Seedstars is planning to make sourcing investment deals for startups and multiplying its Seedspaces a priority in the coming year.
This was made known by the Seedstars regional manager for Africa, Claudia Makadristo at the Seedstar’s Africa regional summit which was held last week, December 14 in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Regional Manager revealed that though the platform will continue with the pitching competition , which she described as the gatekeeper of everything that happens at Seedstars, the organization plans to next year shift its focus to doing more investment deals and adding more Seedspaces.
Makadristo also disclosed that the next locations for Seedspaces will likely be in “priority places” like Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam.
The spaces she added, are merely “a framework” for all the other initiatives that the organization plans to do, with the ultimate goal being to grow these into regional hubs in Africa.
The organization already has Seedpsaces in Lagos, Abidjan, Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, while two other spaces in Cairo and Casablanca are said to be “in the making”.
According to Makadristo, “Up until now in many countries we only come in once a year and then we are out.
“I think in some countries where we have alumni we have this solid network of people who actually want to do stuff. The interesting part would be to see how can we have a longer term presence than just coming in and going out,” she added.
She also revealed that the idea is to have a Seedspace in every country. While some of the spaces are owned by Seedstars, the platform also partners with already existing spaces.
“We want to give them (alumni) a space where they can come together, where they know if I want to go to Lagos tomorrow, I don’t only have a space, I have a community, a network that I know, that they are familiar with, that they want to work with and get to know,” she added.
