Author: Greg Mitchell

Building a successful startup in Peru is hard enough. You don’t need to try to do it all alone. There are many free resources available and people willing to help you on your journey.  Continue reading “It takes a village to raise a startup in Peru”

January has started off with a bang in the Peru startup community, with multiple options for accelerating your startup. Continue reading “Accelerated start to 2019”

As the Peru startup community grows, so does the number of startups with truly disruptive solutions.

These startups have some combination of the following characteristics:  (i) tech savvy co-founders, (ii) regional or global market from day one, (iii) data-driven decision-making, and (iv) new or tweaked business models.

Here are is a list of 9 startups in alphabetical order:

• AmigoCloud – Collaborative mapping platform with a cloud-based dashboard
• Anda – Watch with a has messaging system and symbol language to allow parents to connect with their children
• Apurata – Loans to the un-banked in under 30 minutes
• Arrivedo – User-centric guide that helps travelers to find and enjoy experiences around their hotels
• Ecovol – Device that lowers gasoline consumption by up to 20%
• Quantum Talent – Software with AI to automate recruiting and selection
• Simcase – In-class simulations that allow students to have engaging learning experiences on-campus
• Space AG – Imaging and software solutions that help optimize crop production
• Valia – Data-driven real estate platform to provide information to owners, buyers and renters.

This list is not complete, and does not include many edtech and fintech startups which are all providing solutions that will bring transformational impact to those industries. I expect this list will grow over time as more founders in Peru push the envelope and seek to disrupt the status quo.

This week marked the Seedstars LATAM Summit (#SSWLATAM) in Lima, Peru. It was a punctuation mark to a year full of startup community events in Lima that included Foro Xcala, 2 fintech conferences, PVCC and WeXchange. By my count, that is 6 regional events  for the calendar year. Add to this the multiple other local events, and we have had a great year in the Peru startup community. Continue reading “The best of the best – Seedstars comes to Peru”

We often talk about Peru startup ecosystem in terms of how far behind we are to neighboring startup ecosystems and what we need to do to catch-up.  In the meantime, founders are pushing the envelope by expanding to new cities across the region. They are demonstrating that the way to accelerate our growth as an ecosystem is not to catch-up, but to integrate.

Here are some examples of how this is happening in practice:

• GetLavado growing in Colombia through the Rockstart accelerator
• StartupPeru Plug program bringing talented founders to Peru
• Axon Partners investing in MiMediaManzana and Turismoi
• 500 Startups investing in Peru startups Apurata, Decompris, Rebajatuscuentas.com y Fitco
• Diaspora of Peruvian entrepreneurs in other markets (some of whom are building teams locally in Lima)

A siloed approach (i.e.  focused only internally) to startup community development will be limiting in a small market like Peru with challenges of talent and capital. We can help founders by working to get foreign investment (capital) into startups in Peru and make Lima a destination for founders (talent) in the region.

Let’s stop playing catch-up. Let’s connect and integrate into an increasingly dynamic and interconnected startup community in Latin America.