10 Nigerian startups have been selected to pitch at the Seedstars World event in Lagos on July 31st, 2015. Three of them were selected at the pre-event that was held in Abuja. The winner in Lagos will then be invited to Switzerland to represent Nigeria in the final round, which will take place in February 2016. The Startup wining in Geneva will win up to 500 thousand USD in equity investment.
Seedstars World has expanded its competition to include more than 50 countries for 2015 (up from the 36 countries of the 2014 edition.) Its past participants have raised USD 20M together, providing employment to +360 employees all around the world. A new addition to the competition this year are the Investments Tracks.
Seedstars World has partnered up with lastminute.com group to source the best travel startups, and with a top financial institution (to be announced soon) to find the most innovative fintech company. Each of these Investment Tracks will have a USD 500K equity prize for its winner, with the association of one of the biggest players in the industries as an added bonus. Various other prizes can be won outside the tracks such as the Space Prize, a USD 50K grant awarded by Inmarsat and AP-Swiss. All regional winners of the local events will be invited back to Switzerland to pitch at the final event in March 2016 in Switzerland.
Marcello Schermer, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars World, says: “We are really happy to partner with Startup Week in Nigeria as it is one of the largest and most important events for entrepreneurship in the country. We believe partnerships are an essential element to drive the growth of an ecosystem and we couldn’t have found a better partner for this. Together with Startup Week Lagos we can promote entrepreneurship and elevate Nigerian startups to a global stage.”
The finalists are MyQ, Hello Tractor, Bazar-NG, Food-I-Like, Skarabrand, CowriePay, Talentbase, NerveFlo, MBills and Intellectric.
