Seedstars World (SSW), the global seeds stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Chinese round to a successful close during Seedstars Shanghai last week. 12 startups covering the hot areas of online finance, online education and online travel pitched their products to a jury to compete for the regional winner.
BitNexo walked away as the best startup for Seedstars Shanghai. The team will be going to Switzerland in February 2016 for the final pitching round, potentially winning the $500,000 USD equity prize.
BitNexo, which just graduated from Chinaccelerator, is a web platform and software provider that helps cross-border SMB commerce providers pay for goods and services between Asia and Latin America by leveraging Bitcoin. The company’s co-founder & CEO Darren Camas has been involved with Bitcoin since 2011 as head of Business Development for TradeHill/bitcoin.com, and then as partner of Bitcoin exchange CompraBitcoin.
Second place went to corporate training service SXT Learning. SXT Learning allows distribution of learning materials directly to mobile devices. Employees can access their company’s learning resources securely on their mobile device by adding their phone number and they will receive all instructions directly to their phone. The platform helps to achieve more effective training with lower training budgets.
The third prize winner was Seeder, a marketplace that connects building managers with green contractors for retrofits. Seeder allows real estate decision makers to submit their project needs and information and collects quotes from the appropriate providers and suppliers for their building or space. The company has worked with a variety of projects in China, ranging from chain hotels, co-working spaces to office towers.
The other startups invited to pitch were online learning platform 1KE, 3D printed nail jewelry Clawz, connected display ELLA, video crowdfunding platform Kliptap, online finance service Koolla, P2P risk sharing community Tongjubao, social and content marketing platform Robin8, upcycle design shop The Squirrelz and online travel site Yoloboo.
Image credit: SeedStars
