Kargo named Myanmar's best startup at Seedstars Yangon
On June 21st during Seedstars Yangon, Kargo won the Myanmar round of Seedstars World and will represent Myanmar at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to USD 1 million in equity investment.
Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its Myanmar round to a successful close during Seedstars Yangon. The event took place on Wednesday the 21st of June at AYA Bank and the 8 selected startups were invited to present their ideas in front of the local jury panel.
The local winner, Kargo, with its innovative logistics solution, was selected as the most promising tech startup in Myanmar. Kargo will be participating at the Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in April 2018, a week long boot camp program with the opportunity to meet the other 75 local winners from around the world, as well as international investors and mentors. The final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of more than 1’000 attendees to compete for up to 1 million USD in equity investments.
Thamardaw with its pharmaceutical marketplace, which connects independent retailers and suppliers came second, and Amyanpoh, which acts as a last mile delivery facilitator, grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Greenovator, Doctor on Call, Agtrade, Neh Thit, and Instacash.
The 8 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury made up of Azeem Azimuddin of AYA Bank, Myint Zaw of AYA Bank, Myo Zin from Omidyar Network, Pwint oo Swe of Ooredoo Myanmar, Steve Haley of Wave Money and Rosie Keller from Seedstars.
The event was organized with Seedstars World’s partners AYA Bank, Omidyar Network, Thura Swiss, and Ooredoo. Further support was provided by Phandeeyar, Strategy First, the Internet Journal and the Swiss Embassy. Seedstars Yangon attracted interest from 250 attendees on event day.
Before pitching, the startups had the opportunity to join a two day bootcamp organized together with Omidyar Network. This bootcamp not only featured sessions on team dynamics, growth hacking, analytics and other relevant content, but also included 1:1 sessions with local and international mentors. Moreover, the entrepreneurs had the chance to talk to angel, VC and corporate investors from Singapore and Bangkok.
Continuing on its world tour of startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop is Manila to select the most promising tech startup in the Philippines. Seedstars World is looking for innovative startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.
About Seedstars
"They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." - Mexican proverb
Seedstars is a Swiss based group of companies which has the goal of impacting people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. Seedstars connects stakeholders within these ecosystems, builds companies from scratch with public and private partners and invests in high growth startups. Through different activities of startup scouting, company building and acceleration programs, the team has now access to entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, corporations and government officials from 60+ countries. The Seedstars group includes:
- Seedstars World, a worldwide startup competition, sourcing in 75+ emerging markets the top talent from these regions
- Seedstars Growth, a three month virtual acceleration program
- Seedspace a network of coworking and co-living spaces now in 25+ countries
- Seedstars Academy, a six months program to train aspiring local entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses, currently running in Nigeria and Ivory Coast
