The Seedstars Dakar Competition served as the Senegalese leg of the global early-stage startups competition for emerging markets.
The competition took place at the end of September, with 9 of the best startups aiming to be the representative from Senegal for the global final event next year, with more African countries taking part than ever before.
Seedstars World, which describes itself as the world’s biggest startup competition in emerging markets, holds these events in over 65 countries before winners are selected to take part in a grand final.
The winner of the Seedstars Dakar Competition will now join other Seedstars country-winners at the final event in Switzerland during April next year, where it will deliver a pitch that could potentially earn the company up to $1 million in equity investments and prizes.
Here are the 9 tech startup finalists that were in consideration for the Seedstars Dakar Competition.
ADN, which stands for African Digital Native, is an IT consulting company in the Senegalese capital that specializes in data analytics and focuses on providing business analytics solutions for their clients. This is especially useful in a business environment where those skills are lacking.
BAYSEDDO 2.0
Working within the agritech sector, BAYSEDDO 2.0 came second in the Seedstars Dakar competition. The company believes that around 75 percent of African farmers find it difficult to access adequate and non-binding financing, and this is exactly what they aim to provide, with a platform that allows farmers to finance their crop through crowdfunding.
Carvi Writer
Carvi Writer is a startup that aims to support writers in Africa, providing a platform from which writers can make money for their works. Carvi Writer not only sells written work, but audiovisual productions too, allowing creatives to self-publish and have the opportunity for some of their works to be transformed into films, documentaries or other audiovisual productions.
Dassur
Dassur is a pioneering African insurance distributor, using Facebook’s popular messaging app Facebook Messenger to provide insurance services. Insurance uptake in Africa remains low, as premiums and other key information can be difficult to determine, but Dassur aims to change that with Bots in Messenger to inform users seamlessly.
MaTontine
Fintech startup MaTonine was the winner in this year’s Seedstars Dakar competition, thanks to their digital take on a traditional savings tool. MaTontine provides financial services through the digitization of traditional, centuries-old, peer-to-peer savings circles, known as Tontines, which remain a popular way to save money in Senegal.
PayDunya
Achieving third place in the Seedstars Dakar competition, PayDunya describes itself as a one-stop shop to create, manage and grow sales on social media networks, allowing merchants to get paid via relevant payment methods in Africa through a CRM toolbox. The startup aims to leverage the popularity of social media to assist merchants who do not understand and fully make use of the advantages that an increasingly digital world provides for businesses.
SenCivilities
SenCivilities is a tech platform that allows for the management of important information and documents such as civil status and birth certificates. Remote birth certificates can be requested, and undeclared children can be geo-located via mobile.
Walam
Walam is a mobile platform based on the sharing economy principle, allowing people who require a particular service but do not have the money to access the service they need, to access that service through an exchange platform where service providers can be remunerated through a point system instead of cash.
SKILLAKE
SKILLAKE is an online marketplace which is designed to help American and European companies find qualified IT professionals in Africa, matching the searching companies with the ideal IT professional on the ground in Africa. The marketplace uses machine learning and artificial intelligence processes to analyze resumes and validate skills.