Generation Zero — Applications close Oct 15, 2026

Roots before scale.

BitRoot is a pre-seed accelerator and venture capital firm. We back Egyptian, AI-native & technology builders through the unglamorous, unfunded stretch between a first product and a real raise — the middle almost everyone else skips past on the way to the fundraising stage.

Apply to Gen 0 →How it works

Delivered in partnership with

Supported by

What we're built for

Most ecosystem support is built for the moment you're pitching on a stage. We're built for the six months before that — when you've shipped something real, the market hasn't confirmed it yet, and nobody's writing a check. That's the middle. That's where we live.

Interlude

Collect the 1s. Build your seed.

Raised $0K / $250K

Idea

Catch the 1s, dodge the 0s. 24 seconds to get to seed.

IdeaPrototypeTractionSeed-ready

How it works

Merit-gated, not calendar-driven.

Every stage is a real decision, not a formality. Nothing about your BuildCamp cohort guarantees you a check — the Investment Committee does.

BuildCamp

6 days, Cairo, in person. You ship, in front of people who've done it before.

Pitch

You make the case for your company — not your slide design.

Investment Committee

A real yes/no.

Gate — not automatic

Accelerator

3 months. In-kind resources, vertical experts, weekly check-ins.

Portfolio

You're in. Ongoing access to the operator network.

Terms

One block. No fine print games.

$250KTotal potential, pre-seed through follow-on

Structured to match conviction as it's earned — not handed out on day one of BuildCamp.

Initial check$100K pre-seed
Follow-onUp to $150K
Program length3 months, in-kind
LocationCairo, in person
FormatBuildCamp → IC → Accelerator

Who we look for

Building, not researching.

We're not looking for a perfect deck. We're looking for people already in motion on a problem worth the next three years.

Builder

AI-native, by default

You reach for AI tooling the way the last generation reached for cloud infra — not as a pitch angle, as how you actually build.

Market

Egypt-first, big enough

You're solving something specific to the Egyptian market, on a problem with room to grow past it.

Stage

Already building

Live product, real users, or a working prototype — not a plan to start once you're accepted.

Commitment

All six days, no exceptions

BuildCamp is in person, in Cairo, for six full days. We screen for people who can actually show up.

Team

Founders who can take feedback

Practitioner mentors will tell you what's wrong with your plan. We look for founders who want that.

Horizon

Playing the 3-year game

Not chasing a raise for its own sake — building toward a company that's still standing after the accelerator ends.

Mentors

Operators who've shipped, hired, missed payroll, and rebuilt.

Not advisor-mentors collecting a title. 60+ practitioners who've actually run the company, not just consulted on one.

See the full mentor roster ↗

Portfolio

Gen 0 is building now.

Our first cohort is still in motion — the portfolio page goes live once BuildCamp and the Investment Committee have done their work.

Coming after Gen 0's Investment CommitteePortfolio companies are published here only once they're confirmed in — not before.

Applications close October 15.

If you're already building in Egypt and can commit six days to BuildCamp, this is for you.

Apply to Gen 0 →

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