Newly Created Incubator Venture Lab Runs its First Competition for Entrepreneurs, Deadline in 3 Days

The Venture Lab Challenge, VL Challenge for short, is a startup competition launched by the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program (EIP) at AUC School of Business, in cooperation with Intel. Prized include 100 000 EGP in seed funding and fast tracking winners to Intel’s MENA challenge 2013, and, as a top prize, incubation at the AUC Venture Lab, newly created business incubator at the heart of the AUC New Cairo campus. The deadline to apply is May 18^th, so you’ve got 3 days left to submit.

During the competition, entrepreneurs will complete their prototype, receive mentoring from faculty and experienced entrepreneurs, compete for prizes, and acquire the needed exposure to launch successful businesses. At the end of the competition, teams will have an opportunity to pitch and present their products to potential investors and key industry experts.

Eureeca: Global Crowdinvesting Platform Launches Today, Focuses on Growth and Small & Medium Businesses

Eureeca, a global crowdinvesting platform for growth companies and small & medium businesses, launched today with funding proposals from a number of regional businesses live on its website.

Founded by experienced entrepreneurs and former investment bankers, Chris Thomas and Sam Quawasmi, the service operates as a marketplace for both businesses looking for funding and crowdinvestors seeking new investment prospects.

The platform is aimed at both regular folks as well as professional investors Cofounder Chris Thomas explains. It “empowers a larger number of people to invest in and facilitate the growth of promising businesses they believe in.”

Yala Music Launches Free Direct-to-Fan Platform for Artists

Yala Music, the company behind the 1st streaming and download Arabic music service Yala, just announced the launch of “Yala Backstage”, a free direct-to-fan platform, designed to build, manage and monetize artists’ online presence on a revenue sharing basis.

The services, which are free of charge, are mostly aimed at independent artists. Features include managing the artists’ online presence on YouTube, Yala, Facebook and Twitter as well as via their mobile applications, hyping their latest releases and monetizing their content. Artists can also create and personalize their profiles on their own.

SW North Lebanon Winning Team Showcases Innovative Approach to Antenna Technology

Startup Weekend North Lebanon took place from the 26th through to the 28th of April in Tripoli. The event was a rather distinct Startup Weekend with a considerable number of the participants’ projects revolving around hardware. The winning team, headed by Hassan Haddad, a Computer and Communications Engineering graduate, presented an innovative approach to antenna technology which they call Ring-Shaped Slotted Waveguide Antenna or RSSWA for short.