Seedstars World Startup Trends — a deep dive into 2015
With 54 SSW regional winners selected out of over 4,400 applications, 2015 was an outstanding year for Seedstars World. What does the future look like for us? To figure this out, we start by taking a closer look at our past achievements and startup trends: Which region got the most funding? What sectors are most of our startups operating in? What is the average number of employees?
Only 15% of the applicants were invited to pitch.
In 2015, the Seedstars World team visited and organized startup pitch competitions in 54 countries across Africa, CEE, Latam, Asia and Mena. The demand to be part of this international initiative was high:
REGIONAL TRENDS
The 620 startups that were accepted into our 2015 startup programs have raised $37,249,928 in funding and employ 2,628 people.
Latam and Asia startups are the highest funded on average.
On average, startups from Latam were most successful in fundraising with an amount of USD 82,000, followed by Asia and CEE. Africa and MENA scored below average. Is the lack of funding in these regions due to a lack of investor appetite or a lack of investment opportunities? You can read our earlier analysis of the situation in Africa here.
Profitability is still to be realized for many regions.
We agree with Peter Thiel, that “Wall Street is always too biased toward short-term profitability and biased against long-term growth”. Nevertheless, profitability is a key metric every startup should sooner or later work on. Analysing the revenue and burning rate, we can see that CEE is the only region with an positive monthly cash flow. But there are some curious conclusions: CEE startups may have the highest monthly revenues (USD 5,600) but when it comes to average revenue per employee, Latam takes the lead with USD 1,335.
Startup ecosystems remain a male dominated environment.
Our data showed that entrepreneurship in emerging countries remains male dominated, as no region has more than the 17% female (co-)founders we found in Asia. Nevertheless, as we showcase in our “Women Entrepreneurs Around the World” series, female entrepreneurs are a force to watch in the emerging markets: Africa / Asia / MENA
Diversified Business Models, but B2C takes the lead.
Travel, education and consumer services are the most popular sectors.
COUNTRY TRENDS
This is not a zero-sum game where there is one loser and one winner. While some regions scored better than others, one should pay attention to each ecosystem as a whole, and have in consideration all the strengths and limitations they are facing. Looking closely, we discovered many surprising nuances along the way.
Ukraine startups are an employment powerhouse.
Hong Kong and Jordan, the revenue strongholds.
Hong Kong (USD 30,389) and Jordan (USD 23,622) are the only countries with average revenues per startup of above USD 20,000. Startups in Botswana (USD 16), South Korea (USD 21) and Serbia (USD 100) seem to have more difficulties in generating revenue.
“An entrepreneur without funding is a musician without an instrument.” (R. A. Rice):
It is said that sufficient funding is a necessary instrument to grow a startup successfully. The startups in Taiwan (USD 273,000), Hong Kong (USD 244,389), Brazil (USD 161,429) and South Africa (USD 158,491) were all able to raise above USD 150,000 in funding. On the other hand, many startups had a harder time hitting the average of USD 7,000 in funding, especially in Côte d’Ivoire (USD 4,204), Panama (USD 2,889) and Myanmar (USD 500).
WINNER TRENDS
The 54 country winners had performed incredibly well, especially in comparison to the global results of the 620 startups that were accepted into our 2015 startup programs. Latam winners are in the spotlight: they got twice as much funding as the average region results, and three times as much revenue.
A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD
2015 has been an interesting year filled with lessons learned. We had the privilege of working alongside many other committed organizations, government institutions and entrepreneurs that share our vision of impacting the emerging markets with technology and entrepreneurship. That it is not about where you are, but what you do. And that a problem simply means that there is a solution just waiting to be found. In 2016 we will focus on building an even stronger network, work more closely with our regional partners and we will be present in even more cities.
Happy 2016! — The seedstars family
