Khaled bin Alwaleed’s venture capital firm, KBW Ventures, recently declared its investment in the Egyptian climate technology company, NoorNation. NoorNation, founded by Ragy Ramadan, offers Sub-Saharan Africa’s and Egypt’s off-grid communities technologically enabled decentralized energy and water infrastructure solutions.
The company’s flagship product, LifeBox, provides affordable clean energy and safe water to farms, rural communities, and tourism-related businesses. LifeBox is a creative mobile green infrastructure solution that is made and designed in Egypt and provides safe water and clean energy at a reasonable cost.
In an interview with AGBI, Prince Khaled said that he “saw NoorNation’s potential immediately” during its pitch at the finals of the PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator Programme: MENA Sustainability Edition. The finals, staged in Dubai, UAE, followed a rigorous multistage selection process and six months of mentorship.
Prince Khaled added that “the need and relevance for what they are doing is a win-win. Their business model fits squarely in our wheelhouse—a sweet spot of climate technology. During the final judging round, NoorNation was examined through the lens of three criteria: social need, geographic scalability, speed to market and efficiency. We use these same metrics as part of our own due diligence process at KBW Ventures, alongside a number of others.”
“This is the first startup from Egypt that we have invested in. I did a fact-finding visit to Egypt five-six years ago—mostly thinking about the sustainability and energy potential there, but nothing tangible came to fruition until I saw the NoorNation pitch,” said Prince Khaled.
NoorNation, which was selected from more than 180 applications, was recently named the Best Green Tech Startup of the Year across Northern Africa by the Global Startup Awards 2024. Throughout the program, NoorNation presented LifeBox to numerous stakeholders and investors.
“LifeBox is a solar-powered, self-contained, and quickly deployed unit that directly contributes to the industrial localisation movement and sustainability governance. It gives peace of mind to our customers, farming and tourism businesses, and rural communities to achieve their triple bottom lines: social, financial, and environmental growth,” said Ragy Ramadan, founder and CEO, NoorNation.
During a six-month period, PepsiCo and outside partners provided one-on-one mentorship on everything from R&D to business models, marketing, and fundraising to all of the participating startups. Each startup also received a $20,000 initial grant.
PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator Programme: MENA Sustainability Edition, in collaboration with Food Tech Valley (FTV) and the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE), took place for the second time.
