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SA app wins World's Best Start-Up award

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 19 May 2014

Over, the South African-developed social photography app, was last week named the World's Best Start-Up at the U-Start Conference held in Milan.

Over is an iOS app that allows users to add typography, artistic text and artwork to their photos. In Over, users can nudge, size, fade, copy and centre their artwork and text; tint and crop their photos; and stretch their text. When finished with the picture, users can share it directly via e-mail, text message, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Path and more. They can even send it as a postcard.

The U-Start Conference gathers family businesses, high-net-worth individuals, early stage investors and venture capitalists to meet the most promising global start-ups from emerging markets.

The South African start-up live-pitched against 19 competitors from around the globe, and succeeded in taking home the title after a two-day 'pitch-off'.

The live competition took place in Milan, at the flagship conference from U-Start, the international investment advisory firm with EUR3.8 billion in finance under management.

Alongside Over's title, four regional winners from Europe, Russia, South America and a second finalist from Africa were announced as: Italist - an online Italian high-end fashion retailer, chosen as Europe's winner; Linguademia - specialists in encouraging a new approach to foreign language learning through gaming, selected as the best from Russia; LoveMondays - an online platform for anonymous employee reviews of businesses, revealed as the top start-up in South America; and local start-up, wiGroup, which deals in point-of-sale and integrated mobile transactions, was chosen as the second African winner.

"It was an incredible experience. Felt a little surreal to be sharing our story with a group of influencers from all over the planet in a sophisticated, beautiful city," says Aaron Marshall, CEO of Over.

"The people behind U-start put on a great event. We made some connections that could be hugely beneficial to our mission. I'm feeling inspired, thinking bigger than ever and ready to get back to building. Our team recently doubled in size and we are hustling on some exciting new products."

Stefano Guidotti, CEO at U-Start, says: "We are delighted to award Over with the title of Best Start-Up of the World.

"Having travelled 12 000 thousand miles, from Sao Paulo, to Cape Town, to Moscow, to Lugano and finally to Milan for the finale, we have witnessed some of the most innovative and exciting businesses to exist globally. The decision was not, however, an easy one.

"Over's resounding success is representative of the outstanding tech prowess that propels our offer, in addition to Africa's world-class status as a championing nation for tech innovation."

"It was an incredible experience. Felt a little surreal to be sharing our story with a group of influencers from all over the planet in a sophisticated, beautiful city," says Aaron Marshall, CEO of Over.

"The people behind U-start put on a great event. We made some connections that could be hugely beneficial to our mission. I'm feeling inspired, thinking bigger than ever and ready to get back to building. Our team recently doubled in size and we are hustling on some exciting new products."

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