Last month, we shared the story of an upcoming startup with you. This startup was HypeHash, the hashtag designers market. In a nutshell, HypeHash uses trending hashtags from around the world to inspire designers to create & sell products. We first met them at AngelHack Sri Lanka where they won and became the official Sri Lankan ambassadors. This meant that they would be representing Sri Lanka at the AngelHack Global Demo Day.
Today, we are happy to report that HypeHash representing Sri Lanka, is among the winners at the AngelHack Global Demo Day.
Prelude to the AngelHack Global Demo Day
This is no small feat mind you. AngelHack itself is a global movement. Just like how we had AngelHack Sri Lanka, there are many other hackathons under the AngelHack umbrella that occur across the world. The winning teams of these local events like HypeHash are invited to participate in an intensive 12-week program known as the HACKcelerator.
The HACKcelerator is a program designed to help these winning teams explore and refine their ideas. Over the course of 12-weeks, they convert their hackathon idea into a fully-fledged startup with early traction. Needless to say, the program is intense. Once it ends, the teams are flown out to San Francisco. There they are given even more training on the art of pitching along with additional mentoring. Once the training is done and the startups have refined their pitches, it’s time for the Global Demo Day. Fourteen startups from all corners of the globe and the one from Sri Lanka were among the winners.
So what did HypeHash win?
Aside from the honor of making Sri Lanka proud, HypeHash has won some lucrative prizes. The biggest of these would be an investment by RightSide Capital. With this investment, RightSide will be leading HypeHash’s seed round. Additionally, HypeHash also has an opportunity to work with Y Combinator.
In case you’re lost, Y-Combinator is an American seed accelerator, started in March 2005. It’s described as the world’s most powerful startup incubator. Looking at the list of alumni, it’s hard to dispute this. Y-Combinator has made many companies we know today grow into household names. Some examples include Dropbox, Reddit, Airbnb, Docker, Twitch, 9gag, and so much more. Since its inception, Y-Combinator has funded over 1000 startups.
Hopefully, it won’t be long before we see HypeHash become a household name as well. Congratulations HypeHash, you’ve made Sri Lanka proud.
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