The old proverb says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” but what does it take to raise an idea from the ground up? Ideas are valuable, but only when they leave the confines of the mind and are executed. Bringing an idea to life is no easy feat; it requires time, effort, and teamwork to make a true impact.
Business startups offer an interesting lens through which to examine the birth, growth, and sometimes, failure of ideas. According to Forbes, 90% of startups fail, while the remaining 10% struggle to stabilize and establish themselves in the market.
This week, Business Forward spotlights the story of an Egyptian startup, LRNOVA, which is currently embedding itself as a player in the Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) software market. LRNOVA was part of the Spring 2024 cohort of the AUC Venture Lab Startup Accelerator at the School of Business at the American University in Cairo. The startup was fully launched in December 2023. The Business Forward team spoke with LRNOVA’s co-founder, Mohamed Amer, to gain insight into the experience of launching an AI company in the Egyptian market.
“I am not the type of person to give up and accept circumstances as they are. We must work hard to break through and achieve the life we strive for,” says Amer, who began his professional life as a graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture at Al-Azhar University—quite a shift from his current career. Today, Amer has over 16 years of experience in education, training, and corporate human development. He is also a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD), a credential that requires meeting international standards in training and corporate impact. Nearly 20 years ago, Amer decided to pivot his career toward training, particularly focusing on optimizing corporate work culture. This decision sparked his passion for providing training as a service to help others improve.
Amer’s personal journey reflects his dedication to skill development, particularly through training. “I have always been interested in technology, so I started teaching myself new skills to integrate the latest tech into my work as a corporate trainer,” he explains. Amer was one of the first in Egypt to implement interactive training in corporate settings. He strongly believes in the power of proper training to enhance corporate culture. In fact, startups that receive appropriate training report an average sales growth of 72.5%, compared to just 30.3% for those that do not (Corboz, 2023). Such statistics, backed by HEC Paris, suggest a clear market need for businesses that provide training. But what kind of training?
LRNOVA’s mission is to provide AI-generated educational and training content using open-source materials from the internet and customer databases, ensuring a customized learning experience. What sets LRNOVA apart is its use of AI-generated human-like avatars to present content. “When we conceptualized LRNOVA, we considered the time, costs, and effort that could be optimized if educational content became readily available to produce,” Amer explains. Training programs often require a high budget, especially for company-wide implementation. Additionally, coordinating a training schedule that suits all employees is time-consuming, and in-person training rarely provides materials for future reference. As a result, traditional training methods are becoming less practical.
LRNOVA allows both individuals and corporations to create training content at their convenience through an application with an accessible user interface. Users can generate customized educational content and select an AI presenter, or “avatar,” to deliver video-based training. In other words, LRNOVA aims to make the training process fully in-house and on-demand.
“As a trainer myself, I can assure you that AI will not replace human instructors. Artificial intelligence is merely a tool to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Those who believe AI is meant to replace humans fail to see its full potential as a supporting tool, says Amer, addressing concerns about AI’s role in corporate training.
Currently, LRNOVA is in its project-based phase, where the team proposes ideas to corporations and implements customized projects. “The goal is for LRNOVA to eventually become a fully developed software that customers can use independently, without our assistance,” Amer explains. This soft implementation phase is helping the team refine their understanding of customer needs and the demands of the B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) market.
As part of their effort to refine their business model, Amer submitted LRNOVA to AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab). “Funnily enough, we were introduced to V-Lab by another graduate of the accelerator program, who also happens to be a relative of my wife—Mohamed Kandil, the founder of SWVL,” Amer shares. This coincidence opened his eyes to V-Lab’s impact. Despite Amer’s 16 years of experience, his startup needed guidance and exposure to both the AI startup ecosystem and the broader Egyptian startup scene.
“When we applied to AUC Venture Lab, we were at the very beginning—we didn’t even have a domain. We took the risk, created a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and were fortunate to be accepted in the first round. The selection team believed in us and our potential,” says Amer, recalling LRNOVA’s admission into the Spring 2024 cohort of the Startup Accelerator.
Working with V-Lab has helped LRNOVA’s team refine their skills for the next phase of their journey, gearing up for a full launch while also gaining early exposure as part of the startup community. So far, LRNOVA’s Generative AI educational solutions have saved customers up to 90% in training costs, making the product highly competitive compared to traditional in-person training.
However, despite these successes, the startup still faces challenges—particularly the lack of a solid AI-based infrastructure in Egypt. Nonetheless, this challenge underscores the importance of bringing more innovative ideas like LRNOVA to the forefront, expanding opportunities for AI-driven solutions in the market. Entrepreneurs like Amer, who are willing to take risks and navigate uncharted territory, contribute to Egypt’s economic growth and innovation.
“We must always take risks. I say, the bigger the risk, the bigger the rizq (blessing in Arabic). Maybe that’s why the words sound so similar!” jokes Amer.
