Rinchi
TechInAfrica – A self-insurance platform, Franc Group won the best startup at the second round of Seedstars Johannesburg Event Awards that took place at Tsimologong Digital Innovation Precinct on November 2, 2018. Franc Group won over the other 9 invited startups, bringing the company to the final event of Seedstars South Africa at Seedspace Cape Town on November 14, 2018.
Besides Franc Group, the other two startups will also head to the Seedstars South Africa finals, such as Uthini and Maxicash. Uthini is a language learning platform that connects busy professionals with native speakers or those who speak the language through a chatbot and structured learning methods. Meanwhile, Maxicash is a remittance and payment platform for African diaspora around the world.
The Seedstars Johannesburg event was organized by the local Ambassador of Seedstars World, HYBR partnered with the Seedstars World’s local partner, PayFast. There were more than 120 attendees joined the Awards, including the Ambassador of Switzerland to South Africa, Helena Budliger Artieda who addressed the opening speech.
Seedstars World will continue to identify fast-growing startups worldwide. Its next stop will be Botswana Innovation Hub, an event to recognize and award the best startup companies in Botswana. The criteria will be the startups that are able to provide sustainable solutions to regional issues through their products and services.
ABOUT SEEDSTARS
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” – Mexican proverb
Seedstars is a Swiss-based group with the mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. Seedstars connects stakeholders, builds companies from scratch with public and private partners and invests in high growth startups within these ecosystems. Through different activities, that range from startup scouting to company building and acceleration programs, the team has built the most powerful network of entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, corporations and government officials from 65+ fast-growing economies around the globe. Seedstars group includes Seedstars World, a worldwide startup competition, sourcing the top talent in technology and entrepreneurship in emerging markets; Seedstars Growth, a three month virtual acceleration program; Seedspace, a network of coworking and co-living spaces now in 35+ countries and Seedstars Academy, a six months intensive training for aspiring local entrepreneurs on how to build sustainable businesses. Some of Seedstars main partners are Enel (Energy), School of Management Fribourg (HEG Fribourg) & TRECC – Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities (Education), BBVA (Finance), Tag Heuer (Fempreneurship and Innovation), Merck (Health) and Continental (Mobility).
ABOUT SEEDSTARS WORLD
Seedstars World is the first global startup competition focused on emerging and fast-growing markets. For five years now, it has built a network in 65+ countries, with the teams traveling the world to source innovative startup investment opportunities. We run 80+ local competitions to identify the best seed-stage startups and host an inspirational set of disruptive tech and networking sessions. We also organize 5 regional Summits, reuniting all local winners of each region to network with speakers, investors, corporates, incubators, accelerators, governments, and all other relevant stakeholders. Finally, Seedstars Summit, the competition’s final, is our exciting flagship event filled with breakout sessions, panel discussions, specialized workshops and the best minds from emerging markets, where local winners compete to be crowned Seedstars World Global Winner and win up to $1M in investment.
