If over the last four years in Peru you have seen:
- an improvement in startup pitches,
- more female founders,
- better media exposure for the startup ecosystem,
- more prepared program directors, and
- more startup experts sharing stories in Peru . . .
. . . there is a common force behind these trends: the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program (Swiss EP).
The program recently culminated its first four-year period and wasted no time launching the second, three-year, phase. Last week, Charlotte Ducrot, Program Manager of Swiss EP in Peru, gave an update on the Peru startup community’s progress. Many, if not all, of the programs have been directly supported by Swiss EP:
The breadth of the support, both geographic (diaspora to provinces) and startup lifecycle (incubators to angel investing to PECAP) has been unmatched and reverberated through the startup community:
- Support of many incubators and accelerators across all of Peru, primarily in areas of investor readiness including a workshop at latest years PVCC
- Entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) program, including 12 EIRs in 12 incubators, accelerators or angel networks
- Organized Peer Exchange Meetup, a workshop for Peruvian incubators and accelerators in Switzerland. One of the follow-up actions included 13 speed mentoring sessions to promote a mentorship culture
- Launch and institutionalization of PECAP and promotion of initiatives like the quarterly report and legal documents for seed rounds
- Promoting gender diversity by supporting female founders through experiences like Women Entrepreneurship Week.
- Bringing Peruvians living abroad back to Peru to speak with local ecosystem actors
- Workshop for members of the media to understand key concepts
The truth is, in almost every major ecosystem event or project over the last four years, SwissEP, has been involved in coordinating, bringing international experts for strategic advice, promoting collaboration among organisations, and community building.
You rarely see them, because they play a background role, but they are behind the progress of our startup community. Here they are:
We are lucky to have them as a backbone to the ecosystem for 3 more years!
You can learn more about the work of Swiss EP and connect with the Peru startup community by signing up for their excellent monthly newsletter here.
Swiss EP is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and operated by Swisscontact and JE Austin in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Peru, and Vietnam.