Seedstars World* 2016 Application is now open

For the 4th time, Seedstars World will be embarking on a tour through 20 countries looking for promising entrepreneurs for the global seed stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup ecosystems.
This is an effort to connects and invests up to $1.5mn in emerging market startups through its exclusive startup competition in 60 countries.

Nigeria’s own SimplePay was 2013 winner of the prize money followed in 2014 by Flitto, a global crowd-sourcing translation platform. While the South African  Giraffe being the 2015 Grand Winner was awarded the Seedstars trophy and was crowned the “Seedstars World Global Winner 2015” for their innovative solution to reduce unemployment in the emerging markets. The Giraffe platform optimizes the matching of recruiters and job candidates by guaranteeing a two-day turnaround on staffing requests and automating scheduling and CVs in the interview process.


Seedstars World will be kicking off this year’s tour on the 13th of May with the first event being held in Maputo, Mozambique.



 Seedstars World is now accepting applications from startups in Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia.


ELIGIBILITY
The Competition is open to all persons who are 18 years or older and who are citizens or legal residents in any country in which one of the Local Events are being held.
Applicants may only submit an application to one Local Event.
To apply to the Competition, the startup (“Startup”) must adhere to the following criteria to apply:
•The Startup must have been launched within the last 2 years
•If the Startup has received external funding, it can only be up to USD 0.5m ($500 000)
•The Startup must have a demonstrable product or service (Minimum Viable Product, MVP)
•The founders of the Startup must be prepared to talk about it in public
•Pitch and application documents must be in English or you must provide a translator
•The Startup can be across any field or sector but must be for profit


COMPETITION MECHANICS
Applicants require an invitation code to submit a full application. Invitation codes can be obtained from SSW local partners or by submitting a preliminary application and being invited by SSW to apply. Occasionally SSW will use external party websites to source applications and then provide invitation codes to selected startups to apply to the Competition.
SSW has full discretion to select and invite the applicants to attend and pitch at the Local Events. Local Events are public and require each selected applicant to pitch an idea in up to 6 minutes and respond to questions from the judging panel for up to 4 minutes.
Timing is subject to change and SSW is not responsible for any technical error or disruptions. One winner from each Local Event (“Local Winner”) will be selected by the judging panel to attend the Final Event. The Final Event is expected to be one week in Switzerland and consist of a bootcamp, semi-final and final event. Decisions of the judging panels at each stage of the competition are final and non-negotiable.


For more information on the events see the SSW website.

If you meet the above criteria or know anybody that does, apply via the Seedstars World website.