One of the world’s largest emerging market competitions for tech startups Seedstars World today opened applications to tech startups in Sub-Saharan Africa to apply for its 2018 edition.
Local winners will be invited to represent their country at the Regional Summit in Africa and win a trip to Switzerland, to introduce their startup to some of world’s most prominent investors and executives and enjoy the opportunity to win up to $1-million in equity investments and additional prizes.
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So far Seedstars has held two pitching events in Africa, both earlier this month. In Egypt on-demand home nursing service 7kemma came out tops, while in Tunis, Tunisia logistics services marketplace Optimalogistic was crowned the winner.
Read more: Logistics services marketplace Optimalogistic wins Seedstars Tunis
Read more: On-demand home nursing service 7kemma wins Seedstars Cairo
In a press release today, Seedstars said it plans to visit 20 or more cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, hosting bootcamps and pitch competitions. Countries such as Mauritius and Zambia, among others, will host local competitions for the first time, enlarging the impact of Seedstars mission in the continent.
Seedstars said it plans to visit 20 or more cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, hosting bootcamps and pitch competitions
Seedstars has so far held five editions of its competition and African startups have had significant successes with 3 of its entrepreneurs having won the global prize in the past: SimplePay (Nigeria: 2013), Giraffe (South Africa: 2015) and Agrocenta (Ghana: 2018).
To stand a chance to take part in each pitching event, startups must be less than two years old, have raised less than $500,000 in funding and have built a minimum viable product, ideally with existing traction.
The Seedstars World team is searching for one additional criterion – the startup’s regional and global scalability.
With a strong network of regional partners such as Merck, SPECo, Enel or Continental, Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that are addressing underlying social challenges in their home countries and developing profitable products for the global market, to support their regional businesses and growth.
Applications are open here for startups in South Africa, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, Rwanda, Angola, Zambia, Mauritius, Botswana and Zimbabwe, among others.
The pitching events in Africa confirmed by Seedstars so far are:
Casablanca — 22 June (*now postponed to 6 July)
Algiers — 28 June
Harare — 29 June
Abidjan — 29 June
Accra — 13 July
Kigali — 18 July
Nairobi — 10 August
Lagos — 17 August
Kampala — 24 August
Dakar — 7 September
Gaborone — 14 September
Dar es Salaam — 21 September
Kinshasa — 21 September
Maputo — 28 September
Doula — 28 September
Luanda — 12 October
Bamako — 20 October
Accra — 26 October
South African finals — 2 November
Addis Ababa – 30 November
Startups from Sub-Saharan Africa an apply here.
