Dropque has emerged Nigeria’s finalist in the global early-stage startups competition Seedstars held on October 19, 2018 at the Seedspace in Lagos.
Subsequently, Dropque will compete for a place in the global final and the chance to pitch for up to US$1 million in equity investment.
Dropque is Africa’s first Interactive and intelligent talent exchange which uses unassisted video interviews and AI to get the best talent.
Besides representing Nigeria at the Seedstars Regional Africa Summit to hold in Tanzania to benefit from a bootcamp and 1on 1 meetings with investors and mentors coming from all over the region, Dropque will receive an all-inclusive trip to Switzerland to compete at the Seedstars Summit in April, with up to US$1 million in equity investment and other prizes up for grabs. Last year’s Nigerian representative was e-health startup Medsaf.
Dropque pitched against 9 startups to emerge winner and they include: energy startup Aspire Power Solutions, agri-drones company Beat Drone, chat-based payment platform Biyabot, business finance solution Bridgebooks, and blockchain-powered anti-counterfeiting startup Chekkit.
Also, ed-tech startup Insight Africa, software development startup Natterbase, legal-tech platform NextCounsel, and marketing startup Termii.
The startups also pitched in front of a jury that included Wennovation Hub chief operating officer (COO) Ahmed Umar, Tony Elumelu Foundation director of partnerships and evaluation Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, and TextNigeria managing director Chike Asiodu.
Speaking in an interview with Innovation Village, CEO and Founder of Dropque, Akinwoleola Opeyemi said, ” It truly was an exciting experience for us. Seedstars is known worldwide for its strong brand and its vision to get the very best innovators in emerging markets.”
On the other competitors, he said, “it was a stellar cast of companies. A lot of startups are working on the bleeding edge of technology and building solutions whose scale of impact is mind boggling.”
Commenting on Dropque’s chances at the global summit in Switzerland, Opeyemi said, “I will be honest enough to say I don’t know. But I believe we are solving a critical problem for emerging economies and our product will speak for itself at the global event.”
