Seedstars, the Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets, annually holds the Seedstars World Competition to continuously scout for the most promising startups around the Asia, Africa, CEE, MENA, and LATAM regions. This year, 94 ecosystems were included in the online open call for applications. From there, 1,200 startups participated in the Online Seedstars Academy, a training program for entrepreneurs to accelerate their growth and receive mentorship from industry experts around the world.

The next phase of the competition takes the local winners to the regional stage. From the regionals, 10 startups will receive USD 50K in growth program investment as well as the chance to compete at the Grand Finale for a shot at the Global Winner prize of USD 500K in equity investment.

For the Asia region, there are 19 startups moving on to the next stage stage:

• shurjoMukhi Limited (Bangladesh) - shurjoPay, the online payment gateway owned and operated by shurjoMukhi, is one of only two PSO licensed by Bangladesh Bank since Jan 2016.
• One Click Shop Bhutan (Bhutan) - An e-commerce public-private partnership company based in Bhutan who deals with import of FMCG products and online sales
• PlasGate (Cambodia) - The largest SMS gateway in Cambodia that is keen to develop technology and resources to expand service to a global scale.
• BOXS (Hong Kong) - BOXS is a technology company providing modular software and platform services
• iSchoolConnect (India) - Improves school admissions by utilizing marketing, recruitment, assessment & engagement.
• TukangSayur (Indonesia) - The economical, fresh and hygienic vegetable shopping solution accessible through smartphone.
• Finology (Malaysia) - Finology enables seamless access to financial products via the use of our technology & ready digital distribution channels
• Message Owl (Maldives) - Message Owl is a B2B & B2C SMS platform which allows businesses to send SMS Messages (Promotional and Transaction)
• Kiu Myanmar (Myanmar) - Kiu Myanmar empowers MSME/SMEs to improve their business efficiencies, allowing them to be able to receive loans and grow their business.
• Diyalo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Nepal) - Transforming WASH sector by building IOT enabled solutions to ensure quality water, sustainable water production & transparency
• ELN Limited (Pakistan) - ELN provides 100% online, globally accredited vocational training to over 25 countries in education, quality assurance & health and safety.
• Smartfuture (Singapore) - Offers integrated IoT and AI enabled white label platform for telemedicine to healthcare providers.
• Healthnet (Sri Lanka) - Healthnet would be known as the only pharmacy that helps reduce medication or get rid of chronic illnesses all-together
• Foodie (Thailand) - Foodie is a multi-channel engagement & e-commerce platform for the F&B Industry, built-in with integrated payments & logistics
• Bot Ban Hang (Vietnam) - Bot Ban Hang is a leading messaging-commerce platform & omnichannel commerce for online businesses.
• Nadrua Apps (Fiji) - NaDrua Apps is a software innovation and development company recently founded in Fiji.
• ODESH (Papua New Guinea) - ODESH is Port Moresby city's ridesharing system that provides a cheap, safe and convenient taxi and chauffeur services.
• MedHyve (Philippines) - MedHyve aims to make medical procurement easier for medical institutions through a marketspace fitted with procurement tools and dashboards
• Booking Samoa (Samoa) - Provides Samoan tourism SMEs with more suitable and better value technology solutions, along with higher levels of service and support.

Seedstars Asia Regional Manager Giovanni Corradini shares, "Sourcing for early-stage tech startups used to be linked to the ability of finding the one hidden gem out of hundreds of applications. Times have drastically changed, especially in Asia. With the development of technology, a surge in internet adoption, and a fast-growing market, new entrepreneurs are capturing these opportunities by using technologies to solve our daily problems. It has never been so hard to only select one winner in each ecosystem we have covered across Asia-Pacific, and this is a terrific indicator of the quality of startups raising from the region. I wish the best of luck to all the winners for the next stage of the SSW 2020/21 Competition, and I hope we will see an Asia-based startup becoming the Global Winner this year."

Collaborating with partners from all across Asia, Seeedstars would like to thank all the organizations who helped make this year’s competition possible. A special thanks goes to GSMA and the Australian Government for supporting Seedstars and for digitally bringing the competition to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa.

The regional stage of the competition will include a 1 month long Investment Readiness Program, modernized and personalized program helping startups get investment ready. It will consist of: action-driven webinars on key business metrics; online office hours, where startups can discuss challenges they are facing; domain groups and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions; investor meetings for potential funding opportunities; and peer-to-peer learning and networking sessions.

Online episodes for the regional stage of the competition will be aired at the end of January 2021. Viewers will get to see each local winner pitch in front of the juries and learn more about each of the teams’ startup stories. At the end of each episode, the regional winners moving on to the Global Finale in March 2021 will be announced.

Follow Seedstars’ events page to stay updated: https://seedsta.rs/395Atk3.

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ABOUT SEEDSTARS

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The groups’ activities cover over 90 emerging ecosystems through a variety of initiatives such as the Online Seedstars World Competition, acceleration programs, physical hubs called Seedspace, venture capital investments and company building activities. Seedstars The Documentary is a feature film featuring the company’s vision to give a voice to the game changers of the developing world.

"They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." - Mexican proverb

ABOUT SEEDSTARS WORLD COMPETITION

In 2013, Seedstars started as Seedstars World, an initiative created by founding partners Pierre-Alain Masson and Alisée de Tonnac who, equipped with a backpack and passion to change the world, set on a world tour across 20 entrepreneurial ecosystems to scout for the most promising early-stage startups and build the largest entrepreneurial community in emerging markets.

The first startup competition in 13 countries was a massive success and gained attention on a global scale. It showed to the world the untapped potential of developing economies, innovative solutions and talented entrepreneurs willing to transform their communities. This led to larger tours for the following six years, bringing together thousands of entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and experts. Today, Seedstars World is the largest startup competition in emerging markets.

However, in 2020, things are taking on a new twist. Reimagining its World Tour online, Seedstars will now digitally travel across the globe for a 9-month world tour to scout for the best early-stage startups in 90+ countries, organizing 100+ online local competitions. One winner will be selected to represent each country and will be invited to attend one of the 5 Regional stage competitions, reuniting all local winners of each region to network with regional investors, mentors and corporates. Regional winners are also awarded the chance to represent their countries at the Grand Finale, the competition’s final happening each year in April, where startups compete for up to $500,000 in investment.

CONTACT

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