Eleven Cape Town startups have been selected to take part in the annual Sparkup! programme, which begins today and will culminate with the companies pitching for on-the-spot investment of up to ZAR1 million (US$68,000)
Sparkup! has run alongside the annual Net Prophet conference in Cape Town since 2011, with Net Prophet returning this year on April 7 after a one-year hiatus.
The fully-funded three-day programme – which begins today – allows the startups to boost their business thinking and groom their business models, working with a range of seasoned experts, coaches and mentors.
At the end of the programme, they have the opportunity pitch their idea and secure investment from angel investors.
The 11 startups selected to take part are athlete management and performance tracking platform BoxChamp, procurement platform TenderPoint, smart storage solution SpaceBox, crew diary and booking service Crew Pencil, services marketplace Cloudlife, loyalty app ReMe, jobs platform FindHire, tutoring marketplace Tutorfy, digital content startup SeaMonster, agricultural resource FarmBoek and e-commerce platform Round Shopper.
At last year’s event, startups Intelworld and Vula Mobile were offered a total of US$150,000 in funding from investors. Five startups pitched in total, with the list completed by Tyrenet, Erato and Gummie. In 2014, Ekaya, 8Bit and Shopstar earned funding.
