Introduction

On Women’s Day 2021, Vodafone Egypt wanted to take the celebration to a new level. In their efforts to empower women, they approached Untap with a brief about a female-led ideathon that would help Egyptian women bring their sustainable and scalable business ideas to life. The primary purpose of the ideathon was to empower women, fund female-led ideas, and advocate for gender equity. 

“FEKRETEK” was the name given to the program that invited Egyptian women to submit their ideas for evaluation, and three winners would be supported financially by Vodafone to fund their project. Using Untap, Vodafone launched Egypt’s Women empowerment platform, FEKRETEK, on March 8th.

The Program

Eligible applicants had to be female with digital transformative ideas that fell under at least one of these ten selected UN Sustainable Development Goals: no poverty, quality education, gender equality, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequality, sustainable cities and communities, climate action, responsible consumption and production, and industry, innovation, and infrastructure.

Untap powered the program with its competition management platform, where submissions were received and judged. It is also where communication with all participants and judges was seamlessly made. The team in Untap built the landing page and created its content. Video submissions were received and evaluated on Untap platform. Each applicant submitted a 2-3 minute video explaining her initiative. The initial screening was done by Untap’s team, filtering high-quality ideas for the judging process, the judges then shortlisted the applicants, and a public vote determined the final winners. 

Outcomes 

  • 177 Applicants
  • 21 Qualified for the judging phase 
  • 5 Shortlisted by judges
  • 3 Winners by public vote

Winners Spotlight

The first place was for Menna Ayad. She won 250K EGP for her FOSHA mobile app for tourists’ trips and activities in Egypt.

The second place was for Lara and Nour. They won 150k EGP for “WARSHETEK”; an e-commerce platform that empowers women to learn new skills and market them.

Finally, the third place was for Nesma Youssef. She won 50K EGP for “HIMMA”; an educational platform for children dealing with disabilities. 

In addition to the financial awards, Vodafone and its partners, UN Women and The National Council for Women,  supported the growth of these women’s businesses by providing them with training on essential topics like entrepreneurship, marketing, and finance. 

Do you need to launch your own ideathon or idea competition and don’t know where to start? We would love to help you out! Schedule your free consultation session and let’s talk about your next program.