About GEN in Lebanon

Beirut

GEN began activities in Lebanon in 2008 when it launched Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). Lebanon has conducted the annual campaign continually despite the challenging environment with a rotating cast of local partners stepping forward to coordinate and host activities each year.

For example, in 2012, with the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan Arab Region in the lead, the GEW campaign brought together more than 45 partners – including accelerators, incubators, entrepreneurship support organizations, secondary schools, universities, venture capital firms, and media partners – for more than 50 main activities throughout the month of November. The campaign reached more than 14,000 people directly through events, conferences, workshops, and boot camps, with another 35,000 engaged through social media. Political and economic leaders participated, including Nicolas Sehnaoui, Minister of Telecommunications; Nicolas Nahas, Minister of Economy and Trade; Saad Andari, Vice Governor of the Central Bank; and Bilal Hamad, the Mayor of Beirut. Speakers included Charles Elachi, then Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech.

In 2014, under the theme “Get Inspired,” 56 partner organizations – including the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon, six universities, co-working spaces, and crowd-funding and crowd-investing platforms – organized more than 40 events. The flagship opening, Networking 961, drew more than 400 founders, investors, and other ecosystem leaders to celebrate Lebanese entrepreneurs and encourage the next generation. In 2017, Entreprenergy, led by Andre Abi Awad, led the campaign and centered activities around a “GEW Village” inside Beirut’s Digital District where partners staged events, networking sessions and after-hours programs throughout the week. 

More recently, GEW Lebanon continued with Park Innovation in the Chouf region leading a campaign in beginning in 2022.  The Amideast Entrepreneur Institute integrated GEW programming into its training of aspiring Lebanese founders. Each year, GEW includes more than 40 activities during the week.

Lebanese startups have engaged with GEN’s global programs including GEN-run global pitch competitions. Buildink, a Beirut-based construction-tech startup that 3D prints concrete to deliver homes in less than a week, reached the Top 100 of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) in 2019. Its founder, Moalla El Ilani, participated in the global finals. In 2022, C Green – a startup that converts sludge waste into affordable, locally produced organic fertilizer – won Lebanon’s national finals. The EWC provides founders with free training and mentorship, and a global investor audience. C-Green’s founders, Dany Romanos, Georges Jalkh, Rosabelle Chedid, and Claude Abou Kheir participated in the global Bootcamp. Both Buildink and C Green are members of the GEN Starters Club, a global community of high-potential founders.

With the success of GEW, GEN launched its year round ecosystem building program, Startup Huddle, in Beirut. Organized by Andre Abi Awad, Huddle has provided local founders with peer-driven, mentor-supported monthly meetups designed to help them develop strategy, sustainability, and scalability. The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) is an anchor academic partner for GEN in the country, hosting GEW programming and EWC national finals through its Asher Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

GEN maintains relationships with other key Lebanese ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon, and the Beirut Digital District. On the investor side, IM Capital of Lebanon is an active member of GEN’s Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), regularly sharing the lessons of attracting and securing funding for Lebanese startups. GEN’s research finds that Lebanon is among the countries where, despite headwinds, cross-border angel collaboration is helping nascent startup ecosystems regain momentum.

GEN’s mission in Lebanon is to strengthen the connections, knowledge, and capital flows that allow Lebanese founders to scale into global markets. By linking them to international investors, peer founders, and policy networks through GEN’s global platform, GEN is supporting the local champions who keep the country’s entrepreneurial community moving forward.