From Street Smarts to Startups: How Egypt’s Hottest Business Competition Is Changing Young Lives
What started as a local side event in a coastal Egyptian city has exploded into one of the country’s most powerful engines for youth entrepreneurship.
For the fourth straight year, the Rowad Domiat Business Competition is turning bright ideas into real businesses — and transforming the future of Egypt’s next generation of founders.
The fast-growing initiative is led by Perihan Tawfik, Senior Project Coordinator at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and ICSB Distinguished Fellow for 2025, through the ILO Cairo program “Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People in Damietta,” backed by global chemical giant Methanex Egypt.
And the results? They’re impossible to ignore.
From Small Start to National Sensation
Rowad Domiat launched in 2022 as a side contest at the Egypt Entrepreneurship Summit in Damietta, teaming up with ICSB and GEN Egypt.
By 2023, the buzz was so big the competition went solo — becoming a full-scale annual event focused on helping young Egyptians build real companies, not just dream about them.
Built on the ILO’s world-famous Start & Improve Your Business (SIYB) training model, the competition pushes participants to go beyond ideas and create ventures that can actually survive, scale, and thrive.
Soon it wasn’t just a contest.
It became a brand — complete with its own logo, mobile app, and website — known simply as Rowad Domiat.
Big Impact, Real Money
In just three years, from 2022 to 2024, the program handed out 25 major awards, with entrepreneurs coached every step of the way by CoreBPO and elite SIYB master trainers. Top business leaders — including the President and Executive Director of GEN Egypt — regularly took seats on the judging panel.
By 2024, the competition sharpened its mission: no more casual ideas. Only serious startups and existing businesses made the cut.
2025 Was a Breakout Year
This year’s edition smashed records.
The Rowad Domiat app pulled in 130 applicants — 118 startups and 12 established businesses. After a brutal semi-final round, just 21 ventures reached the final showdown.
On December 9, 2025, the finals lit up Damietta with heavy hitters in the audience:
the Governor, Deputy Governor, Methanex Egypt’s CEO, and the ILO Office Director.
Nine winners walked away with glory — and cash: