5 Things We Love About This Year’s Edition Of Seedstars Africa Tour
Most Impact Entrepreneurs will tell you that CHANGE is the reason they chose to do what they do today. The need to effect change in a certain sphere, change the status quo or solve a problem through CHANGE. So, when our favourite startup competition released a press statement highlighting the changes they were making to their format, we were overjoyed!
But first things first, congratulations to Cabo Verde and Sierra Leone who for the first time will be a part of the Seedstars World Tour. Seedstars Teams travel around for a 9-month world tour and scout 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 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’s final which happens in Switzerland, and where startups compete for up to $500,000 in equity investments and other prizes.
Here are the changes we are super excited about!
Gender Balance
It is no secret that women participation in startups is low. The Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE) 2018 finds that, “despite women making marked advances as business owners globally, some deeply entrenched factors such as gender bias are constraining their ability to start or grow a business”..
It is awesome that Seedstars will this year aim to achieve gender balance on all levels through inviting more women as part of mentors, jury panels, speakers and increasing the number of women startups.
Open the Bootcamp up for more Startups
Seedstars has increased the number of participants in their local bootcamp to 30. More Startups will get to experience the training and mentorship that comes with being a part of the Seedstars Local Competition. It will help participants earn some expert knowledge when it comes to getting startups investor-ready and ready to scale.
A workshop for Local Investors
In partnership with EBAN(European Business Angels Network) , Seedstars will host a series of workshops specifically targeted at local investors who play a very important role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and at times may not know how to participate and select the best startup to invest in.
More prizes
In a bid to further localise and create lasting change in local communities, this edition of the Seedstars Africa World Tour will award local entrepreneurs with access to the Investment Readiness Program. The Program is a non-time bound, personalised and data-driven acceleration program which will connect the entrepreneurs to global experts and mentors, emerging market-specific training materials based on best practices and access to the Seedstars Global investor network. Seedstars will award at least 1-month access to the top 10 startups invited to pitch locally.
100 million USD Seedstars Africa Ventures Investment Fund
Seedstars has also availed a 100 million early-stage investment fund to all applicants as well as Seedstars alumni startups from previous years. The fund will be available later this year.
It is wonderful to see Seedstars make changes that will impact participants positively and we are here for it! To find out more about Seedstars or Apply to pitch, visit the Seedstars website..
First published on www.impactchronicles.com
