The third edition of the C3 Social Impact Accelerator Program – powered by HSBC, concluded on Thursday July 1, with the three winners announced by Stephen Moss, Regional CEO of HSBC Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
Egypt’s Baramoda came first, with the UAE’s The Zola Collective in second, and EduPloyment in third – also from the UAE.
The three winners have received equity-free cash prizes courtesy of HSBC, pro bono consulting support from Bain & Co, and pro bono legal support from Al Tamimi & Company, in addition to a complimentary license to the DMCC. C3’s corporate partners have also supported the entrepreneurs tremendously throughout the Board Meeting Simulations and participated in the selection of the finalists as part of the judging panel.
The winners will also benefit from Amazon Web Services (AWS) promotional credits as part of the AWS Activate program, and receive support from FH Insights – a corporate training company that will help them align their company values with their mission.
This year the program attracted more than one thousand applications, with 42 entrepreneurs from eight countries across the MENAT region – covering 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – shortlisted to join the semi-finalist training sessions.
The shortlist was then cut to 24 finalists, of whom 45% are women founders, to continue their journey and participate in board meeting simulations and the final pitch competition.
The new interactive format of the online program, developed by C3 in partnership with data analytics experts and learning technology providers, allowed the entrepreneurs to maximize their learning outcomes and effectively implement all the learnings acquired over the course of the three-month program.
The program underlined the remarkable cooperation between different ecosystem players in their mission to support C3 entrepreneurs.
All the C3 entrepreneurs will continue to receive support from C3 and different partners and experts as part of the efforts towards building a collaborative ecosystem.
