Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, hosted its Manama round with the support of Local Organizer CH9.
The Seedstars team shortlisted the top 8 seed-stage startups who pitched on September 5 for the opportunity to compete at the Seedstars Summit, which annually takes place in Switzerland where they will get the chance to win up to USD 500,000 in equity investments and other prizes. The local winners were chosen for their innovative sustainable solutions in their different fields. The 1st winner of the competition was Hayatech, is a B2B SAAS software that aims to build an ecosystem around wellness. In second place came Lazy Wait, A Double-Sided-Referral program with integrated gratification wallet which provides businesses a loyal customer base who acts as marketeers. As for the third place, it was taken by Envo App, a platform that sets up, manages and discovers events.
The list of the Finalists also included: EXPRESSbase, Offerpedia, Supplify S.P.C, Thawani Technology, and WoneSupport Technologies
The Main Partners of the Seedstars Manama were The Embassy of Switzerland in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Pascal Raess, Head of the Swiss Mission to Bahrain as well as Humbert Buemi, Honorary Consul of Switzerland in Bahrain were present. All the community partners contributed as well to the success of Seedstars Manama. The list of the community partners included Bahrain Development Bank, StartUp Bahrain, Flat6Labs Bahrain as well as Local Media Partner Startup MGZN.
The list of the Jury members included Francesca Bombassei from Seedstars World, Hassan Haider from 500 Startups and Haider Al Mosawi from Sirdab Lab who is also Seedstars Kuwait City Ambassador. Haider in addition to the other Seedstars Ambassadors from KSA, Khalid Al Mahfouz from Badir and Maryam Alsaegh from CH9 spoke on a panel titled “Scaling up in the GCC; Advice for Entrepreneurs”. The event also featured various keynotes from Dr. Simon Galpin, Managing Director of Bahrain EDB and Mohamed Altawash, the Chairman of CH9.
Prior to the pitching event, Seedstars hosted a dynamic training for entrepreneurs. It indulged in the topics around Investment Readiness, the Art of the Pitch, in addition to tailored mentorship sessions with experts from the market. The list of experts included Ali Abussaud and Hussian Almarhoon from Hala VC, Paul Lalley and Marwa Aleskafi from Brinc, Pakiza Abdulrahman from Bahrain EDB, Subah Aljalahma from Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Tourism, in addition to, Trey Goede from Wa’ed.
Francesca Bombassei, Venture Capital Analyst at Seedstars says “We have worked closely with the local ecosystem and its enablers to select the most promising early-stage tech startups. We were amazed to witness the opportunities the Bahraini ecosystem offers. This was really reflected in the ambition and enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs who pitched.”
You can find more information about the event and winners here. Seedstars will be continuing its tour with next stop in Casablanca on September 10 & 11!