10 startups announced to pitch at Seedstars World’s Tanzanian event

Ten of Tanzania’s finest tech startups will compete for a place in the Seedstars World finals in Geneva in 2016. Taking place 5 November in Dar Es Salaam, the finalists will be pitching their ideas to a panel of five judges at the Buni Innovation Hub.

The winner will head to the Seedstars World finals in Geneva, Switzerland in 2016 for a chance to win up to US$500 000 equity investment.

Seedstars World has partnered with Stanic Bank for the Tanzanian leg of the competition. This partnership will not only enable the winner to represent Tanzania in the 2016 finals, but local entrepreneurs will receive additional support from the banking institution.

“Stanbic Bank Tanzania is dedicated to supporting the entrepreneurial spirit that is prevalent in the country and through partnerships like this we are able to do as much,” says head of enterprise banking, Stanic Bank Tanzania, Cristopher Mlay.

Read more: Seedstars World names Angolan job, education portal best regional startup

Tanzania is one of the 55 countries Seedstars World will be visiting for its 2015 competition. This is an increase from the 36 countries in the 2014 competition.

The 10 finalists are:

• Mbezi Recycling – a sustainable solution to providing alternative material to timber.
• Kuliko – affordable products and education to empower impoverished women on safe giving birth.
• Agrinfo – linking farmers to input and output suppliers by recording crops information and farms.
• Time Tickets – convenient mobile-web ticketing application, which offers an end-to-end solution for selling and buying tickets using mobile money.
• Guumzo – a mobile and online app for sharing personal and public voice clips.
• Tango TV – a mobile, web, and TV streaming service for local content, starting with Swahili movies and shows.
• Lemon – a management tool for online project management on web and mobile.
• Edu-Taarifa – SMS system connecting parents and schools in real-time.
• East Africa Fruits Farm & Co – improvisation of storage, handling, and transportation to help smallholder farmers.
• Juabar Tanzania – solar electricity stores providing phone charging services and point of sale energy distribution products.

Seedstars World will also host a two-day bootcamp prior to the event in Tanzania from three to four November. It will consist of mentors sharing their knowledge, which will include a line-up of Doreen Noni, Thabit Bombwe, Gregory Pepper, and others.

Read more: Seedstars World looks for best startup in Dakar

The themes will include The Art of the Pitch, Growth hacking, Getting funded before funding, Financial projections & working with Assumptions, Personal Development & Leadership, Managing team dynamic, and legal frameworks in Tanzania.