Seedstars Harare Start-up Competition
Seedstars Harare Start-up Competition
Friday, October 27 Impact Hub Harare in partnership with Seedstars World hosted the Seedstars Harare pitch event. Ten Zimbabwean start-ups were selected to participate for the opportunity to compete at the regional competition in Mozambique and the global Seedstars Summit in Switzerland in 2018. The global winning start-up will be receiving up to a 1 million dollars’ worth of investment.
The following start-ups were selected.
- Badala is a start-up providing online African businesses with a direct mobile billing wallet and payment gateway. Structured with a simple API, advanced security methods and fraud management tools merchants and customers are able to make quick and efficient payments.
- Tipster is an online news sharing website which is democratizing the news making business by placing the power of media in the hands of the masses.
- Equities Nest is a venture capital firm focusing on growth markets in order to assist investors to navigate African stock markets.
- Plan My Wedding is an online wedding planning platform and one of the largest sources of wedding news and inspiration. This results in easing the process of planning your wedding and utilising resources.
- Common ground is a peer networking app that connects university students allowing them to share projects, ideas and opportunities.
- Munch is an online food ordering company linking hungry food lovers with local restaurants in in their city.
- Fundolinker an online platform allowing schools, companies, skilled people and donors to collaborate and overcome the challenge of skill building. Companies are able to support and provide resources to students.
- Shirishanu Promoplus is the first SMS and social media platform in Zimbabwe that has fully endorsed a fully cloud based system. This makes it easier and cheaper to set up.
- Johnson McMillan and Partners is a private African regional start-up operating in intellectual property, design, and engineering. JMP Africa consults environmental fields of municipal solid waste, water, waste water, green fuels, civil construction, green building, green energy and socially responsible precious minerals.
- MyRunner conceived in 2015 is a leading bus booking platform in southern Africa. MyRunner allows you to book or buy a bus ticket from anywhere using any mobile device.
Mentors engaged with the start -up entrepreneurs during a two-day workshop leading up to the event. Entrepreneurs received invaluable advice and guidance on how to best structure their business models, how to take note of the advantages within the various business markets and one on one sessions with a mentor helping each entrepreneur sharpen their pitching skills.
The judges’ decision would not be made easy as each start-up pulled out all the tricks hiding up their sleeves to try and convince the jury panel that they had what it takes to compete for the grand prize. After a heated jury panel deliberation it was time to announce Seedstars Harare’s best start-up, runner up and third place winners.
Equities Nest was announced third, Munch team claiming second place and MyRunner booked their spot at the final Seedstars Summit in 2018 claiming first place and best start-up prize. Two additional prizes were announced. The civic tech prize went to Tipster and Commonground were awarded the Best Learner prize.
Impact Hub Hub Harare would like to take this opportunity to thank the local supporters and sponsors UNDP Zimbabwe, and Dandemutande for making the Seedstars Harare Startup competition a success. Stay tuned to find out more about the journey of these amazing startups.