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OCEANIA • INVESTMENT
Saniya Giniatullina
JUNE 10, 2019
We are excited to announce that this year, Seedstars will extend its worldwide competition to Papua New Guinea and Samoa, thanks to a partnership with the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator and the Australian Government. There will be two separate Seedstars World events hosted in each country which will consist of a two-day bootcamp and a full day pitching competition in front of a panel of international investment experts. The winners of the competition have the opportunity to participate in the upcoming regional and global events by Seedstars.
The previous edition of the Regional Summit in the Asian and Pacific region.
Papua New Guinea and Samoa are the newest additions to the Seedstars network and the first ones from the Pacific Islands, bringing the total number of countries involved in the region to 18. We are very excited to go to these early-stage ecosystems, which we believe can really have a strong impact if empowered and connected both on a regional and global level. To further support the development of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and to facilitate access to investment, Seedstars will be bringing regional mentors to coach the start-ups as well as our Investment Team.
“One of the most rewarding parts of our work is highlighting the talents and ecosystems that are not known for innovation, but that are brimming with the potential and entrepreneurial spirit. I can’t wait to see what we find in the Pacific Islands!”
Seedstars Team Members at a previous edition of the Regional Summit for Asia and the Pacific region.
The events will happen in Papua New Guinea on the 16th, 17th and 18th of July, followed by Samoa on the 24th, 25th and 26th of September. The structure of the events will revolve around the first two days being fully dedicated to the founders of the participating startups to work on challenges of early-stage start-ups: how to find the right product / market fit, how to attract the greatest talents and develop a company culture, which acquisition channels to focus on and how to set-up an ideal customer experience end-to-end.
On top of that, the founders will be taking part in a three-hour pitch training session and have the possibility to discuss their individual challenges with the Seedstars team and local mentors during mentoring sessions, to prepare themselves for the public event on the third day. The winning start-up receives an all-expenses paid trip to the three-day Seedstars Asia Summit and the week-long Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland. At these Summits, they participate in bootcamp sessions, 1:1 mentoring, curated investor meetings, as well as receive extensive visibility and international connections.
“The Pacific Islands are paving their own way towards digital and financial inclusion, realising and employing the potential of digital technology to improve the lives of their citizens and their economies. We’re really pleased to be able to bring these bootcamps and pitching competitions to Papua New Guinea and Samoa and look forward to seeing the results!”
It is a great opportunity for us to empower and foster the local start-up ecosystem, especially when at such an early stage and where capacity building is an especially strong need. We are also very grateful to have such supportive partners such as the GSMA and the Australian Government, without which this initiative wouldn’t have been possible.
