The Seedstars World pitching event kicked off in Cape Town on Friday (May 10), giving invited startups the opportunity to pitch their entrepreneurial innovations and ideas to a panel of judges.
Seedstars World is described as an “exclusive startup competition,” which takes place around the world where high quality startups are invited to take part after a “strict selection process by professionals.”
The winner, Joe Botha of Gust Pay, was “crowned” as the Seedstars World Best Startup at the event on Friday.
Gust Pay, founded by Joe Botha, is comprised of three applications – Gust Pay, Gust Finder and Burn Guide.
Gust Pay is a mobile payment service, which takes just two taps and a swipe to pay. Gust Pay is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms.
Each entrepreneur was given exactly six minutes to present their business plans, technologies and the purpose for their startup to a “regional Jury”.
Their pitch had to include a problem, a solution and a description pertaining to their business.
Among Seedstars World’s many supporters is the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), which organised the pitching event at the Old Mutual House in Constantia, Cape Town.
Pitching first was Brendan McNaulty who created Now Novel, an online novel writing course that is monetised by selling subscriptions. McNaulty said Now Novel is “process driven” and “lives online”.
Wesley Lynch, the founder of the award winning Snapplify, presented his online platform designed to assist publishers to sell books, journals and magazines on mobile devices.
Snapplify supports any language and Lynch said Snapplify ultimately wants to “share content with the world”.
Darlene Menzies, chief executive officer (CEO) of SMEasy, asked the question: “Know any entrepreneurs who speak accounting?” during her pitch.
The general answer being no led Menzies to initiate a cloud-based software, created by Dimension Data, that “makes accounting easy and understandable for entrepreneurs”.
Other pitches by Starseed World entrepreneurs were Brian Mawdsley, founder Future Power Solutions, Zukhanye Mayekiso, founder and CEO of Geo-Map, Justin Jordaan (PhD), CEO, CSO and founder of Resyn BioSciences, and Geoff Carey, managing director of Mimotech.
Well known Paperight and Go-Metro were also in attendance with Bright Mind Studios, Sowertech, Springleap and Mobiflock pitching as well.
