Seedstars has held a bootcamp and a bustling pitching event in Côte d’Ivoire, having finally selected Lifiled to represent the country at the Seedstars Regional Summit in South Africa to compete for up to USD one million in equity investment and other prizes .
Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Côte d’Ivoire round to a successful close during the finals at Seedstars Abidjan. The intense quest took place in an event, co-organized with Orange Fab Côte d’Ivoire.
Seedstars is now very proud to present the winner, LIFILED, for its innovative sustainable solution that gives access to Lighting, High speed Internet and educational content using a LED light bulb and Lifi (Light Fidelity) technology.
As a part of the prize, LIFILED will be participating at the Seedstars Summit Africa 2019 in Johannesburg, and the global Seedstars Summit, which takes place in Switzerland, in April 2020. It is a weeklong training program, with the opportunity to meet the 65+ winners from other fast growing economies, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the Summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of more than 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to USD one million in equity investment and other prizes.
During Seedstars Abidjan, 9 startups had the chance to pitch in front of a prestigious jury, including Edith BROU from ACG Enterprises, Hassan BOURGI , former Ceo of BusPortal, Nous Bih from Investors &Partners, Yves OUYA from Sika Finance, Maniella Ollo from Yhoax Group and Clement Delcourt from Seedstars Ivory Coast who said “Seedstars Abidjan was an incredible opportunity of growth for the local startups”.
Seedstars Abidjan also featured Mme Anne-Lugon Moulin, Ambassador of Switzerland in Côte d’Ivoire, who gave the introductory speech of the event. Seedstars World’s main local partner was Orange Fab. Further support was provided by our media and innovation partners Disrupt Africa, Startup Box Ivoire, BabyLab, Incub’Ivoir and AIDLES. The event attracted interest from over 70 startups, and around 200 attendees.
Panelys Cash with it’s solution to transfer money to a visa card by SMS, took the second place and KAMTAR, who’s rethinking mobility and logistics in Africa using digital tools grabbed the last spot in the top 3.
The other startups invited to pitch were:
- Legafrik is a legal platform which offers legal, tax and accounting assistance to entrepreneurs
- Julaya is a mobile wallet enabling merchants to access financial services
- EASY is an on-demand dry cleaning and shoemaking service available 7 days a week, with a pick up and delivery at home or office in 48 Hours
- Meditect ensures authenticity and traceability of medicines using blockchain and artificial intelligence in developing countries.
- Seekewa is a digital community platform that reinvents food and agriculture by linking small farmers to financing in a very innovative way.
- Ata Solution: a connected agriculture solution that supports the farmer for improved productivity.
In addition, GIZ and Seedstars awarded the best women-led startups with the launch of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Award.
Other prizes and winners awarded by Seedstars’ partners are the DOEN Land Restoration Award (for the best solutions in the field of land restoration and degradation on the continent) and the “Job Creation” category with the African Development Bank (AfDB) which aims to train, support, promote and reward young companies that have the potential to create sustainable jobs in Africa.
Continuing on its world tour of fast-growing startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop in Africa is Maputo, to select the best startup in Mozambique.
Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.
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ABOUT SEEDSTARS
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” – Mexican proverb
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, that range from startup scouting, events organization to company building and acceleration programs, Seedstars has built the world’s biggest community of changemakers 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 & 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).
ABOUT SEEDSTARS WORLD COMPETITION
Seedstars World is the world’s largest startup competition in emerging markets. It has been five years now that Seedstars Team takes off every year for a nine-month world tour and scouts for the best early-stage startups in 65+ countries, organizing 100+ events. One winner is selected to represent each country visited, and is invited to attend one of the five 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 one million dollars in investment. The Seedstars Summit is the flagship event of Seedstars, filled with breakout sessions, panel discussions, specialized workshops and the best minds from emerging markets.