On 8 June, international startup programme, Seedstars, named Guardian Angel, Vitls, and You, Baby & I as winners of the Durban pitching event.
Eight pre-selected startups pitched in front of a panel of judges and audience. After the pitches were completed, the judges picked the winners.
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The three winners will go to Johannesburg where they will compete against winners from Cape Town and Soweto. There, the ultimate winner will go on to represent South Africa in the Seedstars World pitching event in 2017, and stand a chance of winning a US$500 000 equity prize.
Jacobs Foundation will award US$50 000 to the best global education startup at the final event.
Guardian Angel uses GPS tracking to ensure the safety of children and pets, Vitls creates monitoring wearables for monitoring vitals, and finally, You, Baby & I, is an online platform matching mothers to locations and interests.
Read more: Seedstars crowns 3 winners at Cape Town pitching event
They competed against Pocketpa, PicAdoo, X&Go, Wango, and Digital Sauce.
“There was a great energy in the room and we were very impressed with the innovative companies coming out of Durban. We are very excited to be one of the finalists and we are up for the challenge of facing off against South Africa’s best,” says co-founder and CEO of Vitls, Werner Vorster, in a press release to Ventureburn.
Entrepreneur Traction is acting as the local partner for Seedstars, with Standard Bank, Omidyar Network, PayFast, and Seedspace supporting the competition.
“We are extremely proud to be associated with an initiative of this calibre and expect strong diverse entries as we expanded the competition to include two new amazing cities this year, Soweto and Durban,” says head of incubator at Standard Bank, Jayshree Naidoo.
SA-based mobile recruitment platform Giraffe won the 2015 Seedstars World event where it took home the US$500 000 equity prize.
Feature image via Seedstars.
