Global seed-stage startups competition Seedstars World will add more countries to its next tour of Africa as it scouts for top high growth startups and entrepreneurs to accelerate.
The 2017 edition of the tour will see Seedstars World visit more than 25 cities across all the regions of Africa, with new countries such as Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mauritius, Madagascar, Sudan and Zambia added to its tour.
The winner from each country is invited to the final at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to US$500,000 in equity investment, a prize that has previously been won by Nigeria’s SimplePay and South Africa’s Giraffe.
This year’s tour kicks off on May 26 in Johannesburg, South Africa, while winning startups from each country will also be invited to represent their country at the Regional Summit in Africa later this year. Applications are open from tomorrow (April 25).
“We have been absolutely humbled by the talent we witnessed being showcased on the continent. Our tremendous growth has been fueled by our amazing local Seedstars Ambassadors, our partners and many others who truly see the value in collaborating with these startups,” said says Claudia Makadristo, regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World.
“While we are, at the core, an investment company, our focus this year is not only to support the winner of each local event, but support more entrepreneurs in the ecosystem financially, through skills development and working on strategic relationships between the entrepreneurs and our partners.”