Founders took center stage at the PVCC this week. The panels that launched the conference were filled with entrepreneurs and, later, ten founders gave pitches throughout the content-packed day.
There was a notable presence of female founders who are leading startups that have gained local traction and regional scale. Carolina Botto (Joinnus), Sully Siucho (Rebajatuscuentas.com), Ileana Tapia (Sicurezza), Andrea Baba (Fitco) all took the stage to give pitch the startups they lead. Sully and Andrea took a break from the 500 Startups LATAM program in Mexico City to make the trip down for the conference. Courtney McColgan of Runa participated on a panel and share her team’s progress and present Runa’s payroll solution for Latin America.
Other women representing a diverse set of ecosystem actors had significant contributions at the PVCC. Carolina Huaranca of Kapor Capital in the United States spoke about how diversity is a principal factor in her investment thesis. Desireé Alayza, Gerente de Desarrollo e Innovación at COFIDE, used her presentation to give a formal launch COFIDE’s fund-of-funds initiative. Mosi Mosquera, of IDB, and Susana Garcia-Robles of FOMIN led panel discussions with corporate and venture capital investors.
Alexandra Orbezo, a top venture capital lawyer at Rebaza, Alcazar & De Las Casas, Gabriela Garcia, SURA Mexico and Debbie Jaffe, Managing Director of Endeavor Peru all participated in panels.
Another group of women gave talks on day two at each workshop track:
- Entrepreneur track: Precy Kwan gave a relevant talk on important issues for founders to consider when they are raising money.
- Investor track: Carla Grados of Peru 2021, Natasha Barantseva, Regional Director, Grassroots Business Fund, and Monica Vasquez del Solar, Regional Director, NESsT, shared information and experiences on impact investing. Susana Garcia-Robles spoke about trends in Latin American venture capital funds and learnings from FOMIN’s deep experience backing fund managers throughout the region.
- Incubator track: This track for managers of incubator and accelerator programs was organized by Charlotte Ducrot, and her team at Swiss Entrepreneurship Program. Elizabeth Acuña, who works with me at Angel Ventures and is the Project Manager of this year’s WeXchange Pitch Competition led a workshop on startup metrics
These women are making a significant mark on Peru’s startup ecosystem. They are not newcomers. They have been dedicated leaders of the startup communities in Peru and regionally. A diverse, dynamic, startup community is essential for Peru to reach the level of our neighbors and fully integrate into the regional startup ecosystem in Latin America. The PVCC put that diversity on display.
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