Cairo’s GrEEK Campus Underscores Egypt’s Tech Revolution

By Leila Elmergawi

The Wall Street Journal - February 18, 2014

A block away from Cairo’s Tahrir Square where a political revolution took place a couple of years ago, a digital transformation is underway at Egypt’s first tech park, the GrEEK Campus.
“The idea started with a conversation”, said Ahmed El-Alfi, chairman of Sawari Ventures and founder of the project. One of the Sawari portfolio companies, located across the street from another chip design company, told Mr. El-Alfi about the conversations that they were having together that sparked ideas for collaboration. The next day Mr. El-Alfi started looking into putting more companies next to each other, “because the heart of technology is cool conversations.”
The project was launched last November by hosting the Egypt Rise-Up Summit where tens of startups and hundreds of entrepreneurs came to present their work and learn from each other.
While the event took place on the GrEEK campus, entrepreneurship is not all “Greek” to Egyptians. Talaat Harb, the late Egyptian financial business magnate, set an example in starting the first Egyptian Bank and Insurance Company in 1920.

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