After Seedstar major announcement of its startup search tour dates back in May this year, four African startups have so far been chosen from four cities; Harare, Accra, Kigali, and Kampala, and will participate at the Seedstar Global Summit in Switzerland next year. But before proceeding to Switzerland, all finalists from their respective cities will meet at a Regional Summit in Tanzania later in December. They will network with fellow competitors, as well as showcase their business ideas and products to business men and women, investors, while they receive mentorship.
For those unaware, Seedstar summit is the biggest startup competition focused only in emerging markets and fast-growing startup. This year’s summit becomes the 5th edition from Seedstar World since its inauguration.
The four startups so far are;
1. Rera Online Farm (Harare, Zimbabwe)
The team looked at a problem of starting a chicken farm where capital is intensive and looking after chickens is time consuming. Therefore their solution RERA; is an online platform that provides an opportunity for consumers to farm their own poultry produce, using an End-to-End farming service.
Enrolled in the AgriTech sector, the startup is currently in the Pre-Revenue Stage.
8 other startups that pitched in Harare were; Justice Today, Renewable Loop Private Limited, Wellnescript Solutions, Futuremed, Leaph, ParcelTip, Vote Africa, and
YouFarm. Most of these are in the Revenue stages.
2. Cowtribe Technology Ltd (Accra, Ghana)
The team tackled a problem where African farmers lose about USD$3 billion of income annually due to high animal diseases – with vaccines preventing these loses but only 15% of farmers have access to them. Therefore their solution Cowtribe Technology Ltd; is a cloud based demand aggregation & supply fulfillment platform that allows farmers to virtually team up to order vaccine from bulk suppliers.
The startup is as well in the Revenue stage, and enrolled in the AgricTech sector.
Meanwhile, Redbird Health Tech (Health sector) and Agro Innova (AgricTech sector) also in Revenue stages came in second and third places respectively. 7 other startups that pitched alongside the winners were; Eazyloop Express, KudiGo Inc, Food for All Africa Mobile Technologies Ltd, Bit Sika Ghana, BloomImpact, Codeln, and Jaarno Limited all in Revenue stages.
3. BeneFactors Ltd (Kigali, Rwanda)
Looking at 47% of Rwandan SMEs not able to access cash flow services, making it the least-accessed type of financial services, resulting in firm death, BeneFactors Ltd is a locally-adapted, tech-enabled factoring product, tailored to the specifics of each firm’s cash flow cycle. Factoring is a financial service, where future payments from your buyers are sold to a third party, the factor for cash.
Enrolled in the Finance/Payments category, the startup is currently in the Revenue stage.
8 other startups that pitched alongside BeneFactors Ltd were; Comparisol, BAG Innovation, Favouriapps, eJobu Ltd, Blavia – Fablab Rwanda, Raisin Ltd, the Einstein, and TIVA Motos with majority of them being in the Pre-revenue stage.
4. Agro Supply Uganda Limited (Kampala, Uganda)
The team looked at a problem where majority of smallholder farmers are live in poverty with only 7% of them having access to financing through traditional banks. Therefore Agro Supply Uganda Limited; developed a unique mobile layaway platform allows farmers to save money for seed and fertilizer using their mobile phone.
The team emerged winners in the Kampala search. They are in the AgricTech category, and in the Revenue stage.
CoinPesa, and Bringo Fresh Deliveries came in second and third places respectively. The other startups that participated at the pitch event included; Mallan Co. Limited, Medical Street International Co. Ltd, OlyCash, 2ambale Limited, Digi Health Limited, Digital Health Access, and Quest Digital Finance all in the Revenue stages.
Notably, next stop, the Seedstar team will be heading to Dakar (Senegal) on Friday 7th, September 2018., and the selected startups to pitch event are;
Lives, Sudpay SA, mTick SN SAS, OniriQ, Loyset, Paps, Musik Bi, weebi, and
Sunubus.
