After doing rounds across the world, in nine months and to 36 countries, Seedstars World competition, an exclusive startup competition for emerging markets and fast growing startup scenes has selected 36 startups to battle for USD 500K equity investment at an event to be held in Geneva this February.
In Africa the competition was held in various cities on various dates and below is the list of regional finalists representing their countries and regions for the final prize.
1. Cape Town’s Lumkani-a fire alarm for slum environments led by David Gluckman as CEO.
2. Ghana’s Beam-enables safe money transfer via Bitcoin formerly known as Kitiwa and led by Nikunj Handa, Kitiwa’s CEO.
3. Kenya’s OkHi-which aims to give every smartphone user a geographical address led by CEO Timbo Drayson.
4. Uganda’s Remit- which enables safe money transfer via mobile wallets and led by CEO Stone Atwine.
5.Nigeria’s Green Energy- which turns plastic waste into generator and car fuel led by CEO Choji Bare.
6.Senegal’s Poeyek.com a gagné avec leur appareil de gestion d’entreprise, qui ressemble à une tablette, pour les petits commerçants en Afrique le CEO de Poeyek Ted Boulou.
7.Rwanda’s Torque-an online management system for wholesale distributors led by founder Jean Niyotwagira.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland and founded by Alisee de Tonnac and Pierre-Alain Masson and is backed by venture builder Seedstars SA. After its first successful edition in 2013 across 20 cities, SSW expanded its competition massively to more than 30 countries. Every regional event featured up to 20 startups, during which they had to prove their worth in six minutes of pitching time and withstand the questions from a local jury of experts (investors, accelerator directors & successful entrepreneurs). Regional winners are then invited back to Geneva for the Grand Final.
“Seedstars World is the culmination of a nine month search for the world’s most innovative tech startup outside Silicon Valley.” explains Alisee de Tonnac, Seedstars World CEO. “Seedstars World will hold its worldwide competition every year and we are expecting to grow exponentially to all the corners of the world.”