Blended, the leading school platform in Latin America, improves communication between schools and families with a simple technology. Federico Hernandez won the most prestigious prize dedicated to emerging economies’ startups: up to $500,000 in equity investment and unique growth opportunities.
“The Seedstars experience, I believe, is very important for entrepreneurs. More than the money, I have received so much and taken in so many great ideas from entrepreneurs all over the world. Seedstars work is fundamental in showcasing that great companies exist everywhere.” says Hernandez, CFO & Founder of Blended: a mobile communication platform connecting schools with families in Latin America. With a user-friendly collaborative interface, they optimize communication, and improve learning results with state-of-the-art technology at an affordable cost.
Seedstars World’s Seedstars Summit is not only a conference but an opportunity for stakeholders active in impact investment, tech and entrepreneurship to network and benefit from a unique hands-on growth experience. During April 2nd and 3rd, startups participated in a two-day bootcamp with more than 60 experts supporting them in achieving their next milestones.
During the private Investor Forum on April 4th, 12 finalists were selected to compete on the main stage. On the Summit Day – April 5th – the startups delivered 3-minute pitches on the main stage in front of more than 1,000 hand-picked ecosystem builders, corporates, investors, startup enthusiasts representing some of the most prominent names of tech and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
According to Pierre-Alain Masson co-founder at Seedstars, “We are very proud to be supporting all these entrepreneurs and we’ll continue to expand our activities with the launch of new acceleration and training programs across the world. We’ll also be announcing more funding to these unbelievable entrepreneurs that we have seen on stage all week.”
On top of the $500,000 investment prize for the Seedstars Global Winner, Seedstars and its partners awarded 7 additional prizes:
- Public Prize by Vaud: SPEI allowed the Summit attendees to vote for the best tech start-ups among the Seedstars Global Competition winners. YNMO from Saudi Arabia is a SaaS that allows disabilities service providers including schools, centers & clinics to design and monitor individualized treatment plans.
- Labeskey / Schoolap, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, won the Transforming Education Prize by TRECC and the School of Management Fribourg, winning access to the Seedstars Growth Program worth $50,000. The online platform provides tools to improve the education system with school administration management modules.
- TAG Heuer, Seedstars World official timekeeper, partnered with Seedstars Summit to reward the Innovation Prize to Wobot. The Indian startup allows companies to automate their surveillance systems with Artificial Intelligence.
- Seedstars Vaccine Delivery Challenge was awarded to the South African startup Iyeza, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. $10,000 will be provided to improve their web platform for the delivery of Human PapillomaVirus (HPV) vaccine to young women.
- Also with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Seedstars Malaria Challenge was awarded to Medsaf, through their platform, the Nigerian startup connects pharmacies and hospitals with safe and cost-effective medication.
- Along with Seedstars, Merck awarded the Life Science Prize to Oxpecker Labs from Hong Kong. They will participate in the Merck Acceleration program and scale up their non-invasive sweat sensor to help prevent dehydration and heat strokes.
- 7keema, the first on-demand home nursing services of its kind from Egypt, won the Rising Tide Foundation Empowerment Prize. They won access to the Seedstars Growth Program as well as an equity investment.
