Fawry, Egypt’s leading fintech Company, honored a group of outstanding young innovators in the first edition of “AI Rising Gen” competition, organized in partnership with the Faculty of Computers and Artificial Intelligence at Cairo University. The initiative comes as part of Fawry’s ongoing efforts to support innovation and empower young talents in the fields of fintech and artificial intelligence.
The competition, themed “Surveillance for Retail Stores Application” aimed to encourage students to develop smart solutions using AI technologies to track customer movement within stores, analyze employee performance and wait times, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and improving the overall customer experience.
The competition registration was open on Feb 2025 through the global “Kaggle” platform, attracting strong participation from various Egyptian universities. A total of 28 teams representing 8 universities and comprising 74 students submitted over 769 models. The top 10 teams were invited to showcase their final projects before a judging panel of Fawry experts and members from the faculty.
Fawry allocated cash prizes for the winning teams, awarding EGP 100,000 to the first-place team, while the second- and third-place teams each received EGP 50,000. The remaining finalist teams were honored with commemorative medals in recognition of their participation and outstanding efforts.
Eng. Ashraf Sabry, CEO and Managing Director of Fawry commented: “Empowering students and transforming their ideas into real, applicable solutions is one of our top priorities. We believe innovation is key to solving daily challenges in fintech, particularly in retail, and through this competition, we’re laying the groundwork for a sustainable platform that fosters and adopts tech talent from across Egypt every year.”
He added: “Our partnership with Cairo University represents as a step toward bridging academic research with market needs. It has provided students with a unique opportunity to apply their ideas in real-world scenarios, and the resulting projects demonstrated the immense potential of Egypt’s youth.”
Eng. Mostafa El Nahas, CEO of Technology at Fawry, commented: “At Fawry, we began our journey with artificial intelligence over eight years ago, developing a fully integrated data infrastructure based on Big Data technologies, encompassing billions of records, enabling us to gain a comprehensive view of the customer. Today, we are entering a new phase of innovation by developing products and services powered by Generative AI and the Agentic AI Framework, which we plan to launch in the market soon.”
He added: “We consider this initiative part of our social responsibility to support applied education and empower students to work with real-world data in real business environments, as we believe that investing in young talent is a direct investment in the future of technology in Egypt.”
Fawry announced that the winning projects will be incorporated into its future initiatives, as part of its commitment to adopting effective solutions and investing in their development. The company also extended invitations to standout participants to join its AI team and offered specialized summer internship opportunities for university students. Fawry aims to turn this event into an annual tradition that engages university students in addressing real-world market challenges, reflecting its deep commitment to local innovation and the empowerment of young talents.
It is worth noting that the participating students developed innovative technical solutions that align with real challenges faced in the retail environment. Several teams succeeded in presenting proof-of-concept (POC) demos that closely matched real operational requirements. Through this initiative, Fawry seeks to foster a spirit of innovation and positive competitiveness among students, reaffirming its direct support and ability to transform promising ideas into tangible reality.
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