Ruwwad Al Iraq Awards Ceremony & Iftar (2018/2019)

Today, Ruwwad Al Iraq Awards Ceremony and Iftar was held at Babylon Rotana Hotel – Baghdad in the presence of organizers of the platform: INNOVEST Middle East, the World Bank, and the Iraqi Media Network (IMN) as well as the Founding Partners: Central Bank of Iraq, Zain Iraq, and Iraq Private Banks League. The attendees of the Ceremony also included Dr. Mahdi Al-Alaq, Counsellor of Prime Minister and Dr Ali Al-Alaq, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, as well as VIPs and representatives of other supporting companies. The event was organized to honor the finalists of Ruwwad Al Iraq Competition and to let them compete on the 1st, 2nd & 3rd ranks in each category; “Socialpreneur”, “Idea Stage” and “Scale-up Stage” by presenting their startups to a judging panel formed of 5 judges; Ms. Yarah Salem - World Bank Country Manager in Iraq, Ms. Dawsar Al Charchafchi – March Holding Board Member, Mr. Nour el Handhal Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ashur Bank, Mr. Waled Eidy – Senior Advisor to the Central Bank of Iraq and, Mr. Ali Al Zahid – CEO of Zain Iraq. The jury followed a set of criteria on which participants were evaluated. These criteria were shared in advance on social networking sites, which circulated around finance, competition, team, market need, timing…Etc. It is important to note that Ruwwad Al Iraq Platform was launched last year on September 13th, 2018 and it was the first initiative of its kind that aims at helping young entrepreneurs and start-up owners across Iraq to achieve their goals and develop their own projects by offering them in-kind support and cash worth more than 100,000 USD that could turn their dreams into reality. Since the launch of Ruwwad Al Iraq platform, more than 3000 applicants registered their ideas/projects on platform’s website. The number was reduced later as the competition proceeded to 200 qualifiers in round 2, and then 30 qualifiers in round 3 (10 participants from each category), till reaching 9 winners (3 participants from each category) in the final round who competed on the 1st, 2nd & 3rd ranks during the Awards Ceremony. On span of 9 months, the platform attracted more than 100,000 followers on social media, and more than 11,000 contacts through university activations. Moreover, the platform offered 4,400 e-learning courses to its qualifiers and issued more than 2,200 e-certificated. At the end of the Ceremony, winners were announced to receive their prizes and awards on stage as follows: Winners of “Socialpreneur” Category: 1st Place Smart Container for Alhasan Yaser AbdulRazzaq $10,000USD 2nd Place Asdikaee Magazine for Fawaz Al-Saffar $5,000USD 3rd Place Ikfal Nakhla for Labib Kashif Al-Getta $2,500USD A brief about each project: • Smart Container is a new concept that connects technology and environment in Iraq to reduce pollution and effort through a smart system on electronic devices that allows monitoring the status of the Smart containers deployed in different regions in Iraq by receiving alerts sent by the container when full to discharge, recycle and then landfill. • Asdikaee is a Comics Magazine that uses Iraqi characters in an attractive and influential way to be close to Iraqi children and to influence them so they can apply the ideas they learn in their daily life. Each issue contains different subjects in culture, knowledge, creativity and skills. Asdikaee Magazine’s aims at creating a cultural product for Iraqi kids in various media, read, audio and video. • Ikfil Nakhla is an Entrepreneurial project that aims at making Iraq greener and richer with palm trees and to fill the need of Iraqi market with dates instead of importing them. Ikfil Nakhla’s goal is to return Iraq to the state where it was number one producer of dates around the globe and now it is the first project in Iraq to provide integrated palm care services from pruning to harvesting, as well as periodic inspection, disease detection and treatment using modern integrated methods. Winners of “Idea Stage” Category: 1st Place Garages App for Mohammed AbdulElah $10,000USD 2nd Place Plant Tissue Culture for Layth Hamdi Al-Talib $5,000USD 3rd Place E-Capsule for Mohammed Hilal Alshikly $2,500USD A brief about each project: • Garages App is designed to facilitate the process of finding a parking at a lower cost as it works to collect available parking lots around Baghdad and hopefully Iraq in the future. The application offers the availability of parking spaces dealing with the application to the user in a simple search mode, through which all the parking lots close to the vehicle are shared within the application in addition to the services provided by each park at a lower cost. • Plant Tissue Culture aims at producing seedlings of vegetables and plants by the technique of textile agriculture, which is one of the modern technologies of agricultural production that produces a large amount of agricultural products within a short period of time with high quality specifications and free from any illness because it takes place in sterile conditions. Thus, it will fill the need of the local market rather than importing. • E-Capsule is an Electronic platform (web and mobile application) used by professionals in the medical sector (pharmacists, doctors...Etc.) in which the purchase of drugs happens electronically before running out of stock. Furthermore, the medical professional can buy drugs at the lowest price found on the application compared to other distributers. An integrated sales program would also be offered. The main benefit of this application is reflected in the ability to sell large quantities of drugs through funded advertisements sent as immediate notifications to the pharmacists in the areas specified by owners of the drug stores. Winners of “Scale-Up Stage” Category: 1st Place Alsaree3 for Ahmed Sobhi $20,000USD 2nd Place 6262 for Mohammed Maher Hassan $10,000USD 3rd Place Dakakenna for Yousif Al Neamy $5,000USD A brief about each project: • AlSaree3 is an online application operating 24/7 in Baghdad that facilitates the process of ordering and delivering food to customers from the most important, famous and diverse restaurants. Alsaree3’s current goal is to expand to other provinces and keep developing using technology to become the fastest at delivering food in Iraq. • 6262 is a service that provides phone numbers and addresses of all commercial establishments, health institutions... Etc. All that by dialing 6262 “Iraqi guide service” that possesses an exclusive database collected within 2 years by a team consisting of more than 177 Iraqi. Also, 6262 links between global and local markets where it facilitates the connection between foreign companies, factories, & traders and companies within Iraq. • Dakakenna is an E-Commerce platform that enables consumers to buy products from authorized suppliers in a convenient and fast way. It is the first tech-startup operating in Mosul since August 2018. Dakakenna deals with main suppliers to ensure best prices, fast shipping and reliable insurance (warranty) on sold products. Through its platform, Dakakenna is selling over 5 thousand items and has secured more than 15 thousand items to be listed on its application in the upcoming few months. As a generous encouraging gest, Governor of the Central Bank “Dr. Ali Al-Alaq” surprised the participants with an additional support award worth 6 million IQD offered to each of the 9 winners. For more information contact info@ruwwadaliraq.com