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Happy hump day, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not quite a news dump day, but there are definitely a few big stories we’re watching closely this afternoon.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

#1- More green hydrogen + green ammonia investments coming our way? British energy services company Petrofac will conduct an early-stage feasibility study on a new green hydrogen / ammonia facility for a Mediterranean Energy Partners’ (MEP) subsidiary, according to a Petrofac statement. The project would produce 125k tonnes of ammonia annually for export.

The announcement comes as the Madbouly government is providing more clarity on incentives for investments in the green economy, as well as scientific research and increasing domestic manufacturing, according to a cabinet statement.

#2- That price cap on unsubsidized loaves could be coming sooner rather than later, after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered the government today to set prices for the bread after prices spiked on the back of the Ukrainian-Russia crisis, according to an Ittihadiya statement. The move comes after the idea of the mechanism was floated last night by cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad, who said the regulations would put into consideration global inflation, wheat prices, and fairness to the end-consumer as well as bakeries. El Sisi has also directed ministers to diversify the sources of staple commodities, with an eye towards raising strategic reserves to no less than six months, the statement added.

^^ We’ll have more on these stories and others in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Gov’t to up local wheat prices and cut fertilizer costs: The government is going to pay more for the wheat it buys from domestic farmers and will reportedly make new announcements on subsidized fertilizer prices for wheat farmers.
• We are “not yet” in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a fresh loan, said Planning Minister Hala El Said, but the Finance Ministry is currently working on an emergency plan to handle the country’s rising import bill on the orders of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
• Palm Hills Developments’ general assembly approves EGP 3.25 bn sukuk issuance: Shareholders voting at the company’s ordinary general assembly approved the issuance of shariah-compliant bonds worth EGP 3.25 bn at a meeting on Sunday, after its board of directors greenlit the sale in February.

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THE BIG STORY ABROAD

A delegation of Central European leaders are making their way to Ukraine “to offer a broad package of support” to Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal reports. The delegation includes the heads of state of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.

The delegation is arriving as Ukraine imposed a 35-hour curfew starting this evening in Kyiv after at least four people were killed as Russian forces escalated their assault on the Ukrainian capital, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said, according to Reuters. Citizens will only be allowed to go to bomb shelters, Klitschko said, prohibiting them from moving in the city without special permission.

Over three mn people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the crisis, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Twitter, warning that “mns more” could follow.

Without a peace agreement, the war could end in two months as Russia eventually runs out of resources, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said, according to Reuters. Arestovich sees two possible scenarios: Either the two sides reach a peace agreement within a week or two, or Russia regroups and manages to scrape together some resources for a fresh round of attacks. If the latter scenario plays out, Arestovich expects that Ukraine would continue to hold its ground and eventually reach an agreement by mid-April or late April.

MARKET WATCH- Oil prices slipped below USD 100 per barrel today, with Brent crude futures for May delivery falling 6.6% to USD 99.84 per barrel and WTI futures for April falling 6.7% to USD 96.12 per barrel.

US equities are having a better day, with S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rising 0.2% each, while Nasdaq 100 futures are up 0.4%, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the London Metal Exchange is resuming trading on its nickel contracts as of tomorrow morning, following a six-day suspension of trading, the exchange said in a notice (pdf).

More sanctions for Russia: The EU slapped Moscow with additional sanctions targeting its defense, steel and energy sectors over its invasion of Ukraine, according to a European Commission press release. The sanctions include a ban on investments in Russia’s energy sector, an export ban on luxury goods, and an important ban on Russian steel products, which are set to cause Russia losses of EUR 3.3 bn in export revenue. The bloc has also extended the list of sanctions persons and bodies to include Russian oligarchs linked to the Kremlin. The UK followed suit with its own ban on exports of luxury goods to Russia, while Russian products such as vodka, fertilizers, steel, and aluminum are getting a 35 percentage point increase in customs tariffs.

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THIS WEEK-

Members of the public will be able to take a stroll along the Ahl Masr promenade for the first time on Friday when the government opens the first, 1.8-km section running between Imbaba Bridge and the 15 May bridge. The two-level walkway will house restaurants, cafes and shops, as well as a theater and three parking lots.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Green energy forum: The German Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce is hosting the Egyptian German Green Energy Forum next Tuesday, 22 March. The event runs 5:30-9pm CLT at the InterContinental Cairo Semiramis.

ITIDA’s Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center is organizing its first “metaverse hackathon,” according to a press release (pdf). The challenge bagan on 15 February and will run until 15 June.

PSA- We have 18 days left until the start of Ramadan. If you’re in Cairo, you’ll have until 4:16am CLT to finish sohour before the start of the fast. Maghrib prayers are at 6:14pm on the first day. On the final day of the holy month, you’ll be looking at 3:37am as the cut-off for sohour and will break your fast at 6:32pm.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a daytime high of 19°C tomorrow during the day and a nighttime low of 8°C, according to our favorite weather app.

From Walt Disney to the metaverse: After 16 years at the head of the entertainment company, former Walt Disney boss Robert Iger is backing avatar tech company Genies, the Wall Street Journal reports. Iger sat with a number of startup executives before settling on Genies and becoming one of five directors on Genies’ board, citing his interest in “companies that were using technology for disruptive purposes and, where possible, the intersection between technology and creativity.” The company gives its users the chance to create their own avatars and dress them up and has raised USD 100 mn in funding since it started operations in 2017.

Chronically stressed? The antidote is to stress yourself out a little bit more by hitting the gym or jumping into a cold shower. A number of studies have shown that exposing yourself to short bursts of stress — also known as hormetic stress — such as cold showers, ice baths, hot saunas or exercise, can make it easier for you to handle chronic stress, the Wall Street Journal writes. The studies also recommend high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which gets your heart rate to rise and fall, along with intermittent fasting and hypoxic breathing — but caveat that the latter two can be detrimental if not done with professional guidance. “The practices create short-term spikes of biological stress followed by recovery, ease and deep restoration and that is otherwise hard to get,” a psychiatry professor at the University of California said.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

(all times CLT)

We found ourselves glued to the screen watching NBC’s latest dark humor true-crime series, The Thing About Pam starring Renée Zellweger as Pam Hupp. The six-episode series, which you can currently catch on OSN, is based on Dateline’s coverage of the 2011 true murder story of Betsy Faria, played by Katy Mixon. When Faria is found murdered in her home in small-town Missouri, police think it’s an open-and-shut case where the husband, who discovered the body, is the killer. Faria’s convicted, yet questions remain as her close friend Pam, who was never convicted, was the last to see Betsy alive. Pam keeps changing her story on what happened during the night of the murder, bringing multiple surprise plot twists to the story.

⚽ It’s a somewhat quiet day for football but all eyes tonight will be on the UEFA Champions League, where Manchester United hosts Atlético Madrid at Old Trafford with an aggregate of 1-1. Ajax will clash with Benfica with an aggregate of 2-2. Both games will kick off at 10pm.

We have one game in the Egyptian Premier League: Future v Smouha at 8pm.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

We’re craving Mexican tonight and nothing screams Mexican more than traditional hand-sized tacos at Holy Guacamole. What started as a food truck in the North Coast last summer is now back in the capital to deliver Mexican goodness in New Cairo. Our favorite is their special box of tacos: Barbacoa Beef Tacos, BBQ Chicken Tacos and Fried Shrimp Tacos — because why not have the entire protein food group in taco form? Get things started with a chips and salsa appetizer, and on the way out go for Marshmallow and Nutella Chimichanga: A marshmallow and nutella burrito fried to reach that gooey perfection.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

(all times CLT)

The Elite are performing a standup comedy show at Cairo Jazz Club 610 tonight at 9pm. The group includes seven comedians, with the show set to run for four hours.

Rawabet Art Space is also hosting a standup comedy night tonight, with comedians Ahmed Marzouk, Mohamed Gamal El Din, Reem Nabil, Ahmed El Sharkawy, Mina Seleem, and Ahmed El Hareedy set to take the stage. The show begins at 8pm.

Over in Cairo Jazz Club Agouza, four emerging DJs are set to play at the club’s Fresh Meat night at 8pm. The performers — Sarasiro, Kokla, Jobz, and Gobara — will play house and techno music.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

What happens when four septuagenarian friends in their wannabe murder squad find themselves investigating a real murder? Richard Osman shows us what in New York Times bestseller The Thursday Murder Club, where the four friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw room to investigate unsolved cases. But the self-named Thursday Murder Club soon find themselves amid a real life homicide when a local contractor is found dead with a mysterious photograph near the body. More bodies are found, putting the gang under pressure to find the killer before they strike again.

The EGX30 rose less than 0.1% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 991 mn (7.4% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 12.8% YTD.

In the green: Mopco (+8.5%), Abu Qir Fertilizers (+6.1%) and Fawry (+3.3%).

In the red: CIRA (-4.2%), Rameda (-4.2%) and Ibnsina Pharma (-3.9%).

OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Kamal ElSoueni, co-founder and CEO of Rabbit Mobility (LinkedIn).

My name is Kamal ElSoueni, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Rabbit Mobility. I studied finance and economics at the American University in Cairo. Upon graduation, I started off as a business analyst at cab-hailing startup Easy Taxi, which was my initial hook into the transportation sector. After many a night spent talking to drivers at gas stations, and many calls with Easy Taxi’s branches in different markets, I learned lots about the gaps in the sector and how to capitalize on these challenges and maximize efficiency in Egypt and Africa’s mobility sector. I also worked at PwC in Dubai, where I was a senior management consultant, focusing partly on the transport sector, which again fed into my path to start my own business.

For me, being a startup founder is similar to being a firefighter. You always have new problems that you need to solve immediately. Thankfully, my consulting background gave me the stamina to be able work for 17 hours a day on these problems.

What I really love about my job is seeing our hard work coming to fruition. We initially started operating exclusively in gated communities because we were worried our vehicles would be stolen. We were unable to fully trust our technology and operations. Now, we operate in Zamalek and Maadi, and will be launching in two other neighborhoods by the end of March.

I love the fact that we’ve been able to impact users and change customers’ behaviors. We’re getting a lot of reassuring feedback from users who use our electric vehicles when commuting within their neighborhoods, instead of using their cars for short distances and needlessly polluting the environment. I can happily say that our vehicles have covered approximately 340k kilometers in the past 15 months.

Of course, I had to make sacrifices to focus on my journey as a startup founder. I hope my wife doesn’t read this article [laughs], but I had to give up a lot of family time to focus on my business. I had to miss the birth of my second child, for instance, because we were invited to join The World Youth Forum in Sharm El Sheikh. I am blessed to have such a supportive and understanding family. We are pushing our team to have the right work-life balance, even if we aren’t doing that as founders [laughs].

My advice for any would-be founder is to manage expectations. You have to understand that there will be a lot of factors that will affect your daily job which you will have no power over. When you’re building a business from scratch, you will have no backing, and there will be no specific structure or system that you can adhere to. If you’re working for 30 days for example, 28 of these days may be tiring, consuming, and — to be frank — unhappy days. Then, you’ll find some solace in a day or two of peace and happiness. So brace yourself for hectic, firefighting days for most of the month.

Being a startup founder is not a lonely journey. I consider myself blessed to be working with my best friends. We started this adventure together, starting as a bootstrapped business on our friend, co-founder, and CTO, Bassem Maged’s roof. We used to carry our entire fleet, which was then 50 scooters, four stories up to Bassem’s roof, because there was no elevator [laughs]. Whenever we have tough days at work, we spend the long days and nights talking and solving our problems together.

We have also created a casual working environment. Because most of us had consulting jobs that required wearing suits everyday to work, we decided to change the dynamics entirely at our startup; last year, from April to October, we wore shorts everyday to the office [laughs]. Our neighbors thought we were a bunch of kids having fun, not adults running a thriving business.

The fact that we have friends at other startups who can relate to the problems we face has made our founder journey even easier. Talking to fellow founders is very relaxing and thought-provoking. They face the same challenges on a daily basis, so when we come to them with our problems, they can definitely relate and offer solutions and useful insights. It’s very comforting to talk to founders like Seif Amr and Ahmed Hamouda, the co-founders of Thndr, and Mostafa Amin, the co-founder and CEO of Breadfast — two startups I personally think are killing it. I’m very proud of their success.

Our vision at Rabbit Mobility is to have any trip under 8 km be fulfilled by one of our electronic vehicles, whether that be using our e-scooters for trips under 2 km, or our e-bikes for trips under 5 km, or an e-vespa for trips up to 9 km.

We focus on a number of KPIs. One of them is what we call a “kilo KPI,” which focuses on the number of rides completed through our app. Another KPI that we constantly look at involves the number of carbon dioxide grams that we save through our rides. Finally, we observe recurring users’ behavior. Interestingly, we noticed that 80-85% of our customer base initially download our app for joyrides that last for almost 50 minutes the first two times they use our app, but the third time around ultimately becomes a purpose ride that lasts 10-15 minutes. The purpose rides signify that we are actually solving a problem and are helping customers get from one place to another quickly.

We raised USD 360k in our pre-seed round from a mix of angel investors and Falak Startups. We’re currently fundraising and hope to close another round of financing soon. We hope this round will help us expand into at least 12-15 different cities across Egypt, which is part of our short term goals.

I think accelerators are extremely helpful for startups. They help founders track their KPIs, provide entrepreneurs with great potential for networking and can help you connect with the right investors for your business. That was our experience with Falak.

Our long term goal is to expand into the African market. We know that most of the continent has similar challenges in the transportation sector that we can capitalize on and there are lots of investments in transportation infrastructure. We hope to expand in North Africa first, and then the remainder of the continent.

If I had to pick an exit strategy for my startup, I would choose the acquisition route. We were approached by a player that was keen to enter the market, but we didn’t see eye to eye in terms of vision and culture. If we find a player who wants to enter the market; who shares our values and vision, then the acquisition strategy will likely be the direction for us.

In my downtime, I enjoy hanging around with my family. Playing with my kids is always a daily highlight.

The last great thing I watched was BBC’s The Hunt. I’m a big fan of nature documentaries, and The Hunt is my absolute favorite. David Attenborough’s voice is soothing enough to transport you to a world where stress ceases to exist [laughs].