Indian Startup Wobot Wins Innovation Prize at Seedstars Global 2019

Seedstars World, the biggest startup competition focusing on emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, held its grand finale with the sixth edition of the Global Seedstars Summit. Over 1000 people attended the event in Lausanne, Switzerland, together with startups, investors, mentors and corporates, from all over the globe.

14 out of 67 startups invited were from Asia and two were among the 12 finalists on Seedstar Summit day.

Blended, the leading school platform in Latin America, was ccrowned as Winner of the competition.

Besides, an Indian startup Wobot has been selected as winner of Innovation Prize by Tag Heuer, one of the category in the competition. Headquartered in Delhi, Wobot is a Computer Vision solutions startup that automate monitoring of surveillance systems and compliance checks by deploying a layer of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on CCTV infrastructure.

[caption id="attachment_129625" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Tanay Dixit, Product Head at WOBOT, receiving the Innovation Prize Award on the Final Summit Day[/caption]

After covering 80+ countries throughout 2018 with local and regional competitions, Seedstars invited all winners to Switzerland. They had the chance to compete for different prizes, including up to $500K in equity investment and the title of Seedstars Global Winner.

The Seedstars Summit is not only a conference but an opportunity for stakeholders active in impact investment, tech and entrepreneurship to network and benefit from a unique hands-on growth experience. During April 2nd and 3rd, startups participated in a two-day bootcamp with more than 60 experts supporting them in achieving their next milestones. During the private Investor Forum on April 4th, 12 finalists were selected to compete on the main stage. On the Summit Day - April 5th - the startups delivered 3-minute pitches on the main stage in front of more than 1,000 hand-picked ecosystem builders, corporates, investors, startup enthusiasts representing some of the most prominent names of tech and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.


“The Seedstars experience, I believe, is very important for entrepreneurs. More than the money, I have received so much and taken in so many great ideas from entrepreneurs all over the world. Seedstars work is fundamental in showcasing that great companies exist everywhere.” says Hernandez, CFO & Founder of  Blended: a mobile communication platform connecting schools with families in Latin America. With a user friendly collaborative interface, they optimize communication, and improve learning results with state-of-the-art technology at an affordable cost.

According to Pierre-Alain Masson co-founder at Seedstars, “We are very proud to be supporting all these entrepreneurs and we’ll continue to expand our activities with the launch of new acceleration and training programs across the world. We’ll also be announcing more funding to these unbelievable entrepreneurs that we have seen on stage all week.”

On top of the $500,000 investment prize for the Seedstars Global Winner, Seedstars and its partners awarded 7 additional prizes:

• Public Prize by Vaud: SPEI allowed the Summit attendees to vote for the best tech start-ups among the Seedstars Global Competition winners. YNMO from Saudi Arabia is a SaaS that allows disabilities service providers including schools, centers & clinics to design and monitor individualized treatment plans.


• Labeskey / Schoolap, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, won the Transforming Education Prize by TRECC and the School of Management Fribourg, winning access to the Seedstars Growth Program worth $50,000. The online platform provides tools to improve the education system with school administration management modules.


• TAG Heuer, Seedstars World official timekeeper, partnered with Seedstars Summit to reward the Innovation Prize to Wobot. The Indian startup allows companies to automate their surveillance systems with Artificial Intelligence.


• Seedstars Vaccine Delivery Challenge was awarded to the South African startup Iyeza, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. $10,000 will be provided to improve their web platform for the delivery of Human PapillomaVirus (HPV) vaccine to young women.


• Also with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Seedstars Malaria Challenge was awarded to Medsaf, through their platform, the Nigerian startup connects pharmacies and hospitals with safe and cost-effective medication.


• Along with Seedstars, Merck awarded the Life Science Prize to Oxpecker Labs from Hong Kong. They will participate in the Merck Acceleration program and scale up their non-invasive sweat sensor to help prevent dehydration and heat strokes.


• 7keema, the first on-demand home nursing services of its kind from Egypt, won the Rising Tide Foundation Empowerment Prize. They won access to the Seedstars Growth Program as well as an equity investment.

In order to have true impact Seedstars can count on the support of great partners: SPEI, School of Management Fribourg, TRECC, TAG Heuer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rising Tide Foundation, EPFL, CVCI, Lausanne Région and Ville de Lausanne, Nespresso.

Additionally, 8 startups from developed markets looking to expand or solve problems in emerging markets pitched on the Breakout Stage. Tag Heuer crowned DOT Glasses winner and Noisypeak runner-up. hiLyte came out third and was supported by our partner Logitech.

Moreover, Seedstars is proud to announce its partnership with First Growth Ventures' founders Tamim El Zein and Maxime Bouan to launch a $100mn sub-Saharan Africa venture fund. The fund will focus on early stage investments from USD 250 thousand to USD 5 million in the most promising innovative ventures across sectors and countries. The fund is the first of a series of regional funds Seedstars will launch in the coming years to continue the mission of accelerating and supporting entrepreneurs at all stages.

5 Asian Startups Up for Funding Including India’s Scandid App Selected At Seedstars World Semifinals

Seedstars World (SSW) the global startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its 2014 round to a successful close at the Seedstars World Final Event hosted by Lift, one of the biggest innovation and tech conferences in Europe. After travelling to 36 different cities to find the best global startups, the SSW team invited its regional winners to the final round to compete for an equity investment of up to $500k. Following the semi-finals which were held at EPFL, 10 startups were selected to compete and pitch, on the mainstage, in front of a crowd of 800+ participants and a jury panel at the Final event. The grand winner of the second edition of Seedstars World was Salarium from the Philippines, which offers payroll solutions for emerging markets.

Participants were also asked to pick their favorite startup for a Public Vote award presented by Republique et Canton de Geneve, which went to OkHi, from Nairobi, that created addresses via smart phone geolocalization. The School of Management Fribourg looked for startups that continuously pushed the envelope, and its prize for the "Most Innovative" startup was awarded by Director Rico Bal to Choji Bare from Nigeria’s Green Energy, which turned plastic waste into petrol.

Ten finalists were selected at the Seedstars World semifinals at the EPFL on February 3rd. In total, five of the ten startups came from Asia, consisting of Singapore’s 6Degrees, a self updating phone book, crowd sourcing concert organizer Krowdpop from Seoul, India’s Scandid app for geolocalized savings and discounts, Salarium, the Philippine payroll service, and Bangkok’s Washbox24, an automatized laundry service thanks to specialized lockers. The other finalists were Peruvian travel platform Busportal, Nairobi’s OkHi, the Brazilian hardware device Ploog, Yerevan learning management system Sololearn, and casual gaming studio The Other Guys from Argentina. The Seedstars World Semi-finalists will be up for funding via the Seedstars World Crowd Fund, which allows European investors to invest with a minimum of 100£. The fund is running via Seedrs, the first crowdfunding platform for funds in Europe (equity crowdfunding).

[caption id="attachment_98288" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Semifinalists SeedStars world Competition[/caption]

Before the semi-finals, the startups took part in an intensive bootcamp at the leading engineering school EPFL, which included pitch training and mentoring session that reexamined each startups business model and financial sustainability. Mentors included top entrepreneurs such as Chinaccelerator’s Todd Embley and Eventbrite’s Co-founder Renaud Visage, as well as representatives from leading tech companies like Cristina Riesen of Evernote, and Nicolas Bry, the SVP of Innovation at Orange Vallée. The bootcamp offered exclusive insights into the Lausanne area, which the State Department of the Vaud Canton has been transforming into one of the best European spots for startups over the last years. “The top ten were truly excellent finalists, but it wasn’t easy choosing from such a wealth of startups!" said Raphael Dana, jury member and CEO of business strategy consultancy Galixo.

The ten finalists pitched their startups in front of an international and prestigious jury including Serendipity Investments’ founder Jose Marin, Marco Corradino, founder of Bravofly Rumbo Group, Kinnevik’s Jessica Thorell, Techstars MD Jens Lapinski, Mountain Partners founder Dr. Cornelius Boersch, Johnny El Hachem, CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity, and Seedstars and Seedstars World co-founder Pierre-Alain Masson.

Grand Winner Judah Hirsch, was awarded the first Seedstars World trophy and was crowned the "Seedstars World Best Startup 2014" for their payroll SaaS solution, Judah Hirsch, CEO of Salarium, talked to us about winning the SSW trophy and what it means to him and his company. "Winning this is a huge boost of credibility for us, and the connections we established during the SSW Final Event alone will be very helpful for our further success and expansion plans. The win is especially meaningful to us because all of the entrepreneurs here showcased great ideas and impressive business models."

The startup impressed the jury as it already gained considerable traction, with DHL as a signed customer. "Not only did their product prove to be highly scalable and innovative, it already has a huge traction on the global market” said Pierre-Alain Masson, Seedstars World jury member.

The Seedstars World Final Event also featured several sessions and workshops, which discussed trends in emerging markets and how to disrupt traditional industries. Temenos featured the session Is banking in the perfect storm of disruption? with financial service experts, such as Ingenico’s Mouna Fouillade. The evening offered an exclusive dinner in partnership with Edmond de Rothschild to further connections between the Seedstars World startups and business angels, VCs, HNWIs, and investors.

With its first two editions, Seedstars World has already built an impressive track record: Its first round of 20 startups raised USD 14 Mio and hired 150 new employees, after which 2014 expanded to 36 countries. For the 2015 tour, 50 cities will be visited throughout the year. More news on which cities are joining the Seedstars World roster will be available on the Seedstars World website in March. Also, running in parallel with the original startup competition, Seedstars World announces three tracks that focus on strategic industries that are transforming our day-to-day habits.

First, Seedstars World will partner with Bravofly Rumbo Group to launch a "Travel Track", during which Seedstars World will organise local pitching events in a selection of 30 countries to find the best travel startups. Bravofly Rumbo Group will invest up to USD 500k in the winner of the competition and bring its knowledge and powerhouse to support this investment. This will bring the total amount of investment available for startups to USD 1 million. Seedstars World co-founder Pierre-Alain Masson stated that the added focus on the travel industry was a strategic move, as he believes that “the travel industry has always been innovative, first breaking online barriers and now moving into mobile commerce. With more than 1.1 billion people travelling out of their home country in 2014 alone (source: UN’s World Tourism Organization), there is a huge market potential and I believe that it is important for Bravofly Rumbo Group to stay close to the innovation and startup space, as it will be, of course, a driver for growth."

Furthermore, Seedstars World is also adding specialized tracks for Social Entrepreneurship and Fintech. “Both financial services and technology as well as social entrepreneurship startups are innovating industries and ways we live and do business. In the social space, the creativity in bringing profitability and community impact is very impressive, especially in Africa.” said Alisee de Tonnac, CEO of Seedstars World. “And 2014’s USD 467 Billion in remittance flows to emerging countries (source: World Bank Forecast) alone make fintech a very attractive market to be involved in.”

Scandid is a price comparison and local shopping app for India

With so many shopping sites available, shoppers are becoming more and more confused about what to buy, from where to buy and when to buy.  Thankfully, Scandid, a Pune based shopping technology startup, understood the plight of the shoppers and came to their rescue by introducing the Scandid app.

Scandid app is a barcode scanner based local shopping and price comparison application for India. The app lets you find great deal while shopping in three simple ways- search by keywords, scan barcode or just simply say the product name aloud.

The app powered Shoppingwish technology can be downloaded free of cost on Android and iOS devices. Shoppingwish technology has one of the most accurate and comprehensive products and coupons database in the space of online price comparison.

It helps the customers by comparing the price instantly and also finds them offers and coupons for products from hundreds of shopping portals across the country. Along with the online portal, the app also provides the phone number and addresses of all the local shops in the nearby locality of the user where he or she can easily find and buy the product.



Scandid, co-founded by Madhur Khandelwal and Sushil Chaudhari, recently won the Seedstars World Competition, which is a global startup competition.  The team is all ready to fly to Geneva next year in order to compete with the regional winners from over thirty countries as a part of Seedstars World final event.  The event’s winner will win upto $ 5000000(around 3crores) in equity investment.

The Scandid app comes loaded with numerous features. The app lets you share the products or deal you want to buy with your friends so that you can get their opinion on the product before clicking that Buy button.  The app also has a fast barcode scan and search which works well with 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi. It supports all the famous barcodes like QR code, UPC, ISBN, EAN and many more.

The application has a comprehensive data of products in home and kitchen appliances, personal care, books, tablets, mobile phones, camera and other electronic gadgets and accessories and many other household and daily use products.

Scandid is a price comparison and local shopping app for India

With so many shopping sites available, shoppers are becoming more and more confused about what to buy, from where to buy and when to buy.  Thankfully, Scandid, a Pune based shopping technology startup, understood the plight of the shoppers and came to their rescue by introducing the Scandid app.

Scandid app is a barcode scanner based local shopping and price comparison application for India. The app lets you find great deal while shopping in three simple ways- search by keywords, scan barcode or just simply say the product name aloud.

The app powered Shoppingwish technology can be downloaded free of cost on Android and iOS devices. Shoppingwish technology has one of the most accurate and comprehensive products and coupons database in the space of online price comparison.

It helps the customers by comparing the price instantly and also finds them offers and coupons for products from hundreds of shopping portals across the country. Along with the online portal, the app also provides the phone number and addresses of all the local shops in the nearby locality of the user where he or she can easily find and buy the product.



Scandid, co-founded by Madhur Khandelwal and Sushil Chaudhari, recently won the Seedstars World Competition, which is a global startup competition.  The team is all ready to fly to Geneva next year in order to compete with the regional winners from over thirty countries as a part of Seedstars World final event.  The event’s winner will win upto $ 5000000(around 3crores) in equity investment.

The Scandid app comes loaded with numerous features. The app lets you share the products or deal you want to buy with your friends so that you can get their opinion on the product before clicking that Buy button.  The app also has a fast barcode scan and search which works well with 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi. It supports all the famous barcodes like QR code, UPC, ISBN, EAN and many more.

The application has a comprehensive data of products in home and kitchen appliances, personal care, books, tablets, mobile phones, camera and other electronic gadgets and accessories and many other household and daily use products.