A Filipino startup was named the grand winner of a global competition held recently in Switzerland and will receive an equity investments of up to $500,000 (about P25 million).
Acudeen Technologies, founded by Mario Jordan ?Magellan? Fetalino III, topped the fourth edition of the Seedstars World hosted at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Acudeen Technologies was awarded for its innovative solution that turns SMEs invoices into cash through discounting of their receivables, providing them with necessary working capital they are not getting from the banks.
Seedstars World is a global startup competition in emerging markets organized by Seedstars. Local winners from 65 different countries traveled to Switzerland to compete in the final round of competitions.
After participating in a two-day bootcamp and an investor forum, 12 startups were selected to compete and pitch on the main stage, in front of a crowd of participants and a panel of international jury.
Fetalino received the Seedstars trophy from Pierre-Alain Masson, co-founder at Seedstars Group, in behalf of Acudeen, which was officially named ?Seedstars World Global Winner 2016.?
?Seedstars was an incredible experience. Much more than just money, it gives me access to community of like-minded entrepreneurs with whom I hope I will collaborate to create a bigger impact worldwide,? said Fetalino.
Organizers of the Seedstars World pointed that 57% of the global GDP is located in emerging markets and that $770 billion was the e-commerce turnover in Asia Pacific, representing 43% of world market share.
In addition to the $500,000 investment prize for the Seedstars World Global Winner, five other startups were awarded special prizes:
? Asafeer Education Technologies from UAE was awarded the TRECC Transforming Education Prize, a grant of $50,000
? UnDosTres from Mexico was awarded the PayU Fintech Prize, with full access to the Seedstars Growth program, tickets to Money2020 and mentoring by PayU team.
? qAIRa from Peru was awarded the prize for Best Woman Entrepreneur
? PiQuant from South Korea was awarded the prize for Most Innovative Startup
? Mind Rockets from Jordan was awarded the Public Vote
The Seedstars Summit also featured a broad range of workshops that probed different topics from agriculture and healthcare to investment and e-commerce.
