South African start up Lumkani will be going to Geneva for the Seedstars World (SSW) final event on 4 February.
Lumkani won Seedstars Cape Town last July and is among the 36 start-ups that will compete and pitch for $500 000 equity investment.
More than 1 500 start-ups from Eastern and Central Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America applied to participate in Seedstars World. During its world tour in 2014, Nellie Horn and Julien Berthomier, Seedstars
World’s Global Scouts, hosted local competitions in 36 countries to find the best locally-grown start-ups.
Countries represented at Seedstars World include Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Serbia, Iran, UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland and founded by Alisee de Tonnac and Pierre-Alain Masson, the competition is supported by venture builder Seedstars SA. After its first successful edition in 2013 across 20 cities, SSW expanded its competition massively to more than 30 countries.
Every regional event featured up to 20 start-ups, during which they had to prove their worth in six minutes of pitching time and withstand the questions from a local jury of experts (investors, accelerator directors & successful entrepreneurs). Regional winners are then invited back to Geneva for the Grand Final.
“Seedstars World is the culmination of a nine month search for the world’s most innovative tech start up outside Silicon Valley,” explains Alisee de Tonnac, Seedstars World CEO. “Seedstars World will hold its worldwide competition every year and we are expecting to grow exponentially to all the corners of the world.”
Start-up finalists will take part in a three-day boot camp organised in partnership with EPFL, the leading European engineering school. International investors & mentors from top accelerators like BBooster, The Founder’s Institute, Chinaccelerator as well as from the business strategy consultancy Galixo will coach them on their business model.
