Renowned startup competition Seedstars World kicked off its African chapter in Maputo, Mozambique last month. Cinema booking site Moovi walked away with a ticket to Switzerland where it will stand a chance of winning up to US$1.5-million in investments. This week, it’s up to South Africa’s Cape Town to show the world what it’s startups are made of.
The 11 startup teams from Cape Town will pitch 30 June after which five will be invited to Johannesburg to compete against the top companies from Johannesburg at the grand final for South Africa 17 July.
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Regional manager for Africa Marcello Schermer says that Seedstars World is proud to bring the cream of Cape Town’s entrepreneurial crop together. “What unites these companies is not just a great idea but an impressive level of technical sophistication, execution power and the potential to go global,” he says in an email.
Schermer continues saying that the event this week is unique in that it takes local entrepreneurial talent from across a variety of industries and puts it on a global stage.
The organisation has partnered with Standard Bank to help South African entrepreneurs tap into the services and offerings of its accelerators to further accelerate their growth.
Seedstars World further partnered with Lastminute.com which will award up to US$500 000 in equity to the best travel startup overall as well as Inmarsat and AP-Swiss offering a US$50 000 grant to the best space startup in the competition.
As listed on the site, these are the eleven Capetonian startups that will pitch at Seedstars Cape Town 30 June:
Azimuth
Azimuth provides mining companies with frequent, accurate maps of unstable areas to minimise loss of life and damage to infrastructure
Custos Media Technologies
Custos uses the Bitcoin blockchain to help media owners protect their content against piracy, by detecting the original infringer.
Gummie
Gummie offers a curated marketplace for activities and adventures in South Africa.
Last Mile for BoP
Last Mile for BoP wants to take care of the last mile distribution of goods and services in townships and poor rural areas to foster social change and market opportunities.
Mintor
Mintor is described as the world’s first freelance platform where small businesses and students help each other grow.
mySOS
mySOS is a free, lifesaving tool for all South Africans. It offers clients access to appropriate emergency assistance.
NicheStreem
As the name suggests, NicheStreem builds specialist music streaming services for passionate fans of niche music.
Pushmoney
Pushmoney offers a mobile ordering application, security switch network with PoS integration to afford a profitable mobile strategy for retailers.
SenseLab
SensLab seeks to make sense of gathered Earth data from networks of small satellites through a dynamic communications platform.
Tastemakers Africa
Tastemakers Africa (or awkwardly stylised as TSTMKRS) is a mobile app and content platform that seeks to revolutionise what the world’s perception about travelling in Africa.
The RedFish group
RedFish is a platform that connects customers and tradesmen. People can use it to find anything from builders, architects and any other service provider for home improvement jobs.
