e-News® | The NEWS Company…DHAKA, Oct 18, 2015 : The first ever Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition, is going to be held here on November 14 in association with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS). The BASIS came up with the announcement of the Seedstars World competition at a press conference here today.

“Seedstars is eying to create new entrepreneurs (and) we want to promote them both locally and internationally through the competition,” said BASIS President Shameem Ahsan. Seedstars World mainly focuses on three major tracks — FinTech, TravelTech and StarTech. Each of these Investment Tracks will have a US$ 500,000 equity prize for its winner, with the association of one of the biggest players in the industries as an added bonus. Various other prizes can be won outside the tracks such as the Space Prize, a US$ 50,000 grant awarded by Inmarsat and AP-Swiss. All regional winners of the local events will be invited back to  Switzerland to pitch at the final event in 2016 in Switzerland.

There will be four local workshops on November 2, 3, 4 and 13 on FinTech, TravelTech, StarTech and Women in IT. Applied participants will be invited into bootcamp November 12-14. Other than the basic criteria for a seed-stage company that is less than 2 years since the founding date, that has less than US$ 500,000 in funding and that has an available MVP, Seedstars World is also looking for smart startups that solve regional issues or develop profitable products for the global market. Up to 12 of the best startups in Bangladesh will be invited to pitch for the opportunity to compete at the final Seedstars Summit in Lausanne on March 3, 2016.

Seedstars World is locally represented by Minhaz Anwar of Betterstories Ltd. He said, “Seedstars World is connecting the next big ideators and innovators of Bangladesh, in the fields of Fintech and Traveltech, with the much needed global stage from where a Bangladeshi StartUp can truly become a global superbrand.”

“We are indeed looking forward to seeing the next bKash, Uber, Expedia or TripAdvisor from Dhaka,” he added. Participants can register for the workshops in http://bit.ly/sswdhaka and in the main event and bootcamp through  http://www.seedstarsworld.com/event/seedstars-dhaka-2015/.