Luis Narro es Director Ejecutivo de la Asociación Peruana de Capital Semilla y Emprendedor (PECAP). Previamente trabajó en Swiss EP y COFIDE. Más de 5 años de experiencia trabajando con organizaciones de soporte del ecosistema de emprendimiento en Perú, en especial, con los inversionistas de capital emprendedor.
First, let’s give credit where credit is due. The work is being done by Peruvian Alexandra Jenkins, Senior Analyst at ALLVP. You can write her with ideas and updates at ajenkins@allvp.vc.
Last year, I wrote about investment professionals from Peru taking on regional roles in the venture capital industry in Latin America. Well, the talent pool of Peruvians working in the startup community in Latin America continues to grow.
By some measures, this has been a down year for Peru startups seeking to enter acceleration programs. For example, no Peru startups were selected for the latest batches of Y Combinator or 500 Startups Latam.
However, in many ways, founders in Peru or local acceleration programs are moving forward. Only in the last month, over 20 up-and-coming Peru startups were selected to particiate in acceleration programs. Many are relative newcomers to the startup community.
Don’t worry, Ruta Startup is not launching a podcast.
Fortunately, there is no need. A great library of podcast content already exists for the regional tech scene, and the top podcasts in Latin America are interviewing members of the Peru startup community.
Here are a few podcasts featuring startup founders and investors in Peru.
El programa de emprendimiento Swiss EP tiene abierta la posición de Program Officer, una oportunidad muy importante para interactuar con el ecosistema de startups e innovación en el Perú y a nivel internacional.
Swiss EP ha venido apoyando al ecosistema de startups e innovación en el Perú desde el 2015. Durante este tiempo hemos trabajando con mas de 19 organizaciones en el Perú a las cuales hemos apoyado a través del conocimiento y experiencia de 50 expertos internacionales quienes han colaborado en desarrollar programas y/o proyectos de estas organizaciones y sus startups.
On Wednesday August 19th, Roberte Arbe and I had the opportunity to share with startup founders during the Peru Venture Capital Series. We discussed considerations for raising funds from professional investors.
The session is in Spanish and titled:Preparando mi primera ronda de capital con inversionistas profesionales.
Many dominant corporations in Peru are currently in the midst of digital transformation. These initiatives to incorporate new technology help companies to maintain market share and add value to society by offering digital solutions to customers.
But, haven’t corporations had enough time to figure this out? Isn’t something still missing? Isn’t time for a new status quo?
I am a big believer in the capacity of the founders currently leading Peru’s startup community. I also am optimistic about the future due to the emergence of Peruvians who have earned leadership positions in top tech companies.
Over the past few years, Peruvians working in Silicon Valley have been a steady presence in Peru’s startup community. PeruSV is a group of Peruvians in Silicon Valley that organizes the annual Techosuyo conference. The Peru chapter of Swiss EP has done significant work to help connect Peruvians abroad with the local ecosystem.
Now, the number of tech professionals is getting larger and they are taking on leadership roles.
Daniel Barreto, may be a lesser known actor in the Lima startup community, but his impact is huge.
Daniel is CEO and co-founder of Haystack News, a U.S.-based startup that offers a better way to consume digital news content. Daniel is also a mentor at StartX, a top accelerator program in the U.S. where Haytack News is a portfolio company. Haystack is described in the App Store as “your go-to for hyper-relevant news, from local coverage to global current events. It’s the best way to watch a variety of coverage, all in one place, and absolutely free.”
This year’s Peru Venture Capital Series highlights the breadth and depth of the venture capital industry in Peru.
The most important event for venture capital in Peru has teamed up with PECAP to put on the 2020 edition. The series will occur over a five day period in August and a diverse list of speakers has already been announced.
Startup founders are always the highlight of the event and this year Diego Olcese, Gonzalo Begazo, and Tatiana Guichard are already confirmed as speakers. More great founders are sure to particpate as well.
The organizing commitee, led by Jaime Sotomayor, has done an impressive job of organizing a full agenda that includes keynotes, panels, and workshops on a wide variety of issues.
Durante las últimas semanas, la muerte de George Floyd a manos de un policía en EE.UU ha devuelto a la actualidad el movimiento de la búsqueda por la igualdad de la población afroamericana, conocido como “Black Lives Matter” (BLM). A pesar de su origen en el activismo político, el colectivo que comenzó como un hashtag utilizado en redes sociales, hoy está consiguiendo cambios que van más allá y están permeando distintas industrias, entre ellas la de venture capital.
Fondos como SoftBank y Andreessen Horowitz han creado vehículos con la finalidad exclusiva de invertir en startups fundadas por afroamericanos y otras minorías. Hay firmas que han ido aún más lejos, publicando el make-up étnico de los founders en sus portafolios: por ejemplo, Initialized Capital reveló que el 7% de sus founders son afroamericanos, y un 9% son latinos. Sin embargo, estas minorías siguen subrepresentadas, ya que componen el 14% y el 20% de la población estadounidense, respectivamente, según la proyección al 2019 del US Census Bureau. Con el objetivo de resolver esta brecha, BLCK.VC, un grupo de inversionistas y emprendedores afroamericanos, lanzaron la campaña: “We won’t wait” .
The startup ecosystem in Peru and other smaller markets in LatAm have come a long way over the last five years. We still have a long way to go. Maintaining support of entrepreneurs in Peru and other emerging tech hubs is vital to Latin America’s future.
UTEC Ventures has set itself apart as the top startup accelerator in Peru. The program is on par with peers across Latin America and continues to attract promising startup founders from Peru and abroad. UTEC Ventures recently opened applications for its latest cohort which is aimed to support fintech and post-covid solutions.
A long, consistent, approach is paying off and the results speak for themselves.