Startup Weekend is a proof of growing startup culture in Kuwait
KUWAIT – Third Startup Weekend Kuwait took its place from September 17 to 19 in Al Tijaria Tower. The event was very important to all people who are into startups and coding. It was organized by startup enthusiasts Salah Alrefai, Ahmad Marafi, Ana Tadic, Mijbel AlQattan, Hashim Bahbahani and Tariq Nimer. From almost 200 registered participants in only 3 weeks, 135 of them attended the event what can be considered as a great success.
During 54 hours of coding, designing, business model creation and market validation, teams had a chance to get help from technical and business mentors who were there at their disposal. There were a lot of great ideas, people were very dedicated to work and they took their part seriously. The youngest participant was Jaffer Al Saffar and he is only 10 years old, people were amazed by his way of presenting. Last day of Startup Weekend, teams did their final presentations in front of the judges Fabrice Ducasse, Bashar Al-Abdulhadi and Ahmad Salamah who evaluated all 22 ideas and announced the winners. First three teams won cash prizes (KD 1000, KD 650 and KD 400) plus other prizes by partners of the event.
MukanCom team (Mohammad AlBader, Shahd AlMnaies, Arwa Aljaser and Atef Abdulmajeed) won the first place with its online marketplace that links space providers with potential renters. It aims at satisfying the need of renting suitable spaces for short period on time at affordable rates for purposes such as working, meeting, studying, and conducting seminars and workshops.
Care & Compare (Fahad Al Munayes, Mohammed Alsarraf, Anwaar Al Mazeedi, Laila Albashaer Ben Essa, Nouf Nizar Al-Towaijri and Hadeel Salah Alenezi) took second place with an application that helps parents to review nurseries in Kuwait and compare between them to choose the best for their kids.
Rozter team (Muath Alrefai, Khaled Al Owathi and Abdulmuhsin Almayas) won the third place with its application that gives users the opportunity of exploring the world of sports with as little barriers as possible. It does this by providing a network that brings players within a selected radius together. Users can find activities nearby based on their preferences and join at their convenience.
All this wouldn’t be the same without great support of Alghanim Industries as Platinum sponsor, VIVA as Gold sponsor and Coded, Cubical Services, GDG Kuwait, Coffee Villains, Sirdab Lab and Catalyze as partners.
Follow Startup Weekend Kuwait on Instagram and Twitter and find out first when the next one will be held. And you can check out official hashtag #SWkuwait for more photos and posts from this year’s Startup Weekend.
See you next year!
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