Seedstars World names Angolan job, education portal best regional startup

The venture capital competition for startups from emerging markets, Seedstars World, has revealed the winning startup from the Angolan leg of the competition, held in the capital Luanda. Jobartis, which is an online job and education portal, stood out among 10 other tech startups from around the Southern African country.

The Angolan startup has been invited to pitch alongside other fast-growing companies from around the world in Switzerland in February 2016 where it will stand a chance of securing up to US$500 000 in equity.

The competition follows Seedstars World most comprehensive tour in Africa to date. Since May this year, the organisation has visited a total of 12 countries including Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Botswana.

According to a press release, Luis Verdeja, the co-founder and CEO of Jobartis, had the following to say about his company’s prestigious win: “It’s been a very emotional journey and I am thankful for the recognition of our hard work that we received with this award.”

Read more: Duty free shopping startup named top dog at Seedstars Abidjan

Clausir Ramos from local mobile phone company Unitel, who acted as one of the event’s partners and judges, further explained that this sort of exposure is crucial for the Angolan startup scene going forward:

It was a big challenge because entrepreneurship is a new thing in the Angolan market. This will give the opportunity to Angolan startups to compete on a global stage and learn from entrepreneurs from all over the world.

Runnerups for this leg of the Seedstars World competition include event platform Bitfyr and payments startup ProxyPay.

The Seedstars Luanda event was supported by Unitel which is said to provide follow-on support to the participating entrepreneurs.

Seedstars World’s next stop on the African continent will be Dar Es Salaam where the search for Tanzania’s top tech startup will take place. For more information on the selected startups for the Tanzanian competition, click here.