The 12 African cities to host regional heats of global startups competition Seedstars World in 2015 have been announced, with the first African event set for May.
Last year’s competition saw Seedstars World visit 36 countries across the world, eight of those in Africa. However, the organisation said this year it was intent on scaling the competition to more African countries.
As such, the competition will visit 12 African cities this year, namely, Maputo in Mozambique; Cape Town, South Africa; Lagos in Nigeria; Ghanaian capital Accra; Abidjan in the Ivory Coast; Dakar, Senegal; Kampala, Kigali and Nairobi – the capitals of Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya respectively; Addis Ababa in Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Botswana’s Gaborone.
Seedstars World plans to set up a temporary office in Cape Town, from where it will begin the competition tour of Africa’s startups.
The 2015 Seedstars World tour has already kicked off in Asia in March, with new sector-specific tracks introduced and more investment to be won than previous years.
The general competition open to all startups is to be known as the STARS track; travel startups will compete separately – following a partnership with lastminute.com – under the TRAVEL track; and a bespoke FINTECH track will take place for fintech innovators.
This year’s competition also sees US$1.5 million in investment available to be won; US$500,000 for the winner of each track – tripling the overall amount of investment up for grabs this year.
Disrupt Africa is very pleased to announce we have been named the African media partner for the Seedstars World competition. We look forward to bringing you all the Seedstars World news!
