Seedstars World, the largest startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes is coming to South Africa for the 7th time, to hold 2 dynamic pitch events this time: 21st November 2019 at 4:00 pm in Cape Town, with the support of the local host Seedspace Capetown, 8 Spin Street Cape Town CBD.
28th November 2019, at 3:00 pm in Johannesburg at JoziHub, 44 Stanley Ave, Milpark, Johannesburg.
After careful screening, the Seedstars team will shortlist up to 10 Startups per city of the best seed-stage startups in each city to give a 3 minutes pitch in English, in front of a jury made up of local startup heavyweights.
The startups selected to pitch at Seedstars Cape Town are:
The companies invited to the training session and to privately pitch at the Seedstars Cape Town and Johannesburg event must have raised less than USD 500k in funding and built a minimum viable product, ideally with existing traction. The Seedstars team is searching for one additional criterion: potential for regional and global scalability.
Besides representing South Africa at the Seedstars Regional Summit, the winner will get a chance to win an all-inclusive trip to Switzerland, to compete at the Seedstars Summit for the title of Seedstars Global Winner and up to USD 500,000 in equity investments and other prizes.
“At Seedstars, we believe talent and good ideas are everywhere. We see ourselves as a platform connecting investors to the next generation of startup entrepreneurs in places where normally people wouldn’t think the startup ecosystem has such traction, growth, and buzz. We are very excited to be in South Africa highlighting such a bustling entrepreneurship ecosystem and we are here to witness the reality”, explains Claudia Makadristo, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars
In order to provide local entrepreneurs with this opportunity and aiming to deliver the best possible event, Seedstars is closely working with HYBR represented by Seedstars Ambassador, Vuyisa Qabaka and Seedspace Cape Town who is representing the initiative in Capetown and Johannesburg.
Further support is provided by GIZ, SAIS, AFDB, and DOEN.
Seedstars, SAFEEM, and GIZ aim have joined forces to increase women participation across all levels to achieve an improved gender balance. The project aims to increase and catalyze investments for women-led startups in Sub-Saharan Africa, drive more inclusive training opportunities for women-led startups across the continent, highlight more women entrepreneurs and to create a tool kit of best practices that aim at achieving an improved gender balance.
Additionally, DOEN partnered with Seedstars to launch the DOEN Land Restoration Prize, in order to find and award the best tech(-enabled) solutions in the land restoration and land degradation space on the continent.
Also, AFDB has joined forces with Seedstars as the main partner for the “Job Creation Track” which aims to train, support, promote and award startups that show potential for creating sustainable jobs in Africa. The bank will support all local boot camps, including a two-day dedicated boot camp at the regional summit.
“This year, Seedstars is partnering with SAIS – Southern Africa Innovation Support to bring you this local event in Maputo. Selected startups will have an opportunity to participate in three months Seedstars Investment Readiness Program supported by SAIS and get seed funding for their businesses”
