FinancialTimes Startup Competition

About Seedstars:

Seedstars SA, is a Swiss-based company, is on a mission to impact people's lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. Through its activities ranging from startup scouting to acceleration programs, Seedstars has built a network of 250,000+ stakeholders that span 95+ countries.

Seedstars has grown into a global community that believes in the innovative potential of emerging markets. We aim to contribute by running the Seedstars World Competition, Seedspace hubs, various acceleration and growth programs and, at the same time, investing in high-growth companies from Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central and South Asia. In total we have done 85 capacity building programs in the last few years. We have supported more than 1700 teams and activated 4800 mentors to take part in our activities. Our average NPS for programs is 79 and we helped 67% of our program participants to increase their revenue, 52% to raise follow-on funds and 63% to hire staff.

Seedstars understands how aspiring emerging market entrepreneurs need financing, the right skills, specific know-how, the right network and community to create repeatable and scalable business models that create economic, social and environmental impact. The Seedstars Impact Investment Readiness program emerged as the best response, giving entrepreneurs the right content, activities, tools and methods to build and scale their ideas, but also matching entrepreneurs with the right investors and mentors.

About the Financial Times Challenge

Launched in 2018, FT Talent is an international event, with annual Financial Times as well as partnership editions. The FT  Challenge, powered by the FT and Seedstars, will have for mission to source, select, support and award the most promising impact driven startups.

The FTxSDG Challenge, powered by the Financial Times and Seedstars, has a mission to empower impact-driven entrepreneurs in emerging markets through a startup competition.

By partnering with FT Seedstars Challenge, you can create an impact by encouraging top social entrepreneurs and innovators to access a global network and key resources to scale their businesses and contribute to transforming the world's food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.

More information about the current edition:

https://fttalent.ft.com/ftxseedstars

The idea

The plan would be to invite funded companies from previous funds to participate in the next edition of the startup competition and create a Cardano Catalyst prize, bringing visibility to the Catalyst fund in one of the most prestigious media outlets in the World and also giving the opportunity for the entrepreneurs to network and find new investors. 

Prize for startups include:

- Short track to Seedstars Investor Fund (investment size of USD 500K)

- Free participation to the 3 months Seedstars Growth Program (value of USD 80K)

- FT Talent visibility package

FT x Seedstars X Cardano Catalyst Challenge: selection process

• Design: Seedstars: organizes a design thinking workshop with experts on the ground in different countries to identify key challenges and opportunities for innovation
• Sourcing: FT reaches its audiences with a co-branded campaign on the FT – both in print and online. Seedstars: leverages Seedstars' pipeline of entrepreneurs and reaches out to its network for recommendations.
• Selection: FT gathers applications on their website with a form developed by Seedstars Investment team. Seedstars: selects the best startups to participate in the Investment Readiness Sessions
• Shortlist: Seedstars: shares the shortlist of startups and selects the winner with the jury panel (CGIAR, experts, FT, Seedstars).

Timing:

The next edition will happen in May 2022 and the launch of the campaign would take place from January to April. 

The Financial Times would commit to the promotion and visibility of the challenge. 

Day 1: Welcome

Day 2 and 3 : Bootcamp 

Day 4 and 5 : Hackathon

Day 6: Public Event

Visibility with FT: co-branded marketing campaign & estimated reach

• Newspaper: We reach FT audiences around the world with a co-branded campaign on the FT newspaper. Quarter of a page and full page ads. Reach of the newspaper: 200k, daily
• FT.com: Dedicated ft.com page and hub. Display marketing ads will run on FT.com and the FT App driving users through to the sign-up page. FT PR piece to cover pre-event.Page views: 60k of co-branded website. FT.com ads: reach global readership of 15M Specific target audience: 3.3M
• Organic & Paid advertising will run on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram promoting the sign-up page to relevant audiences. Dedicated Instagram account @FT_talent. Social Media followers of FT channels: 2.5M - Instagram, 6.5M - Linkedin, 7M - Twitter

Costs:

Sourcing Campaign: 10k USD 

Screening and Selection: 20k USD 

Training and Mentorship Hub: 10k USD

Online Event production: 15k USD 

Marketing PR and Advertising: 10k USD 

TOTAL: 65k USD