The first edition of the Spain-Latam Scale-up program, led by ICEX-Invest in Spain, will feature 13 startups from Latin America

The innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB Lab, ICEX-Invest in Spain, and Endeavor have launched the first edition of the "Spain-Latam Scale-up" program, with which a selection of startups and scale-ups from Latin America will be able to learn about the opportunities and steps necessary to establish themselves in Spain and advance in their global expansion.

Thirteen startups from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay have been selected among 140 candidates and will participate in an immersion program to meet the main actors of the Spanish entrepreneurship ecosystem. The program will feature more than 40 speakers from institutions, venture capital (VC) funds, corporations with open innovation processes, and successful Spanish and Latin American startups in Spain. Spain-Latam Scale-up will take place between November 14 and 18 in collaboration with other agents of Spanish entrepreneurship, such as Google Campus, South Summit, Wayra, IE University, Barcelona Activa, and Barcelona Tech City, among others.

Fazia Pusterla, the European representative of the IDB Group, pointed out in the welcome session the institution's commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and valued the contribution of companies supported by IDB Lab to offer solutions to the challenges of structural transformation in the region. The chief executive of ICEX-Invest in Spain, Elisa García Grande, highlighted the maturity of technological entrepreneurship in Spain and showed success stories of Latin American technology companies already established in Spain. Antonio Iglesias, the CEO of Endeavor Spain, stressed the key role Spain plays as a gateway to Europe for Ibero-American entrepreneurs and the relevance of the tools and contacts provided by the program to make its expansion possible.

The program combines technical sessions, work meetings, institutional meetings, and networking activities. Other opportunities provided by the program include financing startups in Spain, providing access to funds, financing opportunities offered by the European Union, assisting with legal and fiscal aspects to help startups establish themselves in Spain, providing visas for entrepreneurs, and addressing the possibility of collaborating in the open innovation activities of Spanish companies.

The 13 selected startups are:

Accessin (Argentina): A platform that digitizes, administers, and manages farms and sports clubs.

Chazki (Peru): A startup specializing in national cargo services and first and last mile for retail, eCommerce, and supermarkets.

Coally (Colombia): A human resources platform recruiting young professionals through the use of artificial intelligence. 

Elipse (Chile): Startup expert in automated communication solutions with artificial intelligence for communications between health centers (public and private) and patients.

FractalUp (Peru): An innovation platform in the education sector (EdTech) that provides personalized services adaptable to each student's needs and new teaching trends.

Keyper (Chile): A company that offers workspaces to organizations at each stage of their development and turnkey consulting, design, construction, management, and administration services to companies.

Koggi (Colombia): A digital platform that connects the real estate industry, allowing buyers to access better loans and smarter services for their homes.

ManejeBem (Brazil): A startup that generates intelligence for the development of rural communities. Its solutions help to structure agricultural production to obtain profitable products with social responsibility.

MuniDigital (Argentina): A startup dedicated to developing software for governments, accelerating their digital transformation with GovTech and CivicTech.

TheEye (Argentina): A company specializing in automating business processes. It helps other companies and startups to be more efficient and scale, creating automation focusing on profitability.

VU (Argentina): VU (Argentina): A global company specializing in digital identity protection and fraud prevention offering innovative products for identity authentication.

Wenu Work (Chile): A technology company that visualizes and manages companies’ electricity consumption, facilitates the search for savings opportunities and improvements in processes, and mitigates their environmental impact.

Zafrales (Uruguay): A startup that, through technology, simplifies the hiring of temporary staff for agricultural tasks.

The selection criteria of the winning startups considered the ability of the companies to scale from consolidated, innovative business models with a presence in several countries, their financial capacity, and the presence of sustainability criteria and impact on their operations.

About IDB Lab

IDB Lab is the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, the primary source of financing and knowledge for development, focused on improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The purpose of IDB Lab is to drive innovation for inclusion in the region, mobilizing financing, knowledge, and connections to co-create solutions capable of transforming the lives of vulnerable populations due to economic, social, or environmental conditions. Since 1993, IDB Lab has approved more than $2 billion in projects developed in 26 LAC countries, including investments in more than 90 venture capital funds. www.bidlab.org

About ICEX-Invest in Spain

The Executive Directorate of Invest in Spain of ICEX has the function of promoting, attracting, and encouraging foreign investment in Spain, as well as the reinvestments of foreign companies already established. It also develops activities for positioning Spain as a global platform for international business and investment. Another area of action of ICEX-Invest in Spain is the improvement of the business climate in the country, in continuous dialogue with other ministerial departments and with business associations and companies established in Spain, both with the Spanish capital and third countries. www.investinspain.org 

About Endeavor

Endeavor is the world's leading community of High Impact Entrepreneurs, founded in 1997. Endeavor is a global organization that promotes economic, social, and cultural transformation through the selection, support, and investment for the growth of the best entrepreneurs in the world and their scale-ups. Today, Endeavor's network spans more than 40 countries. It supports more than 2,300 entrepreneurs whose companies generate total revenues of more than $42 billion, have created more than 3.4 million jobs, and, in 2021, raised more than $12.3 billion in capital. Our unique model of putting the entrepreneur and network of trust first provides a platform for entrepreneurs to dream big, scale, and reinvest their expertise as mentors to the next generation of entrepreneurs. www.endeavor.org