Background

In April 2019, 6 International and 3 national universities participated in the first ICC which was held at AUC New Cairo Campus, with a total of 34 students, 8 mentors and 14 Judges to help find solutions to challenges facing SWVL; a revolutionary idea that was born from passion, loyalty, and persistence to face all challenges on the table. SWVL is an Egyptian Startup, the first Middle East $USD 1.5 billion ‘unicorn’ to list on Nasdaq US and the largest African unicorn debut on any U.S.-listed exchange.

However, providing the outbreak of COVID - 19, and in April 2020, the case competition was held online with 11 AUC student teams competing via Zoom on identifying challenges confronting a full-service digital agency, Robusta Studio; is a tech agency working with a diverse client base across different sectors & industries on implementing digital transformation programs.

ICC’s third run in March 2021 had a flavor from each of the last two case competitions; it was held virtually and targeted international students who wish to learn and find solutions to challenges facing rising startups in Egypt especially beyond the pandemic. ICC 21 had a total of 55 team submissions, comprising a number of 202 participants from 20 nationalities. The case of Schaduf was selected and developed in an academic framework to crack their approach and best practices to deal with the current challenges. Schaduf; one of the pioneers of sustainability in the Middle East since 2011. Schaduf believes in social responsibility towards emerging issues such as food security, food sovereignty, and the expansion of urban spaces at the expense of green spaces. They create more sustainable and eco-friendly urban cities. They specialize in diverse sections of services to make sure that they deliver the goal of sustainable urban cities, such as landscape design, urban farming, green walls, green roofs.

ICC’s forth run in March 2022, focused on Fintech, the case was about Paymob; a financial technology company based in Cairo, Egypt that builds infrastructures for the digital economy.
With a total of 105 team submissions, 367 participants, 29 nationalities, 22 countries, 32 Universities 18 of which are international, representing 40+ different majors. Paymob’s mission is to fuel SME growth by offering a payments gateway that delivers the most innovative digital payments methods to businesses of all sizes. Paymob omnichannel financial technology platform empowers merchants to accept online and offline payments, make payments, manage their finances, and grow their businesses all in one place. Paymob powers millions of transactions for some of the biggest names in our region like Swvl, Uber and Grubhub. Their product suite is delivered by their own in-house team of developers in partnership with leading banks and financial institutions.

Despite the different structures of the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 case competitions, all proved to be highly impactful and memorable to the students and the startups, mentors, judges, and the entire team.

Objective

• Help students from different majors organize their thinking around an integrative planning framework while sprinting out innovative and constructive solutions.
• Provide incentives for students to apply their best learning practices to a real business case in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially after the pandemic. 
• Help rising entrepreneurial ventures solve their challenges unconventionally, while supporting their journeys.
• Promote collaboration and teamwork. by learning to work effectively with diverse individuals, leveraging each team member's strengths to arrive at comprehensive solutions.
• Promote cultural exchange between the different teams and help to improve communication skills between the students. 
• Assist students with building an effective network with employers, moving their school–based knowledge to the labor mark.