SA startups get ready: Seedstars World applications to open later this month

Applications to global competition for emerging markets Seedstars World will open to SA startups again when the initiative returns to South Africa later this month.

Seedstars World will hold events in Johannesburg on 26 May and in Cape Town on 8 June, with the top applicants to be invited to the finale hosted at the Standard Bank Auditorium in Johannesburg on 29 June.

The SA leg of Seedstars World is being held in partnership with Standard Bank and other local partners such as Enel, Microsoft4Afrika, Orange, Merck, TRECC and Deloitte. Other local partners include Entrepreneur Traction, PayU, Seedspace, Simodisa and Startup Grind.

To be eligible to apply for the competition startups need to be less than two years old, have raised under $500,000 in funding and have built a minimum viable product.

Additionally, eligible startups would need to have existing traction and some regional and global scalability.

“Standard Bank is proud to be the country sponsor of Seedstars South Africa for the third year,” said Jayshree Naidoo, head of the Standard Bank incubator in a press release to Ventureburn.

Seedstars World is ‘amazing, inspiring’ experience — Arjun Khoosal, IDWork

“These partnerships allow us to help change the narrative of the potential that exists on the continent and helps us recognise and create access to market opportunities for those businesses that make it to the regional finals and the finals,” said Naidoo.

In addition to the SA leg, the global competition will travel to 80 countries in search of their best startups to pitch for their chance at winning $500,000 in investments. Previous Seedstars World participants have raised over $61-million collectively, providing employment to more than 800 employees worldwide.

“South Africa does indeed have world class entrepreneurial talent. Our priority for 2017 is to cast the net event wider and give the opportunity to the whole country to participate and become part of a global journey,” said regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World Claudia Makadristo.

South Africa has been represented before at previous Seedstars World finals. Giraffe won the global prize in 2015 and in 2016 IDWork was the competition’s wildcard winner.

“The entire Seedstars world experience has been absolutely amazing — from the regional summit in Rwanda to the global summit in Switzerland. I have been very inspired by the entrepreneurs from all different corners of the world.

“Together with them, I got to meet investors, mentors and corporates,” said IDWork co-founder Arjun Khoosal.

Featured image via Seedstars World