The Venture Lab at The American University in Cairo (AUC) was recognized as the Best Accelerator in Africa at the inaugural Global Startup Awards (GSA) Africa summit, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa in June. The award places AUC and Egypt as the home of the continent’s best accelerator.
During the summit, GSA announced the continent’s top 12 digital future shapers, including startups and ecosystem enablers. An international startup ecosystem competition based in Copenhagen, powered by the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG) Africa Fund and supported by The Loudhailer, GSA is present in 124 countries and aims to connect different stakeholders to facilitate innovation. AUC V-Lab had previously taken the same title at the North Africa Startup Awards in December, ranking it among the top 60 African digital future shapers.
AUC Venture Lab Founding Director and Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the AUC School of Business Ayman Ismail said “We are very grateful for this recognition as Africa’s top accelerator. We know that entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey for many, so at AUC Venture Lab, we are committed to empowering entrepreneurs with the knowledge, community, network and funding that they need so they can really focus on building stronger startups for a more prosperous Africa.”
At GSA, 7,600 startups and ecosystem players were competing from 54 African countries in 12 categories. The selection process lasted for five months, throughout which a cohort of 215 independent, industry expert jury members judged the nominees to identify 60 regional finalists and 12 continental winners.
