Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Botswana round to a successful close during Seedstars Gaborone. The event took place last Friday, the 8th at Botswana Innovation Hub, and 10 selected startups were invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel.
The local winner, Mohiri, a personalized job alerts service aimed at improving the visibility of job opportunities by connecting users to vacancies that match their profiles through alerts on their mobile phones, was named “Best Startup in Botswana” for its innovative sustainable solution. “We are extremely delighted to have been chosen by the judge’s as this year’s Seedstars Gaborone winner. We look forward to representing ourselves and the country at the regional Summit in Johannesburg and hopefully the Global Summit in Switzerland. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the Botswana Innovation Hub for their continued support of our vision, as well as Stanbic Bank for consistently being at the forefront, supporting innovation and innovators in Botswana,” explains Thato Kasongo, Founder at Mohiri.
Besides representing Botswana at the Seedstars Africa Summit, the winner will win an all-inclusive trip to the Seedstars Africa Summit and the chance to win a spot at the Seedstars Global Summit in Switzerland where the winner will take home a 500K USD investment prize In addition, the winner will receive 3 months access to the investment readiness program.
The 10 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Onkabetse Morapedi, Head Enterprise Banking, Stanbic Bank; Phenyo Moroka, Director, Infinite Foods Botswana & Keodav Properties; Arun P. Iyer The Alpha Male, Alpha Direct Insurance Company; Catherine Banabotlhe Lesetedi, Group CEO, BIHL Group; Xavier Furtado, Country Representative to Botswana and Special Envoy to SADC, World Bank Group; Tonderai Tsara, Director / Partner, The Dialogue Group; Changu Siwawa, Programme Coordinator, Seed Transformation Programme | Southern Africa; Andrew Madeswi, Chief Operations Officer, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency; Micheal Tuape, Research Fellow, University of Botswana Dept. Computer Science;Tshiamo Motshegwa, Lecturer, Computer Science Department Company, University of Botswana; and Maryam Mgonja, Regional Partnerships Manager for Africa, Seedstars.
The local Ambassador of Seedstars World, Thabo Theron of Udugu Institute Botswana, organised the event with Seedstars World’s local partner Stanbic Bank Botswana. Further support was provided by Botswana Innovation Hub, Cresta Lodge, 03 Beverages, Big lens production and media partners. The event attracted interest from over 61 startups, and around 150 attendees.
Classmates came second and Vimosure grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Global GamePlay BW, Khadi Agri Holdings, Leintel Codemasters Holdings, Rockville Solutions pty ltd, SkyHub, Sturgeon.digital and Vodcast TV
Continuing on its world tour of fast-growing startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop is Capetown at Seedspace Capetown to select the best startup in South Africa. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.