A serial entrepreneur, she is behind a startup that helps organizations design, launch, and manage innovative initiatives such as hackathons and creative competitions.

Sabrine Assem, a seasoned Egyptian entrepreneur with a passion for fostering innovation in Africa and smaller organizations, leads Untap, a platform democratizing access to talent and innovative solutions.

After graduating in 2010 with a Bachelor's degree in Innovation Management and Information Systems from the German University in Cairo, Assem further strengthened her expertise with a Master's in Information Systems and Digital Innovation from Warwick Business School in 2018, some two years after founding Untap.

Untap, founded by Assem in 2016, empowers organizations to manage diverse initiatives like innovation platforms, citizen engagement projects, open innovation challenges, hackathons, startup programs, creative competitions, and even scholarship and student competitions. Its core mission lies in uncovering valuable solutions, ideas, and talent.

"We created [a] software that enables organizations to easily and quickly plan, launch, and manage online innovation challenges, creative contests, hackathons, grants, scholarships, and anything that requires application handling," explained Assem in a 2022 interview. 

Before Untap, Assem co-founded and led SolverMine (2011-2015), an online platform focused on open innovation in the Middle East. Her career journey began in 2010 as a teaching assistant at the German University in Cairo, followed by stints at Nutty Scientists (2013) as a management consultant and eSpace (2013) as a business development manager. From 2014 to 2016, she honed her entrepreneurial skills as a consultant and researcher at the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Egypt).

Melchior Koba