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The annual Seedstars World summit will take place tomorrow in Geneva, Switzerland, with 54 finalists from across the world – including 13 from Africa – pitching for US$500,000 equity investment.
Last year, the Seedstars World global contest hosted African heats in Mozambique, South Africa,Nigeria, Ghana,Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania, Senegal and Botswana.
The 13 winning startups have this week taken part in a two-day bootcamp, and will now pitch for the title of Seedstars World Global Winner and US$500,000 in equity investment. Around 1,000 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate executives, business angels, government officials, journalists and startup enthusiasts are expected to attend the event.
The two-day bootcamp was run by international investors and mentors from top accelerators such as The Founder’s Institute and 500 Startups, as well as business strategy consultancies and managers such as Filippo Bonsanti, director of marketing strategy at Ebay, and Jose Achache, managing director at AP-Swiss.
The semifinals take place today, with 12f finalists proceeding to the final round tomorrow.
“Most people don’t really associate emerging markets to a billion of opportunities and we’re here to show them that these markets are already transforming into centres of innovation where talented people and changemakers grow,” said Alisée de Tonnac, chief executive officer (CEO) at Seedstars World.
As part of the third edition of the Seedstars World competition, Seedstars, Inmarsat and AP-Swiss will be presenting a Space Prize. Seven startups will compete for a US$50,000 grant, including African startups Juabar (Tanzania), Modular Innobox (South Africa) and SolarizEgypt (Egypt).
The event will also see 10 travel startups from around the world compete for equity investment from lastminute.com group. African startups Maramoja (Kenya), MyQ (Nigeria) and Airshop (Ivory Coast) will compete in this track.
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