On September 6, during Seedstars Prague, Whalebone won the Czech round of Seedstars World and will represent the country at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to USD 1 million in equity investment and other prizes.

Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Czech round to a successful close during Seedstars Prague. The event took place last Thursday, at Microsoft Czech Republic and Slovakia, and 10 selected startups were invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel.

The local winner, Whalebone, developing security tool protecting Internet networks from the malware and viruses, was named “Best Startup in Czech Republic” for its innovative sustainable solution.

As a part of the prize, Whalebone will be participating at the Seedstars Summit, which takes place in Switzerland, in April 2019. It is a weeklong training program, with the opportunity to meet the 65+ winners from other fast growing economies, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the Summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of more than 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to USD 1 million in equity investment and other prizes.

The 10 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Nikola Rafaj, COO at StartupYard, Vaclav Pavlecka, CEO at Air Ventures, Lubomir Bandzuch, SMB Lead at Microsoft Czech republic and Slovakia, Pavel Jiranek, Analyst at Credo Ventures, and Evgeny Frolov, Business Development Director at ITACA Business Incubator.

Seedstars Prague also featured keynote speakers Sean Patterson, Strategy Head at EDP Capital and Euro Digital Partners, who presented “Why I like Fintechs, AI, and Ecosystems in 2018”, and Alena Huberova, Communications strategist, trainer, mentor, and TEDx speaker (alenahuberova.com), talking about finding the purpose in business..

The local Ambassador of Seedstars World, Evgeny Frolov organized the event with Seedstars World’s local partners Microsoft Czech Republic and Slovakia, StartupYard, StartupJobs, CzechInvest, Credo Ventures, Czech Startups, Fundlift, ITACA Business Incubator and many other supporters and media partners – tyinternety.cz and Roklen24.  The event attracted interest from over 100 startups, and around 150 attendees.

Yieldigo    , with its SaaS solution that helps retailers to set optimal prices and effectively increase profits by 5 to 15%, came second and SmartGuide, platform that turns every smartphone into a private guide with Augmented Reality, grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were:

• Amio: online tool that unifies all messengers into one API; helps to build campaigns or chatbots for the customers.
• Data & More ApS: AI-based platform that helps companies check their internal data and become GDPR compliant.
• Lafluence: online curated influencer marketplace that connects brands looking for reaching new customers with influencers.
• Mutumutu: online provider of life insurance, mobile app that gives cashback to people who follows the healthy way of life.
• myTimi: marketplace for small and recurrent tasks delivery, providing virtual assistants.
• Retailys.com: complex and innovative omni-channel e-commerce platform for globally oriented e-tailers.
• Vistag: online ecosystem for visual tagging and analytics for e-commerce.

After this stop at Czech Republic, Alina Rozanova, Regional Associate for CEE & Central Asia at Seedstars, says “It was the third edition of Seedstars World in Czech Republic already. And each year we see more and more new promising startups arising in this accelerating ecosystem. Our network of supporters also grows and, with their help, we hope to create even more impact here, in Czech Republic, in the following years”.

Continuing on its world tour of fast-growing startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop is Ukraine. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market. Startups are invited to apply here: seedstarsworld.com for the relevant city.

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ABOUT SEEDSTARS
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” – Mexican proverb

Seedstars is a Swiss-based group with the mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Seedstars connects stakeholders, builds companies from scratch with public and private partners and invests in high-growth startups within these ecosystems. Seedstars aims at fostering impact investing and impact entrepreneurship over the world. Through different activities, that range from startup scouting, events organization to company building and acceleration programs, Seedstars has built the world’s biggest community of changemakers in emerging markets. Seedstars group includes the largest startup competition in emerging markets (Seedstars World Competition), the Entrepreneurship Forum for Emerging Markets (Seedstars Summit), physical entrepreneurs hubs (Seedspace), acceleration programs (Seedstars Growth), teaching & training programs (Seedstars Academy) and an investment entity with a startup lab and a fund (Seedstars Investments).  Some of Seedstars main partners are Enel (Energy), School of Management Fribourg (HEG Fribourg) & TRECC – Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities (Education), BBVA (Finance), Tag Heuer (Fempreneurship, Time Saving and Innovation), Merck (Health) and Continental (Mobility).

ABOUT SEEDSTARS WORLD COMPETITION

Seedstars World is the world’s largest startup competition in emerging markets. It has been five years now that Seedstars Team takes off every year for a 9-month world tour and scouts for the best early-stage startups in 65+ countries, organizing 100+ events. One winner is selected to represent each country visited, and is invited to attend one of the 5 Regional Summits, reuniting all local winners of each region to network with regional investors, mentors and corporates. Local winners are also awarded the chance to represent their countries at the Seedstars Summit, the competition final happening in Switzerland, where startups compete for up to $1Mn in investment. The Seedstars Summit is the flagship event of Seedstars, filled with breakout sessions, panel discussions, specialized workshops and the best minds from emerging markets.