Plug and Play Egypt Launches Inaugural Cohort of the Smart Cities Hub

Plug and Play Egypt welcomes 25 startups to their inaugural Smart Cities cohort, a program centered on digital innovation in partnership with ITIDA, USAID, and the National Bank of Egypt with the aim to foster support to the regional entrepreneurship landscape.

CAIRO, EGYPT, June 22, 2022 - Plug and Play Egypt’s Smart Cities program aims to foster the development of smart cities across the nation by targeting traditional conglomerates, industrial hubs, and new cities. The vertical covers the development of the technological and industrial sectors in order to promote efficiency of operations and economic development. Plug and Play Egypt brings this mission to a national level, helping promote the transition to ‘smart’ for the cities that show potential for entrepreneurship and technological innovation.

Selected startups - ranging from early stage to growth stage and scaleups - represent a broad range of new innovations in the fields of mobility, internet of things, real estate & construction, energy, sustainability, fintech, and beyond.

Over the next three months, startups will have access to a fully fledged three month experience coupled with mentorship for founders and their team members, along with direct access to our corporate and government strategic partners, global and local VC networks, constant thought leadership and large-scale exposure. They will be fully immersed in Plug and Play's global network of over 50,000 startups, 500 industry-leading corporate partners, and hundreds of venture capital firms and investors.

“We believe that open innovation means building an integrated ecosystem that offers concrete opportunities to all: from startups to leading companies, governments, venture capital firms, universities and research centers active in multiple industries,” said Karima El Hakim, Country Director of Plug and Play Egypt. “We aim to grow this reach by opening more verticals this year as we are eyeing an Insurtech corporate innovation program and a large-scale Supply Chain hub at one of Egypt’s Special Economic Zones,” she added.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 35+ locations across five continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit www.pnptc.com