Legal services marketplace Apptorney has been named winner of the Zambian leg of the global Seedstars World competition, booking a place at the global final and the chance to pitch for US$500,000 in equity investment.
Seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets Seedstars World is selecting national winners from all over the world, including around 30 African countries, and will bring them together at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland next year to compete for funding and a host of other prizes.
It has already chosen winners in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Angola, The Gambia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cape Verde, Tunisia, Malawi, Cameroon, Mauritius, Uganda, Libya, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Mozambique, and held its Zambian event on Wednesday at BongoHive.
Nine seed-stage startups pitched in front of a local jury panel for a place in the final, with Apptorney, which promotes access to justice through a marketplace for legal services and information, named overall winner.
The startup will now take part in the global final in Switzerland, where it will have the chance of winning the equity funding, but will also represent Zambia at the Seedstars Africa regional summit in Johannesburg in December and gain access to a three-month investment readiness programme.
Ed-tech startup Brigher Futures came second, while cloud-based accounting solution Nyamukabooks was third. The other six startups that pitched were fintech startup Economic Recovery Initiatives, musical learning platform Edusongs Solutions, motor vehicle licence renewal platform Garibara, insurtech startup Insurepay, payments startup Payplus, and manufacturing company Tricore.
