arabianbusiness.com 47which is why we have a good
return on investment (ROI)
for our business.Where do you see Keno
in the next five years?
I expect it to become the
largest auto wash company
in the UAE in a year. We now
receive over 100 orders a day,
and our target for next year is
500-600 orders per day.What advice do you have
for fellow entrepreneurs?
You don’t have to be a tech
expert to launch an app, but if
you’re not, it is essential that
you find a partner who is.
You have to bear in mind that
entrepreneurship involves
high risk. So while I do follow
my intuition, I also think twice
before making a decision.
In terms of challenges, an
entrepreneur is likely to come
across many issues and the
way ahead is seldom clear.
The trick is to keep moving.
There is a lot of stimulating
chit-chat in this domain and
many entrepreneurs claim to
have all the answers, but no
one has all the answers.
You can listen to as many
entrepreneurial stories as
you’d like, but the ones
that will really help you
are stories of failures, not
successes. Focus on these
examples, study them and
find out why they failed.
Finally, my advice is,
don’t ever get emotionally
attached to an idea before
you’ve done your research.MENA region’s SMEs that
are located in the GCCA team of entrepreneurs
has launched
StartUpSchool.me to
support the local start-up
ecosystem and offer
access to expertise,
capital and mentorship.
The team includes
fashion designer Sara
Al Madani, co-founder of
SellAnyHome.com Omar
Chihane, and CEO of Paz
Marketing Zeina Akkawi.FREE START-UP
SCHOOL INCUBATOR
LAUNCHES IN DUBAIEXPERT INSIGHTLa Reina, an online fashion rental
platform in Egypt, has raised
$1m from Algebra Ventures and
500 Startups in a Series A
funding round led by the
country’s largest venture capital
fund Algebra Ventures, as well as
global VC fund 500 Startups.
The concept is the fi rst for rental
designer clothes and
accessories in Egypt, promoting
sharing rather than owning.
Founded in 2016 by Ghada El
Tanawy and Amr Diab, it allows
women to rent their eveningand bridal gowns and
accessories to each other,
resulting in an expanding
collection every month. To date,
it has garnered over EGP3.5m
(AED728,000) for dress
owners. The company will use
the fund to expand its team.34%
tracking device WakeCap,
which provides real-time
and cloud-based visibility to
construction workers in order
to improve their construction
safety and productivity. It
claims to be the fi rst wearable
product to digitise the
industrial sector workforce,
enabling companies to connect
and track material, equipment
and employees.2 Intuito: The artifi cial
intelligence-based startup,
which came in second place,
specialises in solving global andlocal mobility challenges, and will
soon test out its products in the
market. Founder and CEO Walied
Albasheer said the competition
was an ideal platform to receive
valuable feedback from investors
and mentors.3 TeleDoc: In third place
came telemedicine and patient-
centric platform TeleDoc,
which also relies on artifi cial
intelligence. It offers patients
online access to doctors
anytime, anywhere, eliminating
barriers such as distance,
mobility and wait times.Dubai Chamber has announced
the winners of its third Dubai
Smartpreneur Competition at
the ArabNet Digital Summit- We look into the concepts
of the top three winners, who
received AED150,000 in cash
prizes as well as access to
training and support.
1 WakeCap Tech: The fi rst
prize went to safety andThree emerging
smartpreneurs
to look out forLa Reina raises
$1m in funding
Renting platform has
earned over EGP3.5m
(AED728,000) for dress
owners across EgyptSTART-UP SPOTLIGHT SHORTSu Buy, wear, rent out for yearsq YOU CAN LISTEN TO AS
MANY ENTREPRENEURIAL
STORIES AS YOU’D LIKE,
BUT THE ONES
THAT WILL REALLY HELP
YOU ARE THOSE OF
FAILURE NOT SUCCESS”u WakeCap Tech u Walied Albasheer of Intuito u TeleDoc