Seedstars World crowns mobile employment service Giraffe SA’s top startup

Johannesburg-based employment company Giraffe has just bagged itself a ticket to Geneva, Switzerland where it will take a shot at the US$500 000 equity prize in 2016.

The achievement comes after Giraffe was crowned the top South African startup by Seedstars World 2015 — a global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets.

The winning startup is behind a mobile platform that helps connect employees with employers across the country. Two months after it launched in January this year, the startup has connected 10 000 jobseekers with over 1 000 employers.

Speaking to Shafin Anwarsha who’s Giraffe’s co-founder, he explains that the recognition is a massive confidence boost for the company:

We’ve always believed in our vision to help reduce unemployment in South Africa and beyond- we think what we’re doing is really cool and we hope to help a lot of people. The Seedstars award really affirms other people’s belief in our idea and business model and it encourages us to keep pushing to make it a success.

And what a validation it is. The startup was pitted up against 11 other tech-savvy teams from around the country. African payment solution Causal Nexus was the runner-up with music streaming service NicheStreem coming in third.

Read more: Meet South Africa’s 12 selected startups for Seedstars World 2015

A main sponsor and host of the event Standard Bank head of incubator Jayshree Naidoo, added: “Standard Bank has seen the need to recognise the startup community as well as accessing innovative companies that can improve our value chain as well as our corporate client base.”

The other startups that pitched are as follows:

• Custos: helps media owners protect their content against piracy by detecting the original infringer using the Bitcoin blockchain.
• mySOS: a free, lifesaving tool for all South Africans, when you don’t know who to call, don’t know where you are and really need help!
• Azimuth: provides mining companies with frequent, accurate maps of unstable areas to minimise loss of life and damage to infrastructure.
• The RedFish Group: a home improvement platform where you can post your job to get vetted and rated tradesmen to respond to you.
• Modular Innobox: designs and pilots modular social businesses inside shipping containers in rural and low income communities.
• Fitkey: provides unlimited access to all types of gym/fitness classes with one unique key.
• Dronescan:  provides time, energy and safety savings in large warehouses by using drones to do inventory counting 300 times faster than humans.
• Quainted Consulting: measures and improves corporate employees’ performance, to the benefit of both the corporate and employee.

Seedstars World’s next stop in Africa is at the end of July in Lagos, to select the best startup in Nigeria.