Application Deadline: Tuesday February 6th

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Shorooq Partners VC Case Competition

In 2023, The American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Business Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) teamed up with Shorooq Partners to launch Egypt’s first-ever venture capital case competition, called the "Shorooq Partners Venture Capital Case Competition." It's a one-month competition where university students can act as venture capitalists in a simulation. They'll invest $100,000 in a real startup using actual data, assess the startup, do thorough research, evaluate investment possibilities, and create investment plans. The plans will be presented to a panel of judges from Shorooq Partners, other industry experts, and AUC professors.

If you're a junior or senior undergraduate student, you can apply with your team for the Shorooq Partners Venture Capital Case competition. The top teams have a chance to win a total of $4,000.

** The competition will be conducted in a hybrid format, which means that students can attend the sessions either physically on AUC New Cairo Campus or virtually via zoom.

Formulate Your Team

Teams must consist of 3-5 undergraduate students

Venture Capitals 101

Attend trainings and workshops to learn how VCs operate

Evaluate the startup and get a chance to win a monetary prize

Compete against 10 finalist student VC teams

Why join the competition?

The ultimate goal of this competition is to set a new generation of undergraduate students that are a good fit and to share the needed know-how to excel and jumpstart their career in the venture capital and entrepreneurship scene.

This will be done through focusing on the following pillars:

• Career Development:
In this competition, students gain hands-on experience in the venture capital industry through a real-life simulation case. The workshops given by Shorooq Partners experts will provide essential knowledge on industry dynamics and resource management (time, money, people).

• Community development:
This competition aims to raise awareness among youth about the role of VCs and their economic impact. It's a national competition providing opportunities for students of diverse backgrounds to practice data management by identifying gaps, formulating questions, gathering insights, and making informed decisions.

• Mentorship & Networking:
Students will enhance technical, critical, and personal skills and network with industry experts, faculty, and fellow students during the competition.

Founding Partners

Shorooq Partners
Founded in 2017, Shorooq Partners is the leading seed-stage venture capital firm investing in the most innovative startups across the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan (MENAP region). The firm built deep sectoral expertise in Fintech, Platforms, Software and Web3.0. Shorooq Partners has backed market leading disruptors, some of which include Pure Harvest Smart Farms, Sarwa, Lean Technologies, TruKKer, Retailo, Mozn and Penny. Since its inception, Shorooq Partners was built on the principle of being founders’ partners, company builders and value investors.
Shorooq Partners is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE and has offices across KSA, Bahrain, Egypt, and Pakistan.
Shorooq Partners refers to a group of companies that are affiliates of each other and which operate under this business name, of which Shorooq Partners Ltd (regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority FSRA Registration) is a member.

AUC Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
In 2015, the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) became a pioneer hub for all entrepreneurial stakeholders not only in Egypt but also for the entire MENA region. For the past 10 years, CEI focus was directed towards promoting entrepreneurial education, supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem, offering capacity-building opportunities and research. Over the course of time, entrepreneurship and innovation changed from being the contexts to being the concepts that help achieve core objectives like financial sustainability, employment, gender equality, ... etc. CEI is now a reputable brand in the ecosystem and a go-to reference for stakeholders, who seek to engage youth, women, startups, MSMEs and underserved communities.

Competition Timeline

February 10

Orientation and Workshop 1

February 13

Startup Pitch Deck

February 15

Initial Investment Portfolio Strategy Proposal Submission

February 20

Workshop 2 and Q&A Session

February 26

Memo Submission

March 4

Finalists Announcement and Feedback

March 7

Competition’s Day

Eligibility Criteria

• Participating teams must consist of 3-5 undergraduate students.
• Junior and Senior student members only will be considered.
• Having one finance student in the team would be considered as an asset.
• Participating teams must attend all competition’s training sessions either physically or virtually. If all members of a team didn’t attend one of the training sessions, they will be excluded from the competition.
• All team members must be from the following universities:
- All public or private Greater Cairo Universities
- Delta [Alexandria University or Mansoura University]
- Upper Egypt [Assiut University or Minia University]

Social Media Exposure

An intensive social media campaign will be run by Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Shorooq Partners and AUC students bodies: Business Association and Economics Association; as well as AUC School of Business official media channels. Those different channels cultivate a following of over 30,000 national and international students, faculty, and staff, as well as the entrepreneurial ecosystem locally and globally.

Prizes & Awards

All participating teams will receive a certificate of participation. Top performing individuals will get fast-tracked to an internship opportunity at Shorooq Partners.

Best Student VC teams get a chance to win cash prizes up to $4,000, classified as follows:
• 1st place winning team: $2000
• 2nd place winning team: $1500
• 3rd place winning team: $500

Past VC Case Competition 2023 - Pilot Phase

Shorooq Partners VC Case Competition launched as a first-year pilot in 2023 by targeting AUC multidisciplinary undergraduate junior and senior student teams only. For the first phase, CEI received 31 applications from 27 multidisciplinary teams and four individuals, accounting for 122 AUC students. The teams’ backgrounds were quite diverse with the majority from the School of Business (68 %) and School of Sciences and Engineering (29 %). Around 22 teams (90 students) were exposed to a real start-up pitch deck complemented by a capacity-building training session provided by experts from Shorooq Partners. Then, 16 teams (66 students) submitted their memos, which is the competition’s main deliverable. Only eight teams were qualified to the final stage of the competition and got the chance to present, negotiate and debate their findings, enhancing their critical and interpersonal skills. Over and above, attractive financial awards with a total of USD 4,000 for the top teams were announced during the closing of the competition.

Organizing Student Bodies

Business Association (BA)
The Business Association (BA) is an entity that aims to serve business students both academically and socially by keeping them connected with the business community and empowering their learning process.

Economics Association (EA)
The Economics Association is dedicated to cultivating a dynamic and inclusive student-led community that empowers students and propels them toward realizing their fullest potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a fee for participating in this competition?

There are NO participation fees. All phases of the competition are completely free, courtesy of our sponsor, Shorooq Partners.

Is it possible to have a team of 2 students?

No, teams should be between 3-5 undergraduate students.

Can I apply if I am not a junior or a senior student?

Yes, but only in the case that all other team members are juniors or seniors

Are postgraduate students eligible to participate?

No, the competition is only open for undergraduate students in their junior or senior year

I am receiving emails from a different email than your official email. Is it verified?

It is normal that you will get some emails from cei@untap.us. This email is in our technical support partner domain, and it is monitored by the CEI staff. We usually respond faster using cei@aucegypt.edu. Still, any email received in the Untap domain will be responded to.

Where should I submit my application?

The team leader should fill out the application on the Untap platform and submit it. You will receive a confirmation email with further instructions.

Are the technical and pitch deck sessions mandatory?

Yes, at least one team member has to attend all sessions. Otherwise, the team will be eliminated from the competition.

What do you mean by hybrid? And can I attend all sessions virtually?

Hybrid is a dual delivery format where sessions are conducted on ground and streamed live via zoom. Students can attend all the sessions online. The only exception is the Competition’s Day that will be conducted fully in person if your team is a finalist.