Three Botswana startups which competed in the Global Entrepreneurship Network's Entrepreneurship World Cup National Finals in Botswana will be headed to Saudi Arabia to compete in the global finals. The startups are Ipachi Capital, Blue Waters and Bantu Vision.
At the global finals in Saudi Arabia in 2023, the startups will be in contention to win prizes ranging from $300,000 and $25,000.
- Ipachi Capital is a financial services startup which incorporates cutting-edge technologies to inspire Africa's small businesses
- BantuVision's focus is on producing the best African game and animation content for international consumption
- Blue Waters is a countrywide, river water conservation program created in 2021 by the Blue Waters Team. The startup's goal is to make river water conservation a daily habit among Batswana and beyond.
The competition's judges were Jayren Teo (Limited Partner, PULASPACE), Modisa Maphanyane (Angel Investor, JCDECAUX BOTSWANA) and Alain Estrella ( Lab Startup Finance Specialist, AFRICA DEVELOPMENT BANK INNOVATION LAB).
The finalists emerged victorious from a pool of contestants who applied in Botswana – each receiving access to free virtual training services and up to $25,000 in perks to help them take their venture to the next level.
In preparation for the EWC Global Finals, the finalists will participate in a bootcamp which will feature virtual training and mentoring sessions targeted to their company’s current stage and growth trajectory.
The top 100 Global Finalists will receive $100,000 worth of in-kind services and support from service providers such as AWS, Freshworks, Oracle, Hubspot, Stripe and Segment.
Global finalists also gain automatic entry into the GEN Starters Club, an invitation-only community of founders from around the world.
The EWC Botswana National Finals were organized by Pulaspace in partnership with Ngwana Africa+ Global Entrepreneurship Week Botswana and sponsored by Orange Botswana.
Since launching in 2019, the competition has attracted 400,000 registrations from 200 countries and connected founders with over US$3M in cash prizes and another US$256M worth of perks and free support and services.
Global Finalists will face off against one another in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in March 2023.
EWC is an initiative led by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Monsha’at, with support from a collection of national and global partners including One Valley, The Global Education and Leadership Foundation (tGELF), Entrepreneurs’ Organization, KAUST and Startup Genome.