CH9 took part as the GCC Ambassador in the Seedstars Summit, the successful close of the 2016 round of the Seedstars World global startup competition in emerging markets, hosted at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Earlier in the year, there were 10 winners from around the MENA region, two of which were from the GCC region the winners Meddy from Qatar, and Democrance from the U.A.E that participated in the Seedstars MENA summit on the 15th of December in the CH9 hub in Bahrain. These 10 winners, in addition to 55 others participated in the Summit.
After travelling to 65 different countries to find the best seed stage startups, the Seedstars team invited the local winners to the final round to compete for an equity investments of up to USD 500’000, as well as other exciting prizes. After participating in a two-day bootcamp and an investor forum, 12 startups were selected to compete and pitch on the main stage, in front of a crowd of 1000+ participants and a panel of international jury, consisted of Charles Lorenceau, Director at ACE & Company UK, Cedric Waldburger, CEO at Tenderloin Ventures and Pierre-Alain Masson, Co-founder at Seedstars Group. The grand winner of the fourth edition of Seedstars World was Acudeen Technologies, from the Philippines.
The Filipino startup, founded by Mario Jordan “Magellan” Fetalino III, was awarded the Seedstars trophy on stage by Pierre-Alain Masson, Co-founder at Seedstars Group and crowned the “Seedstars World Global Winner 2016” for their innovative solution that turns SMEs invoices into cash through discounting of their receivables, providing them with necessary working capital they are not getting from the banks. Magellan talked to us about winning the prize and what it means to his company:
“Seedstars was an incredible experience. Much more than just money, it gives me access to community of a like-minded entrepreneurs with whom I hope I will collaborate to create a bigger impact worldwide.”
In addition to the USD 500K investment prize for the Seedstars World Global Winner, 5 other startups were awarded special prizes:
- Asafeer Education Technologies from UAE was awarded the TRECC Transforming Education Prize, a grant of USD 50’000, presented by TRECC.
- UnDosTres from Mexico was awarded the PayU Fintech Prize, with full access to the Seedstars Growth program, tickets to Money2020 and mentoring by PayU team.
- qAIRa from Peru was awarded the prize for Best Woman Entrepreneur, presented by Hublot.
- PiQuant from South Korea was awarded the prize for Most Innovative Startup, presented by Hublot.
- Mind Rockets from Jordan was awarded the Public Vote, presented by The Office for Economic Affairs (SPECo), which is the Office for Economic Affairs of the State of Vaud in Switzerland
The 12 finalists startups selected were:
- TalkBank from Russia
- Segmentify from Turkey
- Mind Rockets from Jordan
- Raye7 from Egypt
- Apli from Mexico
- Ultra Casas from Bolivia
- Edupass from Dominican Republic
- LayUp / Creative eLearning (Pvt) from Sri Lanka
- Acudeen Technologies from Philippines
- uHoo from Hong Kong
- Jamii / EdgePoint Digital from Tanzania
- Kasha from Rwanda
VIAGlobal, the US Launchpad for International Startups, presented the Virtual Presence Prize for US Expansion to Democrance and REDOXIGEN at the Seedstars World Investor Forum, both startups will receive 12-months of VIAGlobal’s Virtual Presence services, which provide an economical solution for companies that want to expedite a commercial presence in the U.S. without moving personnel immediately.
CH9 is proud to announce that 3 of the prizes were given to Asafeer, Mind Rockets and Democrance from the MENA region, proving that the potential of startups in this region is high.
We look forward to hosting Seedstars Bahrain on the 9th of September and to receive startups from around Bahrain, to choose one winner from Bahrain to participate in the Seedstars Summit next year!
