'Shark Tank Egypt' to make its debut in December

Reality TV show Shark Tank is making its way to Egypt.

Applications for the spin-off of the hugely successful American programme are now open to budding Egyptian entrepreneurs, with filming due to start next month. Shark Tank Egypt is planned for release in December on CBC Egypt, the producers told The National.

Now in its 14th season in the US, Shark Tank is based on the format of the British programme Dragons’ Den, which originated from Japan's Tigers of Money.

In it, entrepreneurs pitch their business and product ideas to a panel of six investors or "sharks". The sharks, who can be either brutal or encouraging, decide whether to invest money in their idea and negotiate an equity percentage.

Innovative Media Productions acquired the license to produce the show, which has won multiple Emmy Awards, from Sony Pictures Television earlier this year.

The Egyptian company's founder and chief executive Ahmed Luxor told The National that the journey began in 2015 when he watched the show and “got hooked”.

Luxor has founded several media-related companies over the last 15 years, including Green Media Advertising and PS Digital, and has been an executive producer at Content Plus since 2015.

Luxor approached Sony, which provided him with a renewable licensing option for six months. However, it was not until years later that he enlisted the support of Amr Mansi.

Mansi wears many hats, including the chief executive of I-events, as well as the co-founder of the El Gouna Film Festival and El Gouna International Squash Open. Last year, his events company launched Egypt’s Entrepreneur Awards to celebrate the country’s brightest business talents.

“The ecosystem in Egypt is booming and start-ups are more established, so the market was ready,” Luxor said.

Venture capital investments in Egypt nearly tripled annually to a record high of $491 million last year, according to start-up data platform Magnitt.

Luxor, Mansi and Yasser Abdelmaksoud, chairman of pharmaceuticals conglomerate Abdelmaksoud Group, partnered together to bring Shark Tank to Egypt, the 47th international market.

The format has been distributed around the world under several titles, including Shark Tank in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Vietnam; Lions’ Den in Germany, Denmark and Kenya; and Qui Veut Etre Mon Associe? (Who Wants to be My Partner?) in France.

The US version has been nominated for an Emmy Award 22 times and won in the category for Outstanding Structured Reality Programme four times in a row between 2014 and 2017.

The long-standing US sharks include Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary.

Guest sharks over the years have included British billionaire Richard Branson, Spanx founder Sara Blakely and actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

The sharks for the Egyptian version have been selected, but not announced yet. The panel will consist of five people, but there will be a total of eight sharks who will be shuffled throughout the season.

“They are business people and they are all involved in the start-up ecosystem. They have their own businesses, but they invest through venture capital firms and come from different industries,” Luxor said.

Despite a global economic crisis and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war, Luxor thinks the premise of the show will not be affected.

“In Egypt, the solution is for people to work and to work hard,” he said. “The funding is personal money that the Sharks come in with — and they have money.”

Shark Tank Egypt will air once a week and the first season will consist of 13 episodes.