{"id":203942,"date":"2017-10-10T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T08:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=203942"},"modified":"2017-10-10T10:05:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T08:05:06","slug":"meet-the-south-african-tech-company-going-to-the-startup-world-cup-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/203942\/meet-the-south-african-tech-company-going-to-the-startup-world-cup-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the South African tech company going to the Startup World Cup in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tech startup Empty Trips will represent South Africa at the 2018 Startup World Cup in California, giving it a chance to win $1 million (R13.75 million), after it recently won the Chivas Venture Pitching Den at the 2017 SA Innovation Summit.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"whatisettext\">EmptyTrips is an online trip exchange using smart technology to\u00a0match and connect\u00a0spare capacity on a truck, train, plane or ship, to those requiring goods transported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The EmptyTrips Platform facilitates and optimizes free-capacity on trucks, trains, planes and ships in Africa, allowing for smart-shared transport of goods with reduced wastage, enhanced transport network, lower costs and easier access for goods to reach to new markets throughout Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we facilitate trade and integration, we create traffic needed to make infrastructure developments more viable too,&#8221; said\u00a0<span class=\"whatisettext\">EmptyTrips<\/span>. The company said it is in talks with Transnet to add freight rail capacity.<\/p>\n<p>In July, <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/185189\/these-are-the-10-most-promising-startups-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Seedstars South Africa<\/a>, a promoter and investor of <span class=\"st\">emerging market startups<\/span> held its grand final, selecting the 10 best startups across South Africa, including EmptyTrips.<\/p>\n<div class=\"popover-content\">\n<p>CEO and founder of the company, Benji Coetzee has nearly a decade experience in top tier consulting through the Boston Consulting Group, CIB (HSBC Africa) and Hollard Insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Having launched the business less than a year ago, Coetzee told Ventureburn that it has already signed up over 160 companies to create capacity and demand. \u201cWe are currently setting up a number of pilots with large couriers and state-owned rail operators. In addition, we have facilitated a number of paid successful trips to date which were unexpected, yet not a number to brag about at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coetzee said that <span class=\"whatisettext\">EmptyTrips<\/span> has secured seed funding from a listed local company, &#8220;which if all goes as planned will be drawn down in October 2017.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Japanese startup, UniFa won the 2017 edition of the Starup World Caup in March, claiming the $1 million investment prize from Fenox Venture Capital.<\/p>\n<p>UniFa is an IoT solution for tracking kindergarteners\u2019 physical and mental growth using a personal robot called Meebo, a smart thermometer, and a smart bed that collects data from children at kindergarten to give parents a better idea of their child\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n<p>Open Bionics, a 3D printer of robotic arms from the United Kingdom came second, and Ahlijasa, an on-demand laundry service from Indonesia, was third.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U4S51eTQhpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/202906\/cape-town-startup-concludes-r1-4-billion-deal-with-us-edtech-giant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cape Town startup concludes R1.4 billion deal with US edtech giant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tech startup Empty Trips will represent South Africa at the 2018 Startup World Cup in California, giving it a chance to win $1 million (R13.75 million), after it recently won the Chivas Venture Pitching Den at the 2017 SA Innovation Summit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":203982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[12428],"class_list":["post-203942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-emptytrips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203942"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203984,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203942\/revisions\/203984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}