Start-ups compete to represent Nigeria at Seedstars regional Africa summit

Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage start-up competition for emerging markets and fast-growing start-up scenes, has ended its scouting and is left with 10 start-ups to compete at the sixth edition of Seedstars Lagos.
With the support of Seedspace Lagos, Seedstars World will be holding a competition on October 19 to choose the country’s Best Start-up, with 10 of Nigeria’s best seed-stage start-ups as participant competitors, the winner will be chosen to represent Nigeria at the Seedstars Regional Africa Summit and also be given the opportunity to compete at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland for the title of Seedstars Global Winner and also win up to $1 million in equity investments, among other prizes.
According to Alessia Balducci, General Manager of Seedspace Lagos, she said “Seedstars World is a platform that connects investors and stakeholders with the next generation of entrepreneurs. Since this will be our 6th time organizing the event at Lagos, the stakes are high and we are very excited. We’ve been in this ecosystem for more than 6 years now and know there are companies in Nigeria developing high-quality products. We are looking for the best and will take it with us to Switzerland in 2019!”
The startups will pitch in front of a jury including Ahmed Umar, COO at Wennovation Hub, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, Director, Partnerships and Evaluation at The Tony Elumelu Foundation, and Chike Asiodu, Managing Director at TextNigeria and more. On October 16, Cisco a supporter of the program, will host a boot-camp for the event.

The competitors include: Aspire Power Solutions, which works to eliminate the barriers that limit access to clean, affordable and reliable energy sources; Beat Drone: Beat Drone uses drones to improve harvest yields and reduce production cost, thus making food affordable and eliminating hunger and poverty ;Biyabot: Biya is a chat-based payment platform that allows users make payments as well as allow merchants request and receive payments via messaging; BridgeBooks: BridgeBooks provides SMEs a platform to structure their business finances, Access finances and make smart financial decisions; Chekkit Technologies Inc.: Chekkit is a blockchain powered anti-counterfeiting, real-time supply chain tracking and customer experience analytics platform.
Others include; DropQue: Dropque which uses a combination of one way unassisted video interviews and a powerful AI assessment assistant to get companies the best candidate; Insight Africa: They help schools improve student’s performance in Maths and sciences to world class standards; Natterbase: they increase the speed and quality of software development; NextCounsel Limited: At NextCounsel simplifies, automates and scales up on law firm’s workflow using comprehensive modules such as Time and Billing Management Termii: Termii is a Saas platform that helps teams secure repeat customers through personalized emails and messages sent across multiple channels.
Nigeria was previously represented by Medsaf who went on to be one of the 10 finalists pitching at the Seedstars World event on April 2018, with their innovative technology platform where hospitals and pharmacies can purchase and manage their medications in one place.
Seedstars World is the world’s largest startup competition in emerging markets and for the last 5 years. Every year, the Seedstars Team takes off for a 9-month world tour and scouts for the best early-stage startups in 65+ countries and organising 100+ events.
One winner is selected to represent each country visited, and is invited to attend one of the 5 Regional Summits, reuniting all local winners of each region to network with regional investors, mentors and corporates.
Local winners are also awarded the chance to represent their countries at the Seedstars Summit, the competition final happening in Switzerland, where startups compete for up to $1 million in investment. TheSeedstars Summit is the flagship event of Seedstars, filled with breakout sessions, panel discussions, specialised workshops and the best minds from emerging markets.
Seedstars is a Swiss-based group with the mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Seedstars connects stakeholders, builds companies from scratch with public and private partners and invests in high-growth startups within these ecosystems.
Seedstars aims at fostering impact investing and impact entrepreneurship over the world through different activities, which range from startup scouting, events organization to company building and acceleration programs, Seedstars has built the world’s biggest community of change makers in emerging markets.
Seedstars group includes the largest startup competition in emerging markets (Seedstars World Competition), the Entrepreneurship Forum for Emerging Markets (Seedstars Summit), physical entrepreneurs hubs (Seedspace), acceleration programs (Seedstars Growth), teaching and training programs (Seedstars Academy) and an investment entity with a startup lab and a fund (Seedstars Investments). Some of Seedstars main partners are Enel (Energy), School of Management Fribourg (HEG Fribourg) & TRECC – Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities (Education), BBVA (Finance), Tag Heuer (Fempreneurship, Time Saving and Innovation), Merck (Health) and Continental (Mobility).