Eight startups have been selected to compete at the Durban leg of the global startup pitching contest Seedstars World, with the top three startups to compete against the winners of the Cape Town and Soweto events.
Seedstars World announced it will visit 20 African countries for the 2016 edition of its world tour, up from the 13 African stops in last year’s competition. Winners of each regional event will join other finalists from across the world at the global finals to be held in Switzerland, where startups battle it out for up to US$1 million in investment.
In South Africa, Seedstars decided to hold pre-selection events in Cape Town, Durban and Soweto ahead of a national final to be held in Johannesburg, at which the top three startups from each local event will go head-to-head, to win the place in the global finals.
The Cape Town selection event took place this week, with e-logistics solutions Pargo and WumDrop, as well as online crew booking and diary service Crew Pencil, named winners.
The Durban event takes place on June 8, and the eight startups to pitch to thepanel of judges have now been selected.
The eight startups from Durban are You, Baby and I – an online brand platform for mothers; wearable medical device producer Vitls; GPS personal tracking product Guardian Angel Safety Solution; Pocketpa – an on-demand concierge service app; RhinoRecon Group, which provides an app for booking hairdressers; UXFoundry Pty. Ltd. – a platform for creating custom and enhanced instant messaging apps for businesses; dating app Wango; and Digital Sauce, which aims to simplify the process of receiving quotes for home renovations.
“After seeing more and more activity coming up from Durban, we decided to put it on the map of our 2016 tour, and so far we are very impressed with the startups and the ecosystem in general. We can’t wait to see the startups pitching at Seedstars Durban next week,” says Marcello Schermer, regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World.
The event takes place on June 8, between 4pm and 9pm. Tickets are free and attendees can register here .
