Seedstars World announces final call for startups in Cape Town

Following its announcement earlier this week of the 12 startups that will pitch at Seedstars World Johannesburg today, the major early-stage business competition heads to Cape Town early next month in search of top startups.

Those startups looking to pitch at the event — to be held at Workshop 17 on 8 June — have until only this Sunday (28 May) to apply.

To qualify to pitch startups need to be less than two-years old, have raised less than $500,000 in funding and have a working example of their product or service. Startups also need to have existing traction and the capacity for regional and global scalability.

Partnering with Standard Bank and local ambassador Entrepreneur Traction, Seedstars World has also received additional support by regional partners Enel and Merck and local partner Payfast.

“These partnerships allow us to help change the narrative of the potential that exists on the continent and helps us recognise and create access to market opportunities for those businesses that make it to the regional finals and the finals,” said Standard Bank Incubator head Jayshree Naidoo, in a press release to Ventureburn.

‘The talent we find in SA through the Seedstars competition amazes me’

Apart than South Africa, the competition’s scouting team will also travel to 79 other countries in search of the best startups that will compete for up to $500,000 in equity funding at next year’s Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland.

“We have consistently managed to find high-quality startups in Cape Town. We expect that this ongoing trend will continue and are extremely happy to return and find the next potential South Africa and global winner,” said Claudia Makadristo, the regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World.

South Africa has been represented before at previous Seedstars World finals. Giraffe won the global prize in 2015 and in 2016 IDWork was the competition’s wildcard winner.

“This is our third year partnering with this awesome global initiative and it always amazes me the amount of talent we find in South Africa through the Seedstars competition,” said Vuyisa Qabaka, a Seedstars ambassador in South Africa and a partner at Entrepreneur Traction.

Read more: Seedstars selects 12 startups for Joburg pitching event this week

Featured image: David Brossard via Flickr (CC 2.0, resize)