Seedstars World Tour 2014 - Press Release

Seedstars World Global Startup Competition coming soon to search for the best startup in Uganda

Seedstars World (SSW) is gearing up to continue its global startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes in 2014 and is arriving in Kampala on 27th June, 2014.

After a successful first edition in 2013, the Seedstars World team is branching out and adding more cities to the original 20 international line-up. Alisee de Tonnac, CEO, stated that “Seedstars World will hold its worldwide competition every year and grow exponentially to all the corners of the world and put all the fast growing startup scenes on the map! Indeed, our goal is to create THE network for quality entrepreneurs around the world and help entrepreneurs, accelerators/incubators, co-working spaces and investors to interact with one another.”  

In 2013, 100 startups applied per country for the 20 regional pitching events. The tour ended with a final round in Geneva, where the 20 most promising startups from all over the world competed one last time in front of an international jury to earn the final grand prize, up to USD 500’000 in equity investment.

Flitto, an innovative crowdsourcing translation platform from South Korea nabbed first place. Flitto has over three million users from 170 countries and with more than 800,000 translators.   

The quality of the startups of 2013’s 20 cities was impressive and participants, partners, and investors encouraged the team to explore other ecosystems as well, thus 10 new cities were added. More than 600 entrepreneurs from two thousand applications will be selected for the 30 pitching events in 2014. 

The new round will also incorporate old friends, as former SSW regional winners continue to be part of the journey to help the company reach even more startups in their respective ecosystems. As SimplePay’s Simeon Ononobi (SSW Lagos winner) said of his SSW experience: “It was life changing. Simply life changing. So much happened in Nigeria and we gained so much traction, it was amazing.”  

Current partners like Microsoft Ventures in India and sponsors such as Swissnex will also be joined by a long list of supporters and advisors worldwide, bringing Seedstars World closer to its goal of becoming the global network for startup ecosystems.

The tour kicked off in Istanbul on April 3rd and continues on to Moscow, Baku, Teheran, Amman, Dubai, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangalore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Manila, Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, Lagos, Accra, Dakar, Casablanca, Cape Town, Mexico City, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo. 

How it works  
30 regional events: an exclusive one-day event where the best-in-class startups pitch their ideas in front of a regional jury panel.   
Final event: the 30 finalists of the regional events will be invited to Switzerland to participate in a 4-day bootcamp and the grand finale where they will compete in front of an international jury and European investors. One winner will win up to USD 500’000 in equity investment.  

Criteria: -  less than USD 500’000 in capital investment - maximum 2 years since  founding date   - a product that is up and running on the market.  - a global project, potentially scalable at an international level.   
How to participate? Invitation only. If you are interested in receiving an invitation please contact us at  info@seedstarsworld.com 
 
About Seedstars World

Seedstars World is the most exclusive startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes. Based in Geneva, Switzerland and founded by Alisee de Tonnac and Pierre-Alain Masson, it is supported by the venture builder Seedstars SA. 

After a first successful edition in 2013, the company aims to be the number one network for entrepreneurship in the world by expanding its competition massively.  

Contact details:
Alisee de Tonnac
CEO of Seedstars World
alisee@seedstarsworld.com
Av. Cardinal-Mermillod 36
1227 Carouge
Switzerland