Adly Thoma Presents Gemini Africa: An Investment Company and Entrepreneurial Hub for Egypt and Africa

Interview with Adly Thoma, Executive Chairman and CEO of Gemini Africa

What is your scope of business?

At Gemini Africa we are the entrepreneurial hub for the region. We play the role of the arm for entrepreneurs, linking or bridging between the ecosystem and Orascom Group. We position ourselves as an enabler and access to support for the startups. We have a role in our activities within the continent. We always try to approach the untapped business from an entrepreneurial aspect and we are trying to be innovative. Recently, we received two patents to intellectual property as Gemini Africa. We try to combine two different worlds, which are the entrepreneurial world and the film industry world, through technology. We have introduced a new track within the ecosystem called CinemaTech. We got the intellectual property for being the first company worldwide to have this track and working specifically for this track. We got another intellectual property for holding the first entrepreneurial pitching event in a film festival worldwide last year.

Are you looking for other investors and investment opportunities?

Although we are an investment company owned by Orascom and Gemini Holding, we are very open to our colleagues. We believe in synergy. Our motto and our approach to the whole ecosystem is that collaboration supersedes competition. We do not believe that there is a real competition in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. We have to work together. You do not have to reinvent the wheel. We have a sister company which is a VC for the Group. We are open to all VCs, investors, not only in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa, of course, we are open to work with different incubators and accelerators within the region. We do not have the angle of just looking after our benefit, but we believe that working together will have more impact on the ecosystem.

How do you differentiate yourself from the competition?

At Gemini Africa we are the entrepreneurial hub for the region. We play the role of the arm for entrepreneurs, linking or bridging between the ecosystem and Orascom Group. We position ourselves as an enabler and access to support for the startups.

Last year, when the pandemic hit the world, we decided to keep working to support the SMEs and the startups. We launched what we call Gemini Uplift Initiatives. We had 70 plus prominent partners working with us from the region from the business side, from the investment side, all over the world. We tackled three main pillars, what we call the three M’s. The first pillar was money, the second one is matchmaking, and the third M is mentorship. We tried to support and offer investment to our network of startups and SMEs. We supported the new business opportunity through matchmaking, coaching, and capacity building through mentorship. We decided to do this support, not only by our staff and the Group, but also with academia, with UN agencies, with business companies, with support functions to have a real impact in a very harsh period of time. Many people were ready to shut down their operations, which is the last thing we want. We decided to take responsibility to work with the ecosystem. We have multiple UN agencies as partners. We offered more than 120 matchmaking opportunities, we held more than eight pitching events, and hundreds of hours of mentorship. Another mandate for Gemini Africa is to have that positive impact towards the community, not only in Egypt, but in the region and in Africa. We are working in an innovative and creative industry, which is entrepreneurship, and we have to lead by example. We decided to be creative, innovative, and to approach the untapped businesses from an entrepreneurial perspective. For example, in the cinema industry, no one has ever thought about mingling between the entrepreneurs, the creators, and the industry itself in the production. Cinema should be on top of this revolution and this digital transformation. Egypt is very advanced in terms of cinema and has a very long history and legacy. But whenever we are talking about the technology in the cinema industry and production in the region and in Egypt, we are still lagging. That is why we decided to support this specific track of technology in cinema, creativity in cinema. The most innovative and creative youth and people are the entrepreneurs. That is why we created CinemaTech which is technology that can help the production of the film industry through our entrepreneurs. This was a brand new industry that has never been thought about in the entrepreneurial world.

Can you explain CinemaTech and the technology behind it?

Ten days ago, in one of the most prestigious entrepreneurial events in Egypt, we had an activation of what we call “interactive movie”. This is a technology letting whomever is watching the movie to have a say in the direction of the film. You are in the middle of a film or a series, they pop up and tell you to save the star or whomever or to not save them. This is what we have done on ground in the last event with the mega star Hend Sabry. Everyone loves her so they chose to save her. So, the film continued in the direction of saving the girl. Then, we repeated it again and the emcee asked the crowd to select to not save her. We then repeated the clip in another direction. The surprise was that she was in the middle of the crowd and she came on stage. It was a very nice activation. It shows how CinemaTech is very useful to the entrepreneurs as well as to the filmmakers. It can add a better movie experience for all of us because it is interactive. Another application we have is instead of having casting with traditional means, everything can be done through our platform. We also have digital studios and this technology is based on a model of pre-production and not post production. It was first used by Disney in the Mandalorian. They have huge screens behind the actors and the director can manage the whole scene. We also have technology for stop motion animation. We are disrupting the industry and we have many applications.

Do you face competition from Hollywood directly and the Silicon Valley? Are you more into the European cinema or African cinema?

My motto in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as well in CinemaTech is that we must work together. We have the legal umbrella and we took the intellectual property, so we are very proud to have such IPs, but we are very humbled as well. We have international partners. We have partnered with one of the most prominent entities connecting the aspiring talents to film festivals called IFTA. We have other Swedish partnerships and we have Middle East partners working with us in this direction. We have opened channels with Cannes Film Festival. This year, Cannes has multiple panels on immersive technologies in the film industry which goes in line with CinemaTech. We will be very happy to be part of the Marché du Film. Already, we are part of the big investments in Egypt. Personally, I am on the Board of Trustees for Aswan International Women Film Festival. I do not believe that we have to work by ourselves and compete with everyone else. We are representing Egypt, representing the region, representing the continent. I will be more than happy if I can avail opportunities for African talents and African entrepreneurs in a prominent place like Marché du Film or in Venice.

What is your vision for the company for the medium term, three to five years?

I am very ambitious. Personally, I want to have a footprint, not only in my country, but in the continent and in the region. I believe that having such IPs is a legacy for me, the whole team, my family. One year ago, one of my dreams was to be presenting CinemaTech in the opening of film festivals. We have presented CinemaTech in the opening of Luxor African Film Festival. I will be presenting in the opening of Aswan International Women Film Festival. I would love to be part of the opening ceremony or the official activities of Venice and Cannes Film Festival in the coming years. On the entrepreneurial side, I will be very delighted to listen to success stories for some youth and some startups and entrepreneurs that we have invested in or have worked with. I would love to be recognized as one of the main disruptors in the ecosystem. I am working hard to play a vital role as a moderator between the banking sector and the startup ecosystem. In entrepreneurship, there is always a challenge for financial cooperation and banks to give financial support to the startups. I want to play a role in helping both sides to work together.

How do you want to achieve this?

We are working with one of the top three banks in Egypt. We are working hard on the ground to mitigate the risk that banks can take while financing the startups and to support the startup to have the language of the banks. It is challenging because the language is different. We hope by next year we can have some input in this direction. We are in similar talks with another two big banks in Egypt as well. We are working with African Development Bank to create a performing arts incubator for the startup.

What is your inspiration and what drives you to do what you do?

I believe that there are some key success factors in life. I used to be the Middle East Business Manager for Schlumberger before joining Gemini as the CEO and I still work with Schlumberger on a consultancy basis. I am a lecturer for Project Management Worldwide and I am a Professor of Practice for the University of Agora in the United States. Project management is another passion for me. The key success factor is passion. I believe that without passion, you cannot reach your goals, you cannot go to the next level, you cannot dream. You have to not only like but to love what you are doing regardless of the challenges. Success comes with failure. So, you have to learn from success and from failures. The third key factor is working hard. Sometimes you have to sacrifice. Maybe I am stamped as a workaholic, but I do believe that having an impact, reaching new fronts and new challenges is worth working long hours. You have to stay on top of technology and on top of the industry. You have to keep learning. You cannot stay stagnant. You have to be on top of all the technological advancement that is happening all over the world. Otherwise, you will not be able to be part of the new norms and you will not be able to compete. The last key point is to give back. It is very important for people like us to give back to society, to the community, and to support different good causes. For example, I am a board member and treasurer for one of the children at risk institutions which is one of the most prominent in Egypt. This should be part of our culture and part of what we are doing, not as an extracurricular activity, but rather part of the mainstream. If we do not have the spirit, we will not be able to work properly and to have the impact in an entrepreneurial aspect. Entrepreneurship is about dealing with others and youth in different ideas and creativity.

For more information, please visit: https://geminiafrica.com.

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