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19 Tech Startups in Emerging Markets and Where They Might Have an Edge

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Seedstars World just sent me a list of 19 emerging markets startups that have won its competitions around the world. The Geneva-based company holds competitions for startups; the competitions culminate in an innovation conference in February in Switzerland.

Seedstars World is affiliated with Seedstars, a venture firm. All the companies that make it through the global competitions -- this year, there will probably be about 35 companies -- and  receive an invitation to the conference, get exposure to European and U.S. financiers. The overall winner gets a $500,000 investment from Seedstars.

As Seedstars World CFO Charlie Graham-Brown explained, Seedstars, the parent venture firm, wanted to be able to identify emerging markets startups it could invest in -- and the competitions offered a method to scout out startups around the world.

Now, Seedstars World is working on a fund and a crowdfunding platform that, later this year, may enable people who aren't necessarily wealthy to invest in emerging markets startups, too.

"Our aim is to open the fund to the public through a crowdfunding platform combined with investments from accredited investors. We hope to democratize emerging market startup investing with investments from as little as $1k," Graham-Brown wrote in an email. "Investing in startups in a single country, has become easy enough but it’s time that it was possible to go to one source for curated investment opportunities around the globe."

You can get a window into the possibilities for disruption  in emerging markets by looking at this list of winners. In the United States, I'll often find myself writing about highly successful companies in niches -- for instance, Loxa Beauty, a great example of a pivot story, and the company solved an important problem for a salons.

But emerging markets startups are vying in much larger markets. The stakes are higher; so are the potential rewards. You can see some of the trends likely to dominate the emerging markets space by looking at the list.

Financing infrastructure is being constructed fast and at the cutting edge.  

• Accra, Ghana-based Kitawa is building a Bitcoin-based online payments platform.

• Remit.ug, based in Kampala, Uganda, enables people from all over the world to transfer money to mobile wallets in Africa.

Emerging markets may have an edge in mobile.

Six of the winners so far are in the Consumer Web/Mobile space or have a strong mobile element. What's interesting here is that emerging markets startups are evolving after mobile is already a huge part of the software equation. There are entire educational and business infrastructures being built in emerging markets that will incorporate mobile from the beginning.

• Blocks, which won the competition in Tehran before relocating its headquarters to the UK, is a modular smartwatch built on open software and hardware.

• ChannelKit. The Moscow-based startup is a Pinterest for links.

• Manads. The Baku, Azerbaijan startup is creating mobile phone advertising on after-scall screens

• OkHi. The Nairobi-based company is "giving every smartphone a physical address."

• StudyPact. The Tokyo-based startup pays you for studying, but charges when you don’t meet your study goals.

• Krowdpop. The Seoul-based company is a crowdfunding platform for Korean pop music.

Connecting the physical location to the mobile ordering is essential . It's interesting to see companies acknowledging and tackling ways to manage the delivery of good in parts of the world where streets are rare. Only 19% of the roads in sub Sarahan Africa are paved, I learned not long ago. OkHi is taking on that problem -- and other company, Bangkok-based Washbox24, has a combined locker and software solution for laundry. Lockers are communal drop-off locations.

Emerging markets entrepreneurs are working on world-class problems. These four companies are tackling big global problems. Their solutions, because they are born in emerging markets in an absence of older, less effective technology that already has a hold on the market, could have an edge, even globally.

• Cape Town-based Khusela is building a low-cost fire detection device designed for slum environments.

• Dubai-based KinTrans is working on a system that allows the hearing impaired to communicate by translating sign language into voice and text in real time.

• Casablanca-based myVLE is an SasS online learning platform.

• Lagos, Nigeria-based Green Energy is working on a process to convert municipal solid waste to petroleum and electrical energy.

E-commerce is an early wave. Six of the companies on the list were in e-commerce. E-commerce infrastructure may be an especially good bet in emerging markets, with fast-growing economies based on young people who will both want to buy and go into business.

• Istanbul-based Prisync is a b-to-b company offering online price tracking and analytics

• Triip, a Ho Chi Minh-based startup, is a crowdsourced platform for tours.

• Bangalore-based Scandid. It's a barcode-based product comparison app.

• Amman-based Feesheh, which I wrote about before, is a online shopping site for musicial instruments.

• Dakar-based Poeyek is building a tablet management device for small and informal businesses.

• Kigali, Rwanda-based TorQue Workspace is an software that helps manage distribution for wholesalers.

You can follow Elizabeth MacBride on Twitter @editoremacb.

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