The Zimbabwe Seedstars Startup Competition Now Open for Application, to Hold in Lagos in August

The Zimbabwe leg of the Seedstars World competition is currently open for application for innovators in emerging markets and fast-growing markets.

The global competition is held in over 65 emerging and developing markets. The goal is to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through the promotion and investment in entrepreneurship and technology.

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According to Claudia Makadristo, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars, Seedstars World is a platform that connects investors and stakeholders with the next generation of entrepreneurs. As part of our 2018 strategy, we aim to address a number of thematics across the continent and get more players excited by the power of technology in different fields and industries.

On the African continent, the startup pitch competition will hold in 20 countries; local winners of the competition get to represent their countries at the Africa regional summit. The winner of this summit represents the continent at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland. The winner of the Summit in Switzerland takes home the $1m equity investment.

Seedstars World pitching competition for startups kicks off Africa tour in Harare, Zimbabwe https://t.co/tbEFVH0X7m pic.twitter.com/puXDP9SEpr

— Eze Ifeanyi Adebayo (@IfeanyiAbraham) June 12, 2018

Seedstars World competition makes a re-entry into Africa again this year following the completion of the last edition in April. But aside Zimbabwe, local competitions have already being held in two African countries already. Local startup competitions held in Egypt and Tunisia in May. And presently, applications are on for the competition in Morocco.

Applications for the Zimbabwe leg of the competition opened on June 12 and will close on June 19. Holding in Harare, the competition will hold on June 29. From the pool of hundreds of possible applicants, only 10 startups will pitch at this year’s Seedstars Zimbabwe.

For Nigerian startups, the Seedstars local pitch competition will hold in Lagos on August 17. To apply for the competition, the startups must be less than 2 years old, have raised less than US$500,000 in funding, and have a minimum viable product. Also, start-ups must show that their products are scalable for other African countries.

African startups perform really well at the Seedstars competition overall and have so far won three of the last five global pitch contests in Switzerland. Nigeria’s SimplePay won in 2013, South Africa’s Giraffe did in 2015, and Agrocenta from Ghana won the 2018 edition in April.