National Final

Get in the Ring South Africa
– Johannesburg –

Get in the Ring South Africa National Final was held on 18th November 2015. Building on the momentum of the Local Finals, more than 300 visitors came to Johannesburg to see the most promising startups pitch for a chance to be called the National winner of South Africa. Among the visitors were Mark Rutte (the Prime Minister of the Netherlands), Antoine van der Laan (TomTom Global), Jean-Francois Boxmeer (CEO Heineken), Marissa Gerards (Ambassador Dutch Embassy in South Africa) and the Deputy Mayor of Johannesburg.

Out of the 230 startups applications, 60 startups were selected for the pre-selection round which included workshops and pitching sessions during the day. The judges had the tough job to select the final 6 teams who would pitch in the Ring.  

The 3 winners of South Africa are: Adfire Creative Media, Stokvella and New Tech. These 3 startups  will represent South Africa in the Regional Final of Southern and Central Africa.

Regional Final

Get in the Ring Middle East
– Riyadh –

On 15th of February 2016, all the winners of the national finals in the Middle East joined together in Riyadh for the Regional Final in the Middle East. Over 450 visitors and hundreds more through the livestream witnessed some spectacular battles. The jury, Nasser AlSaadon (STC Telecom), Gary Jinks(Founder of South Valley Angels), Tarek Fahim (Partner at Endure Capital), Yousef Hammad (Beco Capital) & Maasbert Schouten (Founder & CEO of Maasinvest), had a tough decision in choosing the winner.

After two heated battles the expert jury selected startup Vanoman as the Lightweight winner and SolarizEgypt as Middleweight winner. The show ended with a short keynote of Dr. Khaled H. Biyari, CEO of STC, sharing his view on the entrepreneurial developments in the region and the need to innovate as large corporate.

Regional Final

Get in the Ring North America
– Mexico City –

Twelve of the most promising startups of the region Northern America traveled to Mexico-City for the next stage in the Get in the Ring competition organized by Endeavor Mexico. The winning startups of Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, United States, Canada and Mexico battled for tickets for the International Final of Get in the Ring. The award show took place in a fantastic location: Polyforum, a cultural facility that is part of the World Trade Center in Mexico City.

After 3 battles of five rounds each, the team of Jury Champions consisting of high caliber business leaders in Mexico: César Pérez (Southern Cross Group), Huibert Aalbers (IBM), and Pilar Aguilar (Endeavor Mexico) asked some tough questions to the startups to make the final decision. After a short deliberation the Jury Champion Members crowned Squirl from the USA, Aislatum from Mexico, and Estaffmatch from Canada as winners of this Regional Final.