SEEDSTARS NOVI SAD AWARDS COUCHCOACH THE TITLE OF BEST STARTUP IN SERBIA
On June, 2, during Seedstars NoviSad, CouchCoach won the Serbia round of Seedstars World 2019 and will represent the country at Seedstars CEE Summit and will get a chance to go to Seedstars Summit in Switzerland to compete for up to USD 500,000 in equity investment and other prizes.
SEEDSTARS WORLD IS THE LARGEST SEED-STAGE STARTUP COMPETITION
Novi Sad, Serbia, June, 4 – Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Serbia round to a successful close during Seedstars Novi Sad. The event took place this Sunday, at the University of Novi Sad, and 10 selected startups were invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel.
The local winner, CouchCoach, a second screen application for basketball fans where they can coach from the couch, propose players and win or lose points., was named “Best Startup in Serbia” for its innovative sustainable solution. “A fantastic experience for us during the Seedstars Novi Sad, above all the format that is completely new to us, mentors who were genuinely devoted to our business with the tips we recorded with the red markers. In the final we did our best, even improvised the competition of two fans on the stage while our colleague pitched. Preparations for the world competition have already begun, and we want to remain remembered in Switzerland, among the best startups in the world. Until Sunday our logo was “Be a champ” and now it is “We are the champs”, explains Nenad Nikolin, CEO at CouchCoach.
As a part of the prize, CouchCoach will be participating at the Seedstars CEE Summit, which will take place in Kazakhstan on December 2019. After the winner will get a chance to be a part of the Seedstars Summit, which takes place in Switzerland, in April 2020. It is a week-long 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 500,000 in equity investment and other prizes.
Seedstars also awarded at least 1-month access to the Investment Readiness Program to the top 10 startups invited to pitch locally. It is a non-time bound and data-driven acceleration program focused on boosting tech startups looking to get ready for fundraising. Seedstars connects the entrepreneurs to global experts and mentors, emerging market-specific training materials based on best practices and access to the Seedstars Global investor network.
The 10 startups pitched in front of a prestigious jury, including Rade Joksimovic (Chief Digital Innovator, New Startegy), Neşen Yücel (Co-Founder, Stage-Co), Tanja Kuzman (Startup and Corporate Innovation Manager, PWC), Daria Khlopova, (Community & Events manager, Seedstars).
Seedstars Novi Sad also featured Misa Zivic, of LeanPay with the keynote “How to raise 1.000.000 USD in Central East Europe?” The local Ambassador of Seedstars World, Igor Graic (CEO, LoveWall), organized the event with Seedstars World’s local partner University of Nov Sad. Further support was provided by Department for industrial engineering and management, Cabinet of the minister of innovation and technological development, FTN: Faculty of Technical Sciences, City of Novi Sad, Keramika Jovanovic, OPENS, Financial development, ConEEct students and media partners. The event attracted interest from over 30 startups, and around 150 attendees.
Agronomio, with its mobile app that is as Linkedin for agronomist with AI tools for better diagnostic allowing farmer to have the second opinion, came second and Brandyfloss with its platform for e-commerce and retail marketers that generates more product purchases from existing customers powered by AI grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were All About Robots, Bloxico, nanobile ltd, pet2net, Sportifico, Stanarko, and The Handler.
After this stop at Serbia, Agahuseyn Akhmadov, Regional Manager for CEE at Seedstars, says “We are extremely happy that we met that many promising startups in Serbia and can’t wait to hear their success stories in the near future. We are very excited to come back to Serbia next year!”.
Continuing on its world tour of fast-growing startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop is Baku, to select the best startup in Azerbaijan. 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: https://seedsta.rs/ssw19-baku, until June, 9.
ABOUT SEEDSTARS
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” – Mexican proverb Seedstars is a Swiss-based private group of companies with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The groups’ activities cover over 80 emerging ecosystems through a variety of events such as the Seedstars World Competition, acceleration programs, physical hubs called Seedspace, venture capital investments and company building activities.
ABOUT SEEDSTARS WORLD COMPETITION
Seedstars World is the world’s largest startup competition in emerging markets. For the past six years, Seedstars Teams travel around for a 9-month world tour and scout 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’s final happening in Switzerland, where startups compete for up to $500,000 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.
