By: Ahmad Ouf
Scientific Research Academy’s ‘Intilac’ initiative is important support to the technological start-ups
‘Qabess’ hopes for more integration between the State institutions to achieve the maximum benefit from the support
A group of Egyptian youth, who studied Engineering and believed in their own dream, embarked on building their start-up company for producing a smart plug-in, which reduces the wasting power of the appliances through interacting with the consumer and his types of his usage, In addition to providing more safety to the appliances from high voltage stream. They drew a primary road to who is eager to follow the same path. ‘MEO’ interviewed those youth.
What is the concept of a start-up from your point of view?
‘Start-up Company’ means it follows a new and different business model which has never been adopted in the market, starting from examining the problem, followed by reaching a proposal, and finally developing a product to solve this problem. In this context, the likelihood of refusing this product is higher than the others in the market, which means these start-up projects bear higher risks. Statistics referred that 80% of the products of start-up companies are rejected to enter the market. Thus, these projects need Technology Business Incubators within their first stages, which provides technical support for the problems ; it also provides the needed knowledge about the market and the financial support ,in order to help in forming and developing the first version of the product and testing it.
We are working now under a programme ‘Intilac”s Incubator and the National Program of Technological Incubators, affiliated to ‘Bedaya’ centre.
It’s a joint incubator between the Scientific Research Academy and the General Authority for Investment.
What was behind your eagerness to invent and develop a product that solves a certain problem?
The electricity problem, which is divided into two parts: First, the wasted power which costs consumers a lot of money without a benefit. Second, the power imbalance as it may damage the appliances, if high voltage stream took place. Hence, the idea emerged to crystalize and develop a product for solving the two problems.
Tell us about ‘Qabess’?
Qabess is a smart plug-in, connected with a power supply, and then, the used appliance is connected with it. Qabess knows the customer’s consumption and his usage; it knows the appliance’s runtimes and run with the customer, through Internet or Wi-Fi, either by E-Mail or Mobile application. Thus, Qabess is a product of Internet of Things (IOT)
The user sets Qabess to shut the power off in times which he does not use the appliance. According to statistics, appliances consume 10% of the total use of power by the user when they are set on standby mood.
Qabess monitors the type of usage; it informs the user when any change occurs in the type of usage, asking if the new pattern to be followed or not. In addition, it shuts the power off if there is a high voltage stream, to protect the appliance. Qabess’s consumption of power is small in comparison to the wasted power saved by it. The technical team advice to connect Qabess with home electricity than the power battery because the battery is not an environmentally clean source of power
Can you tell us about the various steps of Qabess project and which organisations helped you to implement the idea?
First: The idea of ‘Qabess’ started in Maker Hackathon competition in 2015 and obtained 3rd rank. After, the project was incubated for four months by a programme ‘accelerator’ in ‘Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center’ (TIEC), affiliated to the Ministry of Telecommunication, which supported our knowledge of market’s concepts.
Second: The idea is incubated by the business incubator ‘EBNI’, affiliated to a non-governmental organisation ‘Eitesal’ for one year, ending in Mid-2016. EBNI offered a financial support, seed fund, amounting to EGP 65,000. The team created a prototype of the product which has performed the main functions.
Third: we applied for a programme ,’Intilac’, and the project was incubated mid-2016. ‘Intilac’ offers a financial support of EGP 120,000 in addition to other forms of support including, providing the place and rewards for the team members which reached about EGP 34,000. ‘Intilac’ incubator supported the product till it reached a minimum viable product stage, in which the product becomes usable by the customers and ready for trial. Now, the project undergoes the trial stage by many users. 6 units of the product are currently under the trial which will increase to additional 25 units under the test; some of them will be tested outside Egypt. As a primary step to enter the market, we displayed a request demo form on our website Qabess.com, so the customer can test the unit for a one month duration, and can purchase it at the end of this month or return it back to the company.
How members form Qabess team?
The team is composed of six members: Eng. Mohammed Rushdy, Eng. Mohammed Ryad, Eng. Medhat Nahed, Eng. Abd Al Rahman Ali, Eng. Mustafa Ahmed hassanein, Eng. Ahmed Sayed . The average age is 27 yearsold, and all of them are specialized in Telecommunications.
Did your product received a patent?
The company took steps to get a patent from the USA, which is the third biggest market after Asia and Europe. The US market acquires 30% of the total market of IOT products. It is actually a distinguished market targeted by most start-ups which offer technological products because of its big size, the unity of its laws, and the resemblance of its customers’ habits, unlike the Asian and European market. However, this step is suspended at present.
What is the legal form of your start-up?
We have to be a company in order to deal with business incubators. In this context, ‘EBNI’ incubator helped us to establish a company and register it in September 2015, as a limited liability company. Our funds are the source of financing, in addition to the support offered by the incubators and the sums coming from the competitions’ awards as the company got awarded in ‘Young Innovators Awards’ affiliated to ‘Nahdet El Mahrousa’ Foundation.
What are the chances and challenges which faced you as a start up?
The positive side is that the technological incubators combined various technological start-ups in one place, which contributed in exchanging expertise and adding more positive power. In addition to, ‘Intilac’ which is an unprecedented initiative that provides support and back-up for many start-up projects.
One of the obstacles which faced us is the need for more cooperation from the side of governmental institutions. For example, Customs Authority imposes tariffs on the imported items more than the price of the items itself. Furthermore, Investment Authority collects fees for company registration although it is supposed to be a supporting entity.
Moreover, information available for the producers and start-ups ,about the market is not sufficient. In addition to this, Egypt has not a paved road for start-ups; we actaully reached all of our steps by our own effort! Also, the governmental bodies have not enough knowledge about technology, which resulted in preventing some hardware from entering the country!. There is no doubt that, start-ups need to operate in a supportive business environment.
What is your advice for young entrepreneurs?
The success of any start-up stands on hard work and consistency, regardless of obstacles. The team has to work hard. As a first step, we recommend to entrepreneurs to go to the ‘TIEC’ centre and technological incubators. It’s important to select the team members and divide the work tasks evenly. Some might work in the technical side and the others might work in the fields of production, financing, and marketing.
