Seedstars World Competition was recently held in Senegal and nine startups battled it out for a chance to represent the country at the global final in Switzerland next year.
Fintech startup, MaTontine was named the winner and joins the long list of winners from Mozambique, Tunisia, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
MaTontine emerged the overall winner for its solution that provides access to small loans and related financial services like microinsurance by digitising traditional savings circles. The startup will now participate at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland in April 2018, a week-long training programme where the team will meet the other 75 winners as well as investors and mentors from around the world.
Bayseddo, a platform that allows farmers to finance their crop year, came second, with PayDunya, a one-stop-shop to create, manage and grow sales on social networks, got the last spot in the top three. The other startups that make up the nine are ADN Africa, Direct Solution, Sika Technologie, Sanar Soft, Skillake, and Carvi Writer.
“Global competitions such as Seedstars World are key to Dakar’s emerging startup ecosystem. SSW Dakar now stands as a major event in our ecosystem’s agenda. It gives regional and global exposure to our best entrepreneurs, which is key to attracting key players like investors to our ecosystem,” said Babacar Birane from Concree, the local Seedstars ambassador.
The next stop of Seedstars World Africa tour is in Douala, Cameroon.
Meanwhile, the Regional summit is the final event of the tour in Africa which will be held in Maputo, Mozambique. After visiting more than 20 different countries from May to November 2017, all the best entrepreneurs from across the continent will be invited for the regional conference.
They will be joined by the best people from the corporate, government, startup and the investment world to share knowledge, connect regional/global stakeholders and to inspire attendees to believe in the potential of innovation on the African continent.
The 20 Seedstars World local winners will take part in an intensive Bootcamp and an investor day. The Summit will end up with a regional conference. An event open to public filled with disruptive conferences, networking sessions, inspirational talks and workshops about how to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through entrepreneurship and technology.
