Seedstars World Competition (SSW) has announced Uganda’s Ridelink Limited, an Enterprise Tech Startup, as the local winner from Uganda in the ongoing competition and is set to represent the country in the regional stage. Ridelink is a startup that reimagines how SMEs move both goods and people by connecting these businesses to professional drivers using technology.
Organised by Seedstars, a Swiss-based private company owned by Pierre-Alain Masson and Alisée de Tonna, the competition was started in 2013, with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets. It annually holds the Seedstars World Competition to continuously scout for the most promising startups around the Asia, Africa, CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and LATAM (Latin America) regions.
In this year, 1,200 startups all over the world participated in the Online Seedstars Academy, a training program for entrepreneurs to accelerate their growth and receive mentorship from industry experts around the world.
The competition was/is in 3 stages, with step 1, the local stage from June to August 2020 requiring applicants from various countries to apply to compete at the local/country level. The second stage, the Regional Stage will be taking place between November and December 2020, for which Ridelink Limited will be participating.
Under the regional stage (continental stage), the winners from the local stage, 94 in total (25 start-ups from Africa), are set to compete, upon which finalists would be selected for the Grand Finale, also the final stage that will be taking place in April 2021 with representation from the winners of the five regional stages. One winner from the regional competitions represents the continent at the global stage.
10 winners from the regional level competitions will each receive USD. 10,000 in funding in a growth program investment as well as a chance for the same to compete at the Grand Finale for a shot at the Global Winner prize of USD 500K in equity investment.
The regional stage of the competition will include a 1 month long Investment Readiness Program, modernized and personalized program that will help startups become investment ready. It will consist of: action-driven webinars on key business metrics; online office hours, where startups can discuss challenges they are facing; domain groups and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions; investor meetings for potential funding opportunities; and peer-to-peer learning and networking sessions.
Online episodes for the regional stage of the competition will be aired at the end of January 2021 in which case viewers will get to see each local winner pitch in front of the juries and learn more about each of the teams’ startup stories. At the end of each episode, the regional winners moving on to the Global Finale in March 2021 will be announced.
“During this unusual year for everyone, I am proud to say that we managed to identify the most promising startups in 94 emerging markets. The online format of the competition allowed us to dream and go bigger as we reached a larger audience and invited more startups from all the cities of each country to apply. Now, we can’t wait for our local winners to represent their countries in the webisodes of the regional stage of the competition. I’d like to invite everyone to follow their journey and root for their favorite startup from the different corners of the world,” shares Eugenia Shevchenko, Lead of the Seedstars World Competition 2020.
“It has been inspiring seeing entrepreneurs from across the region soldier on through the pandemic and continue to work hard on their solutions. We have met incredible entrepreneurs and are excited to see them competing at the regional stage for a chance to be at the Seedstars Grande Finale in 2021. We wish all the local winners the best of luck for the regional stage competition” shares Lorraine Davis, Seedstars Africa Regional Manager.
To follow the competition, you may visit the Seedstars World Competition 2020 page here: https://seedsta.rs/2HrNglF
