The pitching event celebrated in Palestine last Wednesday the 26^th of January was a great success. In total, 14 ideation stage start-ups participated in a 2-hours event that was organised by Leaders Organisation via Zoom in order to convey with the Covid-19 measures. The entrepreneurs were divided into 2 groups where they could present their pitches in up to 10 minutes.

After having completed the ideation program, capacity building and group and one-to-one coaching, different ideas joined the event. From a small hydroponic system to a cultivation and production of strawberries project. Organic fertilizers, sustainable poultry farms, an app to reduce energy and water consumption in current buildings or interior stones for decoration using recycled materials are some of the ideas that pitched their ideas.

The result of the competition is still to be announced. In this final part of the competition, 4 finalists will receive sub-grants of 7,5000€ each, along with other networking opportunities. The evaluation process will have into account the start-ups Green Business Models, their social and environmental impact, their capacity to access to markets and scalability and, last but not least, their pitch effectiveness and commitment.

Meet the Jury Members and board of experts:

In total there were 2 separate Evaluation Committees, consisting of 3 regional members. The first set of members was leaded by Leaders International, with participation of their two local branch offices: Ramallah and Amman. From Ramallah Office, there were the participation of Rand Abdalkader (1^st Committee), Rani Ghusain (1^st Committee) and Aseel Said (2^nd Committee)

On the Amman’s Office side, Mahmoud Khamis (2^nd Committee) joined the Jury Members Board. Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, with more than 5 years of experience in innovation and entrepreneurship, he works as a SMEs Analyst and he is involved in the se-fundedlection process of eligible start-ups for support from different flagship and EU projects.

The second set of regional members came from Lebanon and was leaded by Jessica Ghaoui (2^nd Committee), wo has been working in Berytech sine 2015 supporting SMEs and start-ups. For the past two years she has been managing the Impact Rise Program funded by MEPI to support social start-ups un scaling their businesses. Nowadays, she is working across different EU-projects in supporting ideation-stage and early-stage start-ups in their growth journey.

Finally, the third regional set of members was leaded by Alexandria Business Association, the Egyptian partner from GIMED, with the participation of Yasmin Osman.