Kiu Myanmar joins startups in Seedstars World Competition 2020

05 December 2020
Kiu Myanmar joins startups in Seedstars World Competition 2020

Kiu Myanmar, a local tech start-up, has come together with 14 other startups from Asia to advance to the regionals of the Seedstars World Competition 2020.

Kiu Myanmar empowers MSME and SMEs to improve their business efficiencies, allowing them to be able to receive loans and grow their business.

The company has joined other local winners of the Seedstars World Competition (SSW) 2020 that have been announced with 15 startups from Asia included in the batch, according to the organizers.

From over 5,000 applicants, 94 tech startups from emerging markets were selected to advance to the regional stage of the competition.

“During this unusual year for everyone, I am proud to say that we managed to identify the most promising startups in 94 emerging markets. The online format of the competition allowed us to dream and go bigger as we reached a larger audience and invited more startups from all the cities of each country to apply. Now, we can’t wait for our local winners to represent their countries in the webisodes of the regional stage of the competition. I’d like to invite everyone to follow their journey and root for their favorite startup from the different corners of the world,” shares Eugenia Shevchenko, Lead of the Seedstars World Competition 2020.

Seedstars, the Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets, annually holds the Seedstars World Competition to continuously scout for the most promising startups around the Asia, Africa, CEE, MENA, and LATAM regions. This year, 94 ecosystems were included in the online open call for applications. From there, 1,200 startups participated in the Online Seedstars Academy, a training program for entrepreneurs to accelerate their growth and receive mentorship from industry experts around the world.

The next phase of the competition takes the local winners to the regional stage. From the regionals, 10 startups will receive USD 50K in growth program investment as well as the chance to compete at the Grand Finale for a shot at the Global Winner prize of USD 500K in equity investment.

For the Asia region, there are 15 startups moving on to the next stage:

shurjoMukhi Limited (Bangladesh) - shurjoPay, the online payment gateway owned and operated by shurjoMukhi, is one of only two PSO licensed by Bangladesh Bank since Jan 2016.

One Click Shop Bhutan (Bhutan) - An e-commerce public-private partnership company based in Bhutan who deals with import of FMCG products and online sales

PlasGate (Cambodia) - The largest SMS gateway in Cambodia that is keen to develop technology and resources to expand service to a global scale.

BOXS (Hong Kong) - BOXS is a technology company providing modular software and platform services

iSchoolConnect (India) - Improves school admissions by utilizing marketing, recruitment, assessment & engagement.

TukangSayur (Indonesia) - The economical, fresh and hygienic vegetable shopping solution accessible through smartphone.

Finology (Malaysia) - Finology enables seamless access to financial products via the use of our technology & ready digital distribution channels

Message Owl (Maldives) - Message Owl is a B2B & B2C SMS platform which allows businesses to send SMS Messages (Promotional and Transaction)

Kiu Myanmar (Myanmar) - Kiu Myanmar empowers MSME/SMEs to improve their business efficiencies, allowing them to be able to receive loans and grow their business.

Diyalo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Nepal) - Transforming WASH sector by building IOT enabled solutions to ensure quality water, sustainable water production & transparency

ELN Limited (Pakistan) - ELN provides 100% online, globally accredited vocational training to over 25 countries in education, quality assurance & health and safety.

Smartfuture (Singapore) - Offers integrated IoT and AI enabled white label platform for telemedicine to healthcare providers.

Healthnet (Sri Lanka) - Healthnet would be known as the only pharmacy that helps reduce medication or get rid of chronic illnesses all-together

Foodie (Thailand) - Foodie is a multi-channel engagement & e-commerce platform for the F&B Industry, built-in with integrated payments & logistics

Bot Ban Hang (Vietnam) - Bot Ban Hang is a leading messaging-commerce platform & omnichannel commerce for online businesses.

The local winners for the Philippines will be announced on November 27th during Philippine Startup Week.