Seedstars covered this year 65+ countries and regions, scouting for the best startups around the world and all 65 finalists have been selected to participate in a three days bootcamp followed by the famous Semi-Finals & Finals. The Seedstars Summit and final ceremony, which is open to public, will take place on April 6th whereby the “Seedstars World Global Winner” will be named and receive up to USD 500’000 in equity investment.
During fourth edition, more than 5’000 startups have applied to participate at the 75 local events around the world. At these events, up to 12 selected startups got the opportunity to pitch in front of a jury panel consisting of five regional, entrepreneurial leaders, and key players in the local ecosystem, such as directors of accelerators, investors or representatives from tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google.
After a rigorous and thorough selection process, the startups were invited to present their project in front of the local jury. For each startup, the format was the same: 6 minutes pitch and 4 minutes of questions and answers. It gave them altogether ten minutes to convince the jury, and win a chance to compete at the Seedstars Summit in Lausanne, and represent their country on an international stage.
Startups will compete at the final ceremony of the fourth edition of the Seedstars World competition, where up to USD 500,000 of equity investment will be awarded to one of the 65 regional finalists, including 9 from CEE region.
However, Seedstars Summit is not only a long awaited award ceremony but also an interesting meeting point and knowledge exchange opportunity for entrepreneurs working in tech industry. The underlying theme of the Summit this year will be Billions. The idea is to discuss how technology and entrepreneurship can impact billions of people’s lives.
Today, there are over 4 billion people without access to the Internet, which in my language means 4 billion potential consumers, opportunities and connected citizens. In the next 4 years alone, nearly half a billion people will come online for the first time. Venturing a bit further into the future, by 2020, 8 out of 10 smartphones will be located in emerging markets. Emerging Markets are at the center of the map!”, explains Alisée de Tonnac CEO & Co-founder of Seedstars World.
The day will start with several workshops covering a wide range of challenging and innovative topics, such as “Connecting the next billion people”, “These seeds can speak – how big data is reshaping the food industry” or “The next health frontier: From personal interactions to mobile screens”. Our partner PayU will also feature a special workshop, “The path to financial inclusion”, about the digital disruption in the finance industry. In the afternoon, the final ceremony of Seedstars Summit will take place. Apart from the pitches of the 12 best startups from emerging markets, top speakers such as Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom and Kamran Elahian, serial entrepreneur, will share their ideas and insights about the latest trends in their respective fields and regions.
More information and registration: www.seedstarsworld.com
