COSIMENA supported the participation of two speakers from Germany: The first one, Frieder J. Damm from the Federal Association of German Start-Ups, gave a lecture on Friday 11th about “A Generation of Startups in Germany”. Frieder Damm studied philosophy and economics at University of Bayreuth and Saint Joseph University Beirut and since 2014 he is active as founder in the FoodTech in Berlin. He is actively engaged in promoting a founder-friendly environment in Germany, fostering networks for knowledge transfer and lobbying for a legal and economic framework that’s conductive to innovation. Drawing from his insights as chairman of the BVDS Food and FoodTech Expert Group, as mentor in the Katana EU Accelerator and the Metro Techstars Accelerator, he could illustrate decisive locational factors for attracting start-ups that are relevant to El Gouna in specific and urban regions in general.

Right after him, Natalia Realpe Carrillo took the floor with a lecture on “Green Financing: from incubation to upscaling”. She received her diploma as an industrial engineer from Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia and completed her master’s in industrial and network economics at Technische Universität Berlin, where she also finalised her PhD on energy engineering. Realpe is Senior Consultant and Project Manager at MicroEnergy International and lecturer of energy entrepreneurship in developing countries for the Masters’ Programme in Business Engineering Energy of TU Berlin Campus El Gouna. She has experience in project management in green finance – from incubation up to upscaling in Latin America, Africa and Central Asia and is passionate about data science, systematisation and digitalisation.

About 300 participants from all over the world took part in the four-day event. It was kicked off with a Hackathon targeting developers, designers, data lovers and startups who competed for the most innovative solution and had a chance to pitch to potential investors. Afterwards, there was a Global Exposure track in which global and regional speakers held inspirational talks and debates. Throughout the summit, there has been the Startups Tech Expo where the world’s most daring startups and tech companies showcased innovations and prototypes. The expo was not only geared towards raising investors’ awareness in the emerging market’s talents, but also allowing for networking and collaboration.