Four young scientists, accompanied by Eskom Expo’s Business Manager, Mmamoloko Rancia Riba, won their place to represent the country at the Indonesia competition, renowned…
Bua to represent Botswana at Seedstars World
Rating app Bua, named the best startup at Seedstars World Gaborone, will go on to represent Botswanan at the global summit in Switzerland in 2017. Here, they’ll compete with more than 60 startups for up to US$1-million in equity.
The event took place at the University of Botswana where 10 startups competed for the coveted spot in the Swiss final. Of the startups that pitched, six were pre-selected and four were wildcards given to entrepreneurs that attended the Udugu Entrepreneurship Week.
Bua is a private rating app which allows you to rate your service privately based on whether or not it was satisfactory. They were also one of the startups which received a wildcard at the Udugu Entrepreneurship Week, days before the Seedstars Competition.
Bua could stand a chance to win up to US$1-million in equity investment at the Seedstars World Global Summit
Coll24, a health framework for quick response to emergency situations and disease outbreak control, came second. In third place was CITIapp, another wildcard entry, that allows travellers to access all their travel apps in one place.
The Botswana leg of the tour was supported by local partner Stanbic Bank Botswana as well as local ambassador Thabo Theron. The event received further support from regional partners such as Microsoft and Intel. Innovation Hub Botswana, as well as VC4Africa, also provided support for the event.
“SMEs are a big creator of employment in many developing economies. Thus, our support of innovation through this partnership talks directly to dedication towards helping ensure further job creation. We are interested in helping transform ideas into realities, into real, thriving businesses,” said the head of enterprise at Stanbic Bank Botswana, Onkabetse Morapedi.
“This partnership is indeed a manifestation of this as we hope to see business success stories from sole proprietors growing into multinationals and even beyond. We are committed towards making this progress real,” he continued.
Featured image: Fernando Hidalgo Marchione via Flickr
