The top three startups of Cape Town to advance to the grand finale are Pargo, a convenient logistic solution that lets customers collect and return their parcels at a local store when it suits them best; Crew Pencil, an online crew booking and diary service for the film industry; and WumDrop, a platform that allows people to pick up and drop off anything with the click of a button. The other startups invited to pitch were AirSME, Britecamp, Carerott, Farmboek, iMobiMama, The Student Hub and Tribal Tourist.
The top three startups will be invited to Johannesburg where they will compete with the best startups from Durban and Soweto, of which one will be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars World South Africa 2016. As part of the prize, the overall winner of South Africa will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, a week-long training programme with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1,000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to $1m equity investment.
The 10 startups pitched in front of a jury consisting of Linda Swart, incubation manager at Standard Bank; Lance Greyling, the director of Trade and Investment of the City of Cape Town; Marlon Parker, founder of Rlabs, Nwabisa Mayema, executive director of nnfinity; Robert Sussman, CEO at Integr8t IT and Charmaine Padayachy, principal at Omidyar Network. Joining them on the jury panel was Michael Weber, founding partner of Seedstars.
In order to provide local entrepreneurs with this opportunity, Seedstars World is working closely with Standard Bank, who is representing the initiative throughout the year. Additional support was provided by local ambassador Dean Cannell of Entrepreneur Traction and other local and international partners, such as Omidyar Network, the Jacobs Foundation and Payfast. Further support was provided by Red Bull, Innovo Networks, Seedspace, Workshop 17 and Spin Street House, amongst others. The event attracted interest from over 60 startups and over 150 attendees.
Continuing on its world tour of startup scenes in emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, Seedstars World’s next stop is Durban, where they will organise a pre-selection event at Mancosa to select the best startups in the city. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.
The Seedstars World event in Durban will take place on Wednesday, 8 June from 4-9pm, tickets are free and attendees can register here.
