Egyptian Entrepreneurs Dominate Forbes Middle East Under 30 List

Young innovators shine in the eighth annual edition of Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30 list for 2025, which highlights the next generation of young leaders, creators, innovators, and changemakers under the age of 30 across the region.
These trailblazers are reshaping the definition of success in the Middle East and North Africa, from athletes achieving historic milestones to researchers pushing the boundaries of science into new frontiers. Egyptians dominated this year’s list, and below we spotlight the Egyptian entrepreneurs who made it onto the 2025 ranking.

Kyrillos Youssef
Youssef contributed to the design of metasurfaces, ultra-thin nanomaterials that control light, to generate photon entanglement, enabling complex quantum operations on a single device instead of relying on large optical networks. This approach accelerates the development of photonic quantum computers, sensors, and networks, and could enable the design of room-temperature quantum processors and lab-on-a-chip systems. His research was published in Science Magazine and is expected to drive a breakthrough in precision sensing for medical applications and environmental monitoring. Youssef has authored seven research papers and presented nine papers at scientific conferences.

Amr Salem, Khaled Salem
Brothers Amr and Khaled Salem founded Salem Pack in 2021 to offer eco-friendly products such as paper cups, plates, cardboard packaging, and plastic alternatives. The company started with three machines and has since expanded to 25 machines, serving more than 40 clients, including Amazon, El Arosa Tea, President Cheese, Caribou Coffee, Isis, Hajj Arafa, Le Méridien Hotels, Espresso Lab, and others. Salem Pack employs 200 people and produces approximately 10.9 million cups per month, with annual output ranging between 350 and 450 tons.

Hossam Shafik
Shafik joined venture capital firm Silicon Badia in 2022 and currently leads the company’s operations in Egypt and North Africa. He oversees a portfolio that includes companies such as Journify and Roboost, where he serves as a board member, and is also involved in managing investments in Cartona, Midlyr, Scalvy, and Expensya, which was later acquired by Medius. Prior to entering venture capital, Shafik worked in investment banking, executing mergers and acquisitions exceeding $1 billion in total value across various sectors.

Mahmoud Abdelmaksoud
Mahmoud co-founded ROA with his brother Mohamed (over 30), which was acquired by Nawy in an undisclosed deal in January 2025. The company was relaunched as Nawy Unlocked, focusing on converting unfinished properties into ready-to-rent assets. Nawy Unlocked has completed and leased more than 40,000 square meters of unfinished assets to generate sustainable income, with plans to reach over 7,000 residential units within the next five years. In May 2025, Nawy closed a $75 million Series A funding round combining equity and debt.

Malak El-Laithy
El-Laithy launched the YOUTH app in 2024, a student-focused platform offering benefits and discounts from more than 100 brands. The app serves students across more than 50 universities and is available to students residing in Egypt, with plans to expand across the MENA region. YOUTH secured $20,000 in non-dilutive funding through Gen-Z entrepreneurship support programs. Through YOUTH-Careers, the platform partners with universities and conferences to offer mentorship sessions for students. Since its launch in August 2024, the app has reached more than 50,000 students across Egypt.

Nour Tawfik, Nour Magid
The duo founded Yogi, a yogurt manufacturing facility, in early 2023 following the outbreak of the war in Sudan. They rehabilitated an abandoned dairy factory in Gedaref, which currently produces around three metric tons of milk per day by contracting local herders, distributing products through 100 retailers and stores. Yogi has received approximately $160,000 in grants from the African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), Microfinanznia, and Tadamon Accelerator. The founders recently added a new revenue stream by providing solar-powered refrigerated units to retailers on a subscription basis to store and distribute the company’s products.

Omar Saleh, Mohamed Hamdy, Mohamed Ibrahim
The trio founded Bekya Pay, a recycling and waste management platform that incentivizes households and businesses to recycle by offering cash and vouchers. The platform provides smart collection systems, including mobile-based waste pickup services, enabling users to sort and exchange recyclable waste in return for financial rewards or digital payments, while linking supply chains to factories and the informal sector. Founded in March 2024, Bekya Pay has contracts with Fathalla Markets, Banque Misr, and Francophone Schools. The platform has more than 25,000 consumer users, signs around 20 corporate contracts annually, and has processed nearly 400 tons of recyclable waste.

Youssef Saqr
Saqr co-founded WeLend in 2024 with Peter Ramsy and Hossam Nabil (both over 30). The fintech company provides a digital platform tailored to the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises through partnerships with financial institutions. The platform has signed financing agreements totaling nearly $850,000 and is currently processing additional funding requests worth $2.1 million. Funding partners include EFG Hermes, Tamweely, GlobalCorp, and Al Oula. WeLend also secured $240,000 in funding from Orbit Sanabil, UI Investment, and U.S.-based angel investors.

Ziad Zain
Zain founded LAYN with Mohamed El-Hashemy (over 30). The company officially launched in 2025 after approximately 18 months of research and development in 3D concrete printing technology. Its first product line, LAYN Urban Life, features a fully locally developed 3D concrete printing technology in Egypt. Since launch, LAYN has collaborated on several projects with leading real estate developers, including Sodic and Emaar. In 2024, the company raised $210,000 through a EuroAid grant and a pre-seed round led by Dar Ventures. LAYN is currently working on closing a $1 million seed round co-led by Dar Ventures alongside several financial institutions.

Hamza Abou El-Kheir
In 2021, Abou El-Kheir developed an AI-powered application to treat speech disorders through his startup Lathgha. The app has surpassed 75,000 users. The company secured more than $100,000 in non-dilutive funding through international competitions and awards in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. It also signed a letter of intent worth $471,000 with a Saudi non-profit organization to launch its services for enterprises. The model was validated through extensive interviews with potential clients, including clinics, centers, and schools.

Mahmoud Zidan, Basel Enab
The duo founded Kord agency in 2020 to develop and produce electronic music events across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Libya, Iraq, Morocco, and Tanzania. In 2024, the agency produced 14 events and 35 videos, and during the first nine months of 2025, it launched around 12 events and 20 videos. Kord also launched the Playstream platform in Egypt in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the This Is Egypt campaign, producing more than 15 episodes featuring international artists. The agency also delivered live music performances at the Pyramids of Giza and Abu Simbel Temple in collaboration with Egyptian authorities and Cercle, achieving over 100 million views. Kord generated revenues of $2.3 million in 2024 and more than $3 million in the first nine months of 2025.

Omar Ghanem, Mostafa Hossam El-Din
Ghanem and Hossam El-Din launched GAM3S.GG in June 2022 to provide gaming marketing services for studios, publishers, and brands, while also offering a free platform hosting more than 1,000 games. The company generated revenues of $850,000 in 2024 and currently has more than 1.5 million users and around 750,000 followers across social media platforms. To date, GAM3S.GG has raised over $5 million from Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Merit Circle, ArkStream Capital, and has partnerships with Abu Dhabi Gaming and Esports, Solana, Amazon, Somnia, OpenSea, and Arbitrum.

Sara Abou El-Kheir, Abdelrahman Selim
Abou El-Kheir and Selim founded Qawl Ameem, a company specializing in the design of social card and digital games, in 2020. To date, the company has sold more than one million copies, including 560,000 copies from the beginning of 2025 through July, across more than 550 stores in eight countries. Their Quiz app was launched in 2023 and has been downloaded more than 390,000 times, with 48,000 active users. The company has designed 33 commercial games and more than 35 customized games for several corporations, including Maybelline, Allianz, and EFG Holding Group, among others.

Source: Press Release