Touch, the leading mobile telecommunications and data operator in Lebanon, managed by Zain Group, the pioneering mobile and data services operator in the Middle East and Africa, announces that a team from Lebanon has won the Social Entrepreneurship Award at the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab competition for best start-up innovative and creative business ideas in the Arab world.
Ranking first in the Social Entrepreneurship track, along with two other teams, the Lebanese team’s project, Visualizing Impact, is a citizen data journalism laboratory that deploys data science, design and technology for social justice.
Commenting on Zain’s involvement and the success of the MIT Enterprise Forum competition, Scott Gegenheimer, Zain Group CEO said, “I congratulate the organizers of both the MIT Enterprise Forum and MIT Arab Alumini Association for holding such a quality event in Kuwait. I also congratulate all the semi-finalists and winners for showing how progressive and dynamic their startup ideas are. Much of the region’s future development will be driven by young innovative people in technology, so Zain is especially proud to be fostering the growth of this competition. I’m confident that many of these teams will succeed in translating their ideas into successful projects.”
On his part, Vice Chairman and General Manager of touch, Wassim Mansour said, “We are proud of the achievement of the Lebanese team to whom we pledge our full support in turning their idea into a profitable business. This, of course, is a natural next step that we are taking in the context of our strategy that entails support of the local community, specifically the youth in their works and achieving their full potential.”
The competition winners’ ceremony was held in Kuwait. The 9 winning teams, out of 75 participating ones hailing from 15 Arab countries, are from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Morocco.
