E-learning startup Chalkboard Education was named the winner of the Ghana leg of the Seedstars World competition in Accra yesterday, and will now represent the country at the the global final in Switzerland to compete for up to US$1 million in equity investment.
Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, has already picked winning startups in Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and Nigeria, and held its Ghanaian leg at Impact Hub Accra yesterday.
Nine startups presented their ideas in front of a panel, with Chalkboard Education named the winner for its plug-and-play mobile learning solutions that work on any device and without an internet connection.
“If I judge by last year’s winners I think the global summit in Switzerland is going to be life-changing. Last year’s winners Asoriba had an amazing year and we hope to be able to do the same with the help of the Seedstars platform,” said Adrien Bouilloit, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chalkboard Education.
The startup will now participate at the Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017 next year. This involves a week-long training programme with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of 1,000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to US$1 million in equity investment.
First runner-up was Landmapp, which offers affordable land rights documentation for smallholder farmers and builds accurate data profiles to broker additional services. Second runner-up TECHAiDE is an all-in one content delivery system. The other startups invited to pitch were HQ Renewable Tech, GoSun Stove, Krinotech Solutions, Cocktail Insights, SynCommerce and Nubian Oryx.
“The quality of startups in Ghana is absolutely impressive and it was very hard to choose a winner amongst so many great companies. However, we are very happy with our decision to take Chalkboard Education to our global summit,” said Selam Kebede, associate for Seedstars World Africa.
