From A Graduation Thesis To A Startup – The Story of ALGELATA
Graduating from the university of Batna 1, a team of two graduates (CHAABNA Aicha, BOUNAB El Montassir) and their supervisor Dr. ABD EDDAIM Mohamed, have managed to turn their thesis into a successful startup, producing a 100% Halal Gelatin. Within less than a year after graduation in 2021 with a master’s degree in “Nutrition and Food Science”, the team started working on their idea, and managed to earn the “Innovative Project” label from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Start-ups.
The idea is about recycling sheep and cow hides/skins from the Algerian slaughterhouses and producing Gelatin. On their research, the team found that Algerian slaughterhouses produce a minimum of 5,000 sheep and cow hides/skins a month, going into waste, and the main sources of Halal Gelatin in Algeria are: Egypt, Turkey and Germany.
Algélata has successfully produced Halal Geletin from sheep and cow bones (experimentally). The main products they currently offer (working on) are: Raw Gelatin for food and cosmetic industries, and Gelatin Capsules for the pharmaceutical industry (a patent from Iran).
After the “Innovative Project” label was successfully obtained, Algélata is now under the accompaniment of the business accelerator Algeria Ventures, and planning on applying for a fund from the ASF (Algerian Startup Fund).
Aicha, on her pursuing her entrepreneurial career: “I’d like to thank our professor, Dr. ABD EDDAIM Mohamed for all the help and the useful tips, and his words on creating a job rather than finding one!”
Thanks for the Algélata team for their answers and making this post possible : )
Best of luck ALGELATA!
Algerian Echo ©
Founder of AlgerianEcho.com, a part time tech blogger, (and a master procrastinator too!)