Wildcard entry wins Seedstars SA grand finale
Johannesburg-based mobile application startup iDWork was crowned the winner of the Seedstars World national finale held in Johannesburg last night. After pre-selection events in Cape Town, Soweto and Durban wittled finalists down to nine, iDWork was selected as the tenth wildcard entry to compete in the SA final.
The iDWork mobile app allows users who need assistance with home improvement projects to find a preferred service provider, manage the home improvement project through a dedicated WhatsApp group, and review the service afterwards.
As the overall winner of South Africa, iDWork will be participating at the Seedstars Summit taking place in Switzerland in March 2017 - a week-long training programme with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1,000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to $1m equity investment.
The other nine startups that made it to the national final were: online crew booking service Crew Pencil, e-courier service Pargo, logistics startup WumDrop, safety tracking device Guardian Angel Safety Solution, online parenting platform You, Baby and I, wearable medical device Vitls, communication-centric organiser Sortd, free calls provider UmoyAir Communications, and micro-insurer Riovic.
The startups pitched in front of a jury that consisted of Jayshree Naidoo, head of incubator at Standard Bank; Polo Radebe, chief executive officer at IDF; Ravi Naidoo, executive director for economic development and tourism at City of Johannesburg; Charmaine Padayachy, principal at Omidyar Network; Fritz Milosevic, managing partner at Dotadvisors; and Marcello Schermer, regional manager for Africa at Seedstars World.
Seedstars World worked with Standard Bank for the event, which was hosted at the bank’s incubator in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
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