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GLOBAL • SEEDSTARS WORLD
Seedstars Global
MARCH 26, 2021
The local winners of the Seedstars World Competition (SSW) 2020 have been announced. From over 5,000 applicants, 94 tech startups from emerging markets were selected to advance to the regional stage of the competition. The local winners are set to represent their respective countries as they compete for a spot at the Global Finale, where the grand prize is $500K in funding. For more information about the competition, visit the Seedstars website: https://seedsta.rs/2HrNglF
“During this unusual year for everyone, I am proud to say that we managed to identify the most promising startups in 94 emerging markets. The online format of the competition allowed us to dream and go bigger as we reached a larger audience and invited more startups from all the cities of each country to apply. Now, we can’t wait for our local winners to represent their countries in the webisodes of the regional stage of the competition. I’d like to invite everyone to follow their journey and root for their favorite startup from the different corners of the world,”
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.
Seedstars has selected 94 startups moving on to the regional stage with upcoming online events lined up for the remaining winner announcements:
The competition rounded up tech startups in Asia from various industries. Along with the effects of the pandemic come the rise of FoodTech and e-commerce platforms, such as One Click Shop Bhutan (Bhutan), TukangSayur (Indonesia), and KloudKitchen (Thailand) that make it easy to shop for groceries as well as optimize logistics for food production and delivery. The HealthTech industry is also booming with opportunity. Regional finalists smartfuture (Singapore), Healthnet (Sri Lanka), and MedHyve (Philippines) offer solutions addressing both the need for accessible healthcare and health supplies.
EdTech startups iSchoolConnect (India), providing optimized admissions systems, and ELN Limited (Pakistan), offering online vocational training, serve as timely solutions for today’s online educational shift. Startups offering FinTech solutions for payments, access to financial products, and loans were also selected to move on to the next round - shurjoMukhi Limited (Bangladesh), Finology (Malaysia), and Kiu Myanmar (Myanmar), respectively. Enterprise software startups have also made it to the mix: PlasGate (Cambodia) as an SMS gateway and BOXS (HK/China) as a platform for modular software services.
A few more interesting startups who made it to the regionals are Diyalo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Nepal), focused on water sanitation as well as SMS platform MessageOWL (Maldives) and messaging-commerce platform, Chatbot Vietnam (Vietnam). Lastly, coming from the Pacific Islands, startups Nadrua Apps (Fiji), ODESH (Papua New Guinea), and Booking Samoa (Samoa) are making waves in the software development industry, ridesharing, and transportation services respectively.
For the Africa region, there were a lot of promising startups focused on providing HealthTech solutions. Namely, HMO-Africa (Burundi) specializes in making healthcare accessible for the poor; Rohobot Home Based Health Care Service P.L.C (Ethiopia) provides home healthcare services; and Innovarx Global Health (Gambia) caters to healthcare delivery needs. Other HealthTech startups are Denko Kunafoni (Mali), which focuses on delivering health information to women and BioMec (Mozambique), a bionic prosthetics company.
With a focus on helping connect companies to job seekers, these 4 HR tech startups are joining the regionals: Dial-a-skill (Botswana), CodeLn (Ghana), Keys Job (Senegal), and Zindi (South Africa). Crowdfunding and payments solutions are also represented by Astech-Congo - Umoja Funding (DRC), BrillantTS Africa [C32-PEX] (Mauritius), Ladda (Nigeria), and Sparco Inc. (Zambia)
More than ever, AgriTech solutions are necessary across the continent. Startups AIT Group (Poultry Farmers Management Systems) (Cameroon), Neytech Solutions (Malawi), and Flamingoo Foods Company Ltd (Tanzania) all tackle needs in the market. EdTech startups Zydii (Kenya), OPower Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), and Phenemenon tech (Zimbabwe) are also selected for the next phase. An e-commerce startup from Angola called SOCIA also joins the next stage.
A few transportation-related tech are included in the batch: CAPTURE Solutions COTE d'IVOIRE (Ivory Coast) and Ridelink Limited (Uganda). Tackling solutions in a few other industries are integrated platform solutions, RESERMAR CV Reservas Online (Cabo Verde); IoT startup Tasked Technology Solution CC (Namibia); and service automation provider Octan group (Rwanda).
The CEE regionals will have a lot of interesting startups participating. A majority of the local winners are focused on HealthTech: Alter (Russia), SanoPass (Romania), PharmBonus (Belarus), Noomee (Armenia), and Elomia (Ukraine). Three edtech platforms ABC Planet (Azerbaijan), Okoo (Kazakhstan), and Tomyo (Mongolia) are also joining the regionals.
Fintech startups offering solutions for payments, payroll, investment needs are Payze (Georgia), IMAN (Uzbekistan), Flipful (Latvia), and BrikkApp (Czech Republic). There are also HR tech startups, Zelos (Estonia) and HR Kit (Bulgaria), that are also moving to the next round of the competition.
AgriTech MapMy Apple (Serbia) and retail solution startup Scan and Buy (Poland) complete the current list of local CEE winners. The local winner for Moldova is set to be announced on November 26, 4PM Moldova time. Tune in to the online broadcast by saving the date: https://seedsta.rs/38PTNlb.
More promising startups are moving on to the MENA regionals. Fintech platforms Policyhouse (UAE) and FinFirst Capital (Kuwait) are helping make insurance and banking needs accessible, respectively. HealthTech startups StafMedic (Algeria), Droobi Health Technology (Qatar), Tanfees (Oman), Speetar (Libya) focused on telemedicine solutions to help promote accessibility for the local health and medical needs are among the local winners.
With a mission to improve water sanitation, Akyas (Jordan) and Mruna (Lebanon) were picked to advance to the regionals. EdTech platforms AlRawi Media (Bahrain), Oriigami (Morocco), Alphazed (Syria), and Twin Science & Robotics (Turkey) that focus on supporting students by providing gamified learning platforms and connecting them to tutors claimed their spots at the next stage and other solutions. Startups offering on-demand consumer services in their respective verticals are also part of the regionals: Fix-it (Iraq) specialized in maintenance; Amal (Palestine) for construction; and Paklean (Iran) for laundry.
There is also the supply chain logistics startup Esky Pro (Tunisia) and e-commerce platform IFF (Saudi Arabia) that are advancing to the next phase, along with Al-Mawwan (Egypt), another e-commerce platform specializing in construction materials.
Rounding off the complete list of local winners for this year’s SSW2020 are the LATAM regional finalists. Four enterprise tech startups are solving a variety of enterprise grade issues utilizing, AI, IoT, automation, and digitization: Cuantix (Chile), EDNA (Costa Rica), Cognitiva (Ecuador), and SIA (Panama). Fintech Alfi (Peru) is also infusing financial education with their marketplace for financial products.
Making up the HealthTech startups joining the LATAM regionals are Creotec (Bolivia), a startup producing accessible prosthetics; Bitmec (Guatemala), a digital healthcare platform empowering the underserved rural communities; and PEGASI (Venezuela), a company that helps make healthcare information accessible. Online EdTech platforms Boki (Uruguay) and EduSynch (Brazil) are delivering fun educational tools for students and effective online assessment tools for institutions.
Retail-focused startups helping local businesses increase their sales and digitize their offerings are TiendApp (Colombia) and Aumenta (Paraguay). Through their AI technology, Own The Trip (Dominican Republic) offers travel solutions to travelers and aiwifi (Mexico) brings wifi as a marketing and CI tool businesses. Lastly, Klouser (Argentina), a service provider for digitizing businesses, is also advancing to the next stage.
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.
To follow the competition, you may visit the Seedstars World Competition 2020 page here: https://seedsta.rs/2HrNglF
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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
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.
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