Tradesman platform IDWork crowned Seedstars World SA winner [update]

Update: added comment from Sayo Folawiyo

The South African leg of the Seedstars World competition has finally come to a close, with IDWork crowned the overall SA winner.

Held in Johannesburg on 30 June, the event consisted of ten startups — from the Cape Town, Durban, and Soweto pitching events — as well as the ‘Wild Card,’ IDWork. All of the contestants pitched in front of a panel of judges and an audience.

IDWork will go on to represent SA in the SeedStars World finale in Switzerland in March 2017, where it will stand a chance of winning a US$500 000 equity prize.

A Gauteng-based startup, IDWork is a platform for utilising and reviewing tradesmen for construction needs.

“I became an entrepreneur mostly because I felt there was a difference I could make, I wanted to learn and also make an impact, and also do stuff that I really enjoyed with my co-founders. I also thought that entrepreneurship through the use of technology was the way to do it,” writes CEO of IDWork, Sayo Folawiyo, in a press release to Ventureburn.

The other nine contestants consisted of Crew Pencil, Pargo, WumDrop, Guardian Angel Safety Solution, You, Baby and I, Vitls, Sortd, UmoyAir Communications, and Riovic.

The startups pitched in front of a jury that consisted of Jayshree Naidoo (Standard Bank Incubator Head), Polo Radebe (Chief Executive Officer at IDF), Ravi Naidoo (Executive Director for Economic Development & Tourism at City of Johannesburg), Charmaine Padayachy (Principal at Omidyar Network), Fritz Milosevic (Managing Partner at Dotadvisors) and Marcello Schermer (Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars World).

The local Seedstars partnership is handled by Entrepreneur Traction, with Omidyar Network, PayFast, Seedspace, and Standard Bank also supporting the competition.

SA startups Giraffe took home first place and US$500 000 at the SeedStars World 2015 event.

Feature image via Seedstars.