The Seedstars Latin America regional summit begins today in Lima, Peru.
Having been scouted out by the Seedstars Team, the 12 chosen startups from Latin America will now have the opportunity to participate in the Seedstars Growth Bootcamp, which starts today as part of the Summit.
As part of the bootcamp, startups will receive mentoring and training on how to grow and improve their businesses, as well as having the opportunity to perfect their pitching techniques in front of important investors.
This year, among startup finalists selected from Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, Latin America’s only Portuguese-speaking nation is represented by Apptite, a delivery app connecting chefs with clients looking for healthy meals in Brazil.
As well as the growth bootcamp, the Summit will feature discussions on how the continent is able to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 targets set by the United Nations to each be achieved by the year 2030. It will also play host to an Investor Forum, a Lima Ecosystem Tour and a conference featuring keynote speakers from across the continent.
By the end of the event, it is hoped that Latin America’s biggest players in tech, entrepreneurship and investment will successfully be able to devise ways in which the continent can become an active part of the change proposed by the UN’s SDGs.
Speaking of her experience choosing the startups for participation in this year’s Summit, Seedstars regional LatAm manager Juliane Butty commented, “for the past six months we have made LATAM our home and went on an interesting journey deep into 12 startup scenes in the region, not only scouting for the best tech entrepreneurs but working directly with them and other passionate ecosystem builders.”
This year, the Summit will run alongside a competition for EdTech startups, hosted by impact investment fund Inicia Educación. The startups selected to take part in this year’s competition hail from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Costa Rica and Chile, and will be competing to win a grant of up to US$5,000.
The three-day event will take place at Lima’s prestigious University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC), with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Inicia Educación.
