Three Cape Town startups have been selected to advance to the grand finale set to be held in Johannesburg where they will compete with the best startups from Durban and Soweto, of which one will be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars World South Africa 2016.
The three include Pargo, a convenient logistic solution that lets customers collect and return their parcels at a local store when it suits them best, Crew Pencil, an online crew booking and diary service for the film industry and WumDrop, a platform that allows people to pick up and drop off anything with the click of a button.
The other startups invited to pitch were AirSME, Britecamp, Carerott, Farmboek, iMobiMama, The Student Hub and Tribal Tourist.
“It’s great to win with so many other amazing startup entries. It is also great to see so many people that came to watch, including a lot of people from the industry (entrepreneurs and investors). Just last night I spoke to so many interesting and relevant people which is eventually the main reason to enter and join.” explains Lars, co-founder of Pargo.
As a part of the prize, the overall winner of South Africa will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world.
Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to the USD 1 million equity investment.
The 10 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury consisted of Linda Swart, Incubation Manager at Standard Bank, Lance Greyling, the Director of Trade and Investment of the City of Cape Town, Marlon Parker, Founder of Rlabs, Nwabisa Mayema Executive Director of nnfinity, Robert Sussman CEO at Integr8t IT and Charmaine Padayachy, Principal at Omidyar Network. Joining them on the jury panel was Michael Weber, founding partner of Seedstars.
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“We have big plans for South Africa and seeing the quality of the startups today reassured us that we have made the right decision in launching our other project ,Seedspace.” says Michael Weber, Founding Partner of Seedstars World.
In order to provide local entrepreneurs with this opportunity and aiming to deliver the best possible event, Seedstars World is closely worked with Standard Bank, who is representing the initiative throughout the year. Additional support was provided by local ambassador Dean Cannell of Entrepreneur Traction and other local and international partners, such as Omidyar Network, the Jacobs Foundation and Payfast. Further support was provided by, amongst others, Red Bull, Innovo Networks, Seedspace, Workshop 17 and Spin Street House. The event attracted interest from over 60 startups and over 150 attendees.
Continuing on its world tour of startup scenes in emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, Seedstars World’s next stop is Durban, where they will organize a pre-selection event at Mancosa to select the best startups in the city. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.
“Seedstars has been a great partner in South Africa assisting us to unlock the potential of the Startup community. We are extremely proud to be extending the Seedstars competition to include Durban as part of our Virtual Incubator offering. We look forward to the Seedstars event in Durban in June where we select the top 3 to join us at the grand finale at the Standard Bank Business Incubator in Rosebank.” says Jayshree Naidoo, Standard Bank Incubator Head.
The Seedstars World event in durban will take place on Wednesday, June 8th from 4-9PM, tickets are free and attendees can register here.
