The Venture lab at The American University in Cairo and Temenos, a banking software company, have partnered to "strengthen fintech in Cairo".
"AUC Venture Lab and Temenos have announced their intention to collaborate and strengthen the fintech ecosystem in Cairo," reads part of the press release.
According to the details, Temenos will provide a sandbox to startups in AUC's Venture Lab accelerator. "A key aspect of the collaboration will see Temenos provide a sandbox service to the startups utilizing the accelerator."
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This sandbox has benefits that startups in the accelerator need to launch their products but would have to spend time chasing.
"This sandbox, a non-production cloud-based version of the best-selling Temenos T24 core banking system, will enable startups to integrate their solutions with banking data and functionality as well as to test them for scalability and robustness."
This will allow them to plug into the "11 major financial institutions in Egypt already running Temenos T24."
Beyond the sandbox, there is also the potential for collaboration on other fronts. "Temenos and AUC Venture Lab will also collaborate on events and other community-building activities."
For example, Venture Lab will play host to Temenos's upcoming “Meet the Marketplace” event in October of this year.
It is anticipated that "global fintechs" who are existing members of Temenos' Marketplace will attend. These will showcase and demo their solutions to some Egyptian financial institutions.
"These fintechs will demonstrate solutions, which can cater to opportunities and challenges relevant to the Egyptian market such as financial inclusion and literacy, digital engagement, security, risk, and compliance."
Venture Lab describes itself as the "leading university-based startup accelerator in Africa and the MENA region". And, it has an interesting track record to back it up. The accelerator has at least 55 startups in its portfolio.
Some of the most prominent or promising startups include SWVL which closed a half a million dollars from Careem. While Bosta received an undisclosed funding from a Dubai-based VC fund.
Additionally, AUC Venture Lab was also named by Gust among the top 20 accelerators in the Middle East and Africa in their 2016 report. The accelerator notched up the 12th spot on the list.