December 26, 2017
Where Are They Now? Catching up with LebNet Ignite Alumni
An integral part of the Mentoring Program at LebNet is fostering long-term relationships between our Mentors and Startups. Our Mentors are more than Coaches- they are partners that remain a source of guidance and support for our Member Startups to optimize their chances of success.
We caught up with some our LebNet Ignite Alumni startups to check in on how their business has evolved since participating in this LebNet acceleration program in Silicon Valley.
- Switched from a commercial standard product to customizing solutions in agri-tech
- RIEGO as a company stopped and it is now under FREE energy SAL (employees 12)
- New site www.free-lb.me
- Acquired in May 2017
- Closed beta testing in product development
- Platform is ready and has been tested with two major players:in MENA and in Europe (Holland).
- Looking at translating the pilot with the Dutch company into a commercial relationship.
- Cherpa team won the Best youth Startup out of 200 selected startups worldwide at GITEX 2017 and received $15,000 as a prize.
- New addition to the team: Frontend developer
- Released Phase 1 of the platform (Targeting 200 Makers and experts)
- Started building an ambassador program with 6 ambassadors so far in the following countries: Spain, Portugal, Germany, Netherland, USA and Kuwait.
- Organized a robotics competition on 9 December in collaboration with RHU (Rafic Harriri University) whereby 20 teams from 15 different schools participated.
- Partners at GGIT event that took place in Tyre- Lebanon where gave a workshop and organized a competition on building a robot controller.
- Cherpa representative attended Web Summit in Lisbon
- “From Beirut to the world” published on Facebook to document Cherpa’s development journey available on the Cherpa Facebook page give the link
- Secured a fresh 1M USD investment from our initial backers at MEVP Closed a new deal with Lebanese bank (Credit Libanais) for Neumann Business Intelligence and Analytics platform as well as for Neuman’s advanced Marketing Module.
- Soon will be releasing fully integrated Social Media capabilities by which clients will be able to laser target their consumers in a bespoke social media mode.
- The team has been approached by strategic partners in the region (from Paris, Turkey, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) with the aim to join forces and serve their clients base with their solutions.
- Hired new CEO
- In regular contact with LebNet mentors Fadi Mahmoud and Raed Elmurib from the bay area. They are advising on the growth strategy and following up on progress
- New release is finally out, after QA and beta testing: with following new features:
- Long + short automated trading strategies.
- Machine learning code accelerated, added new portfolio performance metrics.
- Automated trading with 6 brokers is implemented.
- NAR was ranked #11 by Forbes Middle East in their “50 Startups To Watch In The Arab World”.
- NAR was named by the World Economic Forum & The International Finance Corporation as one of the 100 Arab startups shaping the 4th industrial revolution.
- Landed a number of clients in Canada and the US who are continuously using their software, Raven AI, to detect and log pipeline anomalies as well as generate inspection reports. Raven AI has successfully reduced our clients’ inspection time by more than 30%, while reducing their costs and increasing their accuracy.
- Raised seed round from Leap Ventures.
- Will be expanding sales in North America in the pipeline industry and will be looking at exploring other applications as well (wind turbine, solar panel, flare stacks, powerline inspections, etc.) that involve drone inspections.
- Product: Upgrades based on users feedback to include new features, going mobile, and most importantly integrating with other complementary web-apps (accounting, project management, collaboration…).
- Marketing: Team has a clearer idea customer demographics and behavior. Based on that, strategy is to start investing in a paid marketing strategy including content, email, and paid advertising to optimize acquisition strategy.
- Successfully raised seed funding from Phoenician Funds
- New product platform launched
- Added 30+ partners and increasing daily registered users
- Voted one of the Best Marketing Platforms on the market on g2crowd