Odessa is becoming the center of startup activity in Ukraine and the region at the beginning of September – Black Sea Summit conference is going to be held there for the second time. September 9-10 the city is going to welcome about 1000 participants: startup founders, developers, investors and tech enthusiasts coming from different countries.
Among the official partners of the event are Tesla Motors, World Economic Forum, Startupbootcamp, Dutchbasecamp, StartupAmsterdam and other organizations which are going to have their participants and speakers there. Partners of the event are also Looksery, Microsoft, Infomir, HYS Enterpise, Lohika, Unit-Is. Startup from Odessa Looksery got famous last year after being acquired by Snapchat for $150 mln.
There will be three main stages on the conference: Inspire Stage (biotechnologies, agro-tech, smart cities), Innovate Stage (robots, drones, IoT), Grow Stage (investments, growth hacks). There will be in total 30 speakers from Ukraine and the world at the event.
“We’re already talking to the largest startup communities, investment funds and companies from all around Europe to visit the country which despite the huge potential is still seen as terra incognita” – says the organizer and 150sec contributor Anastasiya Sleptsova.
StartUp Competition held in the cooperation with Seedstars will choose the winner among the 10 best startups in Ukraine, and the best 5 startups will be invited to pitch at Seedstars Ukraine on October 8th in Kiev. The startup winning Seedstars Ukraine will join the global Seedstars Family and take part in the regional and global Seedstars Summits that include bootcamps and an investor forum. In addition, the teams will compete for the opportunity to get an investment of $1 mln.
Last year was held the first edition of Black Sea Summit, which turned into a huge success with 700 participants coming and 21 projects presenting their ideas on the stage. This year the organizers are even more ambitious, setting the bar high for the whole region and doing their best to consolidate regional startup ecosystems.