad Chouceir. The Opening Keynote will be delivered by Alexander Asseily, the Chairman and Co-Founder of State and founding CEO of Jawbone. Other speakers and panelists include CEOs, investors, and seasoned entrepreneurs.

Seedstars World will host a competition at Banque du Liban Accelerate 2014 to find the best entrepreneur. 30 exceptional startups have been selected from over 100 applications to pitch. They will partake in the lightning round on the first day where they will each have a minute to pitch their startups. The finalists will be announced following the lightning round and proceed to the finalists round the next day for a chance to be “Seedstars Beirut Regional Winner” and represent Lebanon at the global competition in Geneva, Switzerland.